Lisamry

Lisamry is a small townland of 135 statute acres 3 roods and 19 perches about a mile north of Cullaville, off the Concession Road (which runs from Castleblaney and Dundalk). It is bounded on the north by Drumgoose and Loughross, on the east by Creevekeeran, on the south by Monaguillagh and on the west by Cornahove. Forty of its acres are in Lough Ross to the boundry with Drumgose on the other side. In the Tithe Applotment Books of 1828 the total acerage is shown as 58 acres 1 roods and 37 perches(Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Lios Samhraidh, "The summery fort" ⁽¹⁾.

There is no other townland of that name in Ireland.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

LISAMRY (OSNB ii 37): A small Td. on the south border of Lough Ross, a part of which lake belongs to the Td. There is another lake, but very small, on the south side of this townland called Lissamry Lake in which the boundaries of the three townlands Lissamry, Cornahoe and Munagullagh meet.
It contains 135..3..19 of which 1..3..18 is uncultivated and Bog, and 40..2..37 water.

Valuation

Although the decimalisation of the currency was introduced only in 1971, all of the valuations in the following table have been converted from £sd for convenience.

Year	1837	1851	1864	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1935	1952	1957	1974
Valuation	£52.74	£71.75	£61.60	£61.60	£62.60	£62.60	£62.10	£62.10	£61.10	£63.35	£63.35	£69.10	£69.10

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were no such houses in the townland.

In Griffiths Valuation the land was owned by the representatives of John Reid.

Census of Ireland 1901

In the Census 34 people were enumerated in seven households; a ratio of 4.9 people per household. The households occupied a total of 14 rooms; a ratio of 2 rooms per household and 2.4 people per room.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the seven households enumerated in the Census two contained native Irish speakers. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a substantially Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. Both were born in Co. Armagh -

• Anne Gartland, farmer, widow, 65
• Thomas McKeown, farmer, 65

Population Decline

The following table sets out the number of houses and population enumerated in the townland in each of the 11 Censuses held between 1841 and 1951.

	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1937	1951
Houses	8	7	5	6	7	7	7	6	4	4	3
People	38	35	30	35	38	45	34	22	12	16	14
People per house	4.8	5.0	6.0	5.8	5.4	6.4	4.9	3.7	3.0	4.0	4.7

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped from eight to three and the population from 38 to 14. It took 20 years after 1841 for the population to fall by eight people after which it rose by 1891 to seven above the pre-Famine figure. Between 1891 and 1926 the population dropped dramatically before stabilising.

Names of House and Land Holders ⁽³⁾

The following table sets of the names of those who owned or rented houses and land on the townland at the time the valuation records or population censuses were compiled.