School: Tráigh Omna (roll number 13092)
- Location:
- Drishanemore, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Mícheál Ó Dálaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0298, Page 063
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- XML “The Battle of Trá Leagach”
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- There is a strand in Castlehaven parish called Tráighleagach where a battle was fought in the nineteenth century. In this locality there were seizures "go leór" and pounds at every cross roads. The Battle of Tráighleagach was fought between farmers and mounted policemen. The farmers struck against paying the tithes to the Protestant minister, and the policemen came to put the law in force.
The farmers and their wives gathered near Toe Head (Ceann na Tuaithe) to fight, and defend their stock from the policemen and soldiers. The battle lasted all day, and women were seen with their red petticoats in the thick of the battle. In the evening a widow's son was shot on the farmers' side, and a policeman named Cowhig was killed in the Crown forces.
Cowhig had been firing all day in the air. When he was dead, the women got a stone and stuck it down his throat, and his comrades said, when they found him, "Poor Cowhig". The Crown forces then withdrew, and when they were coming back in the direction of Tráighomna they saw and old man named Connolly. They shot Connolly dead as a reprisal.
- Informant
- Patrick Geaney
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Skibbereen, Co. Cork
