School: Oram (roll number 8496)

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1. The Plague of the McGrath Clan

   

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   In the townland of Oram in a place named Tullaghnabasta is a burial ground where the McGrath clan were buried who died in the Penal Days. In Oram, as in many other places were clusters of houses. These are some of the old place-names Pullafeka, Bunduh, Nough, Monafarawaka, Mullac Oram, Ballinnwara, Conoc Ceann, Uid Tarac, and Carrig Sagart or Priests rock where Mass was said in Penal Days when England's laws hunted priests, and people to the bleak hillsides or to caves under ground to hear Mass. The clan assembled at Carrig Sagart to hear Mass, when Cromwell's soldiers rushed upon them and the most of the men gave their lives to save the priest. The clan went to a cave on the hillside close to Tullaghnabasta where they remained in hiding for six years. A number of small children, close on one hundred, were housed in this tunnel; for at that time close on fifty families lived in Oram, where to day there are about fourteen. These children poorly clad and illnourished, were a prey to infections diseases one of which as far as tradition goes wiped out the entire clan. They are all interred in this burial ground which overlooks the Drumleek road where to this, can be traced

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. events
      1. hardship (~1,565)
         1. plagues and epidemics (~104)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Patrick Murray

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Oram, Co. Monaghan

   Informant

   M. Murray

   Age

   70

   Address

   Lisdonny, Co. Monaghan