School: Cnoc Sceach, An Léim (roll number 10603)
- Location:
- Knockskagh, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Ss. Mac Carrthaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0309, Page 115
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Cnoc Sceach, An Léim
- XML Page 115
- XML “Faction Fighting”
- XML “Causes of Battle of Cooladerreen”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- Faction Fights were challenge fights between opposing Clans. All kinds of implements were used. Often large numbers were engaged on both sides. Women aided. Wherever the people were wont to congregate, advantage of the gathering was taken for the faction fight. Even the Mass on Sunday helped to gather the faction fighters whilst the women brought with them the weapons hidden under their cloaks. In this neighbourhood their were two opposing clans - the O Callaghans and the Scairtes. The faction fight of Cooladreen which is since known as the Battle of Cooladreen was fought by the two clans already mentioned.
- On Stephen's Day 1802 the wren men of both clans set out early. Each consisted of over twenty men. They both went in all haste towards O Donovan's of Bawnlahan. He was a retired officer and he always gave a guinea to the first wren men arriving. O Callaghans were the first to arrive and received the guinea. On their way from the house they met the Scairtes, and tit for tat started a faction fight for that day. They fought with sticks stones and anything else they could lay their hands on. A Callaghan(continues on next page)
