County Antrim

“ The county is among those least seriously affected by emigration. Of the total about 50% are Presbyterians, about 20% each Protestant Episcopalians and Roman Catholics; Antrim being one of the most decidedly Protestant counties in Ireland. Of the Presbyterians the greater part are in connexion with the General Synod of Ulster, and the other are Remonstrants, who separated from the Synod in 1829, or United Presbyterians. The principal towns are Antrim (pop. 1826) , Ballymena (10,886) , Ballymoney (2952) , Carrickfergus (4208) , Larne (6670) , Lisburn (11,461) and Portrush (1941) . ”

“ The debt due to the 'adventurers' was primarily charged on the forfeited lands in the moieties of ten counties, which were to be divided equally by them with the soldiers, as it was considered that peaceable possession would be thereby secured to the civilian owners, viz.: Waterford, Limerick, Tipperary, Meath, West Meath, King's County, Queen's County, Antrim, Down, Armagh, and on the whole county of Louth as an additional security. ”

“ His home was as humble as ever—but somehow, it had grown beautiful to him, for the sunshine of contentment was over every thing. His wife was as far from riding in her carriage, and his boys and girls from being gentlemen and ladies, as ever; but he loved them and was proud of them for their goodness and honesty, and he felt that God had done better for them than he could do, with all the riches in the world.
Antrim—The Giant's Causeway. THE POOR SCHOOLMASTER.
The county of Antrim is not only one of the most picturesque, but most prosperous in all Ireland. ”

“ English Settlements in county Antrim and Down; Silver Seal of Hugh O'Neill, king of Ulster, formerly at Strawberry Hill; Original Documents illustrative of Irish History; The Bell of St. Mura (two plates) ; Examination of a sepulchral mound in King's county; French settlers in Ireland; Irish Library, No. 1, bibliographical notices of works on Irish history or antiquities; Notes and Queries, &c. No. 5, January, 1854. Signatures of Irish chiefs and English commanders in Ulster, t. Elizabeth; Ballads on the Battle of the Boyne; Ancient chapel on St. John's Point, county Down ”

“ In the County of Antrim this day is observed by several thousands of the working classes of the town and vicinity of Belfast resorting to the Cave-hill, about three miles distant, where the day is spent in dancing, jumping, running, climbing the rugged rocks, and drinking. Here many a rude brawl takes place, many return home with black eyes, and in some cases with broken bones. Indeed it is with them the greatest holiday of the year, and to not a few it furnishes laughable treats to talk about till the return of the following spring. ”

“ When in the spring of 1798 the rebellion broke out in the north of Ireland, O'Neill was governor of Antrim. Having received intelligence of the intended outbreak while in Dublin, he summoned by public notice the county magistrates to meet him at Antrim on 7 June. Thereupon the rebel leaders resolved to attack the town of Antrim on the same day, and to seize O'Neill and the magistrates. O'Neill slept at Hillsborough on the night of 6 June, while on his way from Dublin, and, having passed through Lisburn unrecognised early next morning, arrived at Antrim soon after noon. ”

“ The same official divided Connaught into six counties—Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim, and Clare. The latter county, although situated on the Connaught bank of the river Shannon, was subsequently given to Munster, because it had formed a part of that province in ancient times. Antrim and Down were organized into counties early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and Lord Deputy Perrott, about 1584, formed seven others out of Ulster; namely, Armagh, Monaghan, Tyrone, Coleraine (now Derry) , Donegal, Fermanagh, and Cavan. ”

“ Geoffrey Fanning’s house was searched for arms — and as to the houses of the inhabitants of the County of Antrim, those baronies alone were searched which joined the sea-coast opposite to Scotland, and in or near to the estate of the Earl of Antrim, then a prisoner in the Castle of Dublin, and after the Pretender was landed in Scotland. Parliament adjourned from the 9th to the 20th of February. ”

“ O'NEILL, JOHN, first Viscount O'Neill in the peerage of Ireland (1740–1798) , born at Shane's Castle, co. Antrim, on 16 Jan. 1740, was the eldest son of Charles O'Neill, of Shane's Castle, by Catherine, daughter of the Right Hon. St. John Brodrick. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 14 April 1762, and was created M.A. on 15 June in the same year. In the Irish parliaments elected in 1761, 1769, and 1776, he sat for the family borough of Randalstown, co. Antrim. In 1783 and 1790 he was returned for Antrim county as well as the borough, but preferred to sit for the former. ”

“ The history of the Hertfort estate illustrates every phase of the tenant-right question. It contains 66,000 acres, and comprises the barony of Upper Massereene, part of the barony of Upper Belfast, in the county of Antrim, and part of the baronies of Castlereagh and Lower Iveagh, in the county of Down; consisting altogether of no less than 140 townlands. It extends from Dunmurry to Lough Neagh, a distance of about fourteen miles as the crow flies. When the Devon commission made its inquiry, the population upon this estate amounted to about 50,000. ”

“ You shall give instructions to the surveyors-general, and the surveyors to be employed under them, in the first place to survey, admeasure, and set forth all and every such of the said forfeited lands and premises as shall lye and be within the respective counties of Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford, in the province of Munster; the King's County, the Queen's County, the counties of Eastmeath and Westmeath, in the province of Leinster; the counties of Down, Antrim, and Armagh, in the province of Ulster ”

“ Ireland is divided territorially into four provinces and thirty-two counties:— (a) Ulster (northern division) : Counties Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, Tyrone. (b) Leinster (eastern midlands and south-east) : Counties Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, King’s County, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen’s County, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow. (c) Connaught (western midlands) : Counties Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo. (d) Munster (south-western division) : Counties Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford. ”

“ Antrim. From an ancestor who about a hundred years earlier had married Margaret Bisset, heiress of the district on the Antrim coast known as the Glynns (or Glens) , he inherited a claim to the lordship of that territory; and he was one of the most powerful of the Scottish settlers in Ulster whom the English government in the 16th century found difficulty in bringing into subjection. Many attempts were made to drive them out of Ireland, in one of which, about 1550, Sorley Boy Macdonnell was taken prisoner and conveyed to Dublin Castle, where, however, his confinement was brief. ”

“ ANTRIM AND DOWN JOURNEYING from the Giant’s Causeway to Belfast and Dublin, through the north-eastern counties of Antrim and Down, one comes upon a region little known to the casual traveller, who is usually smitten at once with the charms of Killarney and the South, and who neglects this more conveniently and comfortably traversed region. ”

“ It was decided at last that two of the party should venture into Antrim to buy bread and wine. No one knew what troops there might be in the town. It would not be safe to count on the support of the inhabitants if they happened to have soldiers in their houses. The inns might be full of officers. The shops might be in the hands of the royal troops.
“It’s no use discussing the difficulties and dangers,” said Donald at last. “We’ve got to risk it. We can’t fight all day on empty stomachs. We’d fight badly if we did. I and Neal here will go into Antrim, we’re the least likely to be recognised. ”

“ First there came a call from the congregation of Usher's Quay, Dublin, in conjunction with the Rev. Mr. Arbuckle. Then, almost simultaneously, a like ‘call’ from the old congregation at Belfast. In the face of both, Antrim desired to retain its beloved pastor. As before, the synod decided the matter and assigned him to Dublin. This threw Abernethy into no common agitation and perplexity. After tarrying three months at Usher's Quay on an experimental or observing visit, he felt that Antrim had the first claim upon him, and resolved accordingly, spite of the appointment of the general synod. ”

“ His eel fishery at Tome, and Port New, on the river Ban, lets for £500 a year; and all the fisheries are his to the leap at Coleraine. The estate is supposed to be £31,000 a year, the greatest at present in Ireland. Inishowen, in Donegal, is his, and is £11,000 of it. In Antrim, Lord Antrim’s is the most extensive property, being four baronies, and one hundred and seventy-three thousand acres. The rent £8,000 a year, but re-let for £64,000 a year, by tenants that have perpetuities, perhaps the cruellest instance in the world of carelessness for the interests of posterity. ”

“ A new council, consisting, in equal number, of men chosen out of the two parties, was appointed; and the marquess of Antrim, the Lord Muskerry, and Geoffrey Brown, were despatched to the queen mother, and her son Charles, to solicit assistance in money and arms, and to request that the prince would either come and reside in Ireland, or appoint a Catholic lieutenant in his place. [b] Antrim hoped to obtain this high office for himself; but his colleagues were instructed to oppose his pretensions and to acquiesce in the re-appointment of the marquess of Ormond. ”

“ So weak against discipline, arms, munitions and money, are all that mere naked valour and devotion can accomplish!
In Ulster, on the organization of which so much time and labour had been expended for four or five years preceding, the rising was not more general than in Leinster, and the actual struggle lasted only a week. The two counties which moved en masse were Down and Antrim, the original chiefs of which, such as Thomas Russell and Samuel Neilson, were unfortunately in prison. The next leader on whom the men of Antrim relied, resigned his command on the very eve of the appointed day ”

“ On the very lowest edges of the wood, in the shade of a thick plump of beech, strewed generously about the foot by old bushes of whin and bramble, we lay at last studying the open country before us, and wondering how we should win across it to the friendly shelter of Dunchuach. Smoke was rising from every chimney in the castle, which, with its moat and guns, and its secret underground passage to the seashore, was safe against surprises or attacks through all this disastrous Antrim occupation. ”

“ Was not the Earl of Antrim then with his Majesty at Oxford—that very Randal Macdonnell, Earl of Antrim, whom it had been proposed, as far back as 1638, to send secretly into Argyleshire with a force of Irishry, to aid the King in his first strife with the Covenanters (Vol. II. p. 23) ? Six years had elapsed since then; but there was still extant in Antrim, as the head of the great Scoto-Irish clan of the Macdonnells and Macdonalds, that power for mischief in Scotland which consisted in the hereditary feud between this clan and all the family of the Campbells. ”

“ While Elizabeth lived, the close connection between the MacDonnells in the isles and in Ulster had always been a source of danger, and one of James’s first cares was to secure the allegiance of the Irish branch. The northern part of Antrim, including the coast from Larne to Portrush, was granted to Randal by patent. From this grant, estimated to contain 333,907 acres, the castle of Dunluce was at first excepted, but this was afterwards thrown in with the rest, as were the fishery of the Bann and the island of Rathlin. ”

“ The roads through Antrim are beautifully clean and neat, not only on the line of rail but along the country roads inland. The land is surely beautiful, exceedingly, and kept like a garden. The number of houses of some, nay of great, pretensions, is most astonishing. ”

“ Agriculture. The farms in Antrim are in general very small; the average of the rent of the green land is estimated at between 30s. and 25s. the Irish acre. The principal feature in the tillage system of a great part of Antrim, is the potatoe fallow. The small size of the farms, and, in some places, the rockiness of the soil, precludes the use of the ordinary means of culture, and therefore a part of the land is dug with the spade. ”

“ He died on the 10th of December 1636. Antrim married Alice, daughter of Hugh O’Neill, earl of Tyrone, by whom, besides six daughters, he had Randal, 2nd earl and 1st marquess of Antrim (q.v.) , and Alexander, 3rd earl. Three other sons, Maurice, Francis and James, were probably illegitimate. The earldom has continued in the family down to the present day, the 11th earl (b. 1851) succeeding in 1869.
See also An Historical Account of the MacDonnells of Antrim, by G. Hill (1873) . ”

“ These were settled on the mainland in the counties of Argyle and Inverness, while the island of Skye was given to another son, Grim Donald of Sleat, (Dòmhnull gorm Shléibhte) . Another son got the smaller isles, and another went to Ireland and became Earl of Antrim while the heir remained in Islay and held the adjacent islands as well as portions of the mainland. Of the 700 who returned with his son from Antrim to people the islands after the expulsion of the Norsemen, 22 were heads of families. ”

“ His son, Randal, the second earl, married in 1635 the widow of the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham, by whose means he obtained a considerable influence at the court of England, where his fervid Catholicism secured for him the favour of Queen Henrietta Maria. When disturbances broke out in Scotland and it became known that the Covenanters had entrusted the principal command to the Earl of Argyle, the hereditary enemy of the Macdonnells, Antrim undertook to raise an army of Irish and Highland Catholics to assist the King in the reduction of the Scotch rebels. ”