Sheetrim

Sheetrim is a large townland of 817 statute acres and 38 perches about three miles north of Crossmaglen on the road to Cullyhanna. It is bounded on the north by Cullyhanna Little, on the east by Cloghoge, on the south by Creenkill and on the west by Annaghmare and Kiltybane. Sheetrim Lough (33 acres) is centrally located in the townland. In the Tithe Applotment Books of 1828 the area is recorded as 346 acres 3 roods and 17 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Sí-Dhruim, "The fairy ridge" ⁽¹⁾.

There are six townlands called 'Sheetrim' in Ireland. They are in Counties Armagh (2), Fermanagh and Monaghan (3).

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

SHEETRIM (OSNB ii 45): A large quantity of this td. Is bog, uncultivated ground and water. A great part of It Is only lately reclaimed. It Is cultivated In small patches, the soil very Inferior quality growing, with great care, light crops of Potatoes, Oats and Flax. Black-quarter House In the S. end belongs to a Mr. Donaldson.
It contains 817..0..38 of which 214..0..20 Is uncultivated and Bog, & 44..2..5 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	£287.72	£336.00	£436.25	£431.75	£434.00	£431.50	£422.50	£414.50	£413.25	£450.75	£523.25	£600.75	£590.25

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There was only one such house in the townland -

• John Donaldson.

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the townland as Thomas P. Ball.

Census of Ireland 1901

In the Census 180 people were enumerated in 45 households, a ratio of 4 people per household. The households occupied a total of 125 rooms, a ratio of 2.8 rooms per household, and 1.44 persons per room. Of the 45 households, 3 lived in a single room, 20 had two rooms, 13 had three rooms and 9 had four or more rooms.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 45 households enumerated in the Census, 11 contained at least one native Irish speaker - 15 in all. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a substantially Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh.

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	71	58	55	56	55	43	46	43	34	37	31
People	411	330	263	267	245	203	183	175	136	114	96
People per house	5.8	5.7	4.8	4.8	4.5	4.7	4.0	4.1	4.0	3.1	3.1

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 56% and the population by 77%. The fall of 36% of the population between 1841 and 1861 slowed briefly through the 1860s and 1870s and then continued at a lesser rate for the next 80 years

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.