School: Sonnach (roll number 13974)

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1. Sonnaghbeg

   

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   To the north of the Sonnagh School some 500 yards there was a village called Sonnaghbeg. Twenty one families lived in little cabins in the village each family having about 4 acres of land to live on. Little did they care about tillage or work of any kind. They lived by plunder + murder. They took cattle, sheep, + pigs from the people living in the neighbouring villages. They came in the daytime with blackened faces armed with forks + daggers + if the owner of the stock taken tried to resist them he lost life then if other neighbours did not come to his assistance but surely they paid him a visit the night of two after when no help was at hand + he was murdered. They watched people coming from fairs + such places + murdered then for their money especially any man carrying a horse's bridle or saddle. Often times they fought amongst themselves over the division of the booty. The clothes of murdered men were often seen on the men of this village. No man or property was safe except where 4 or 5 houses stood close. Pollock an English settler who lived convenient to Ballinasloe got a large tract of land in the parishes of Glinsk + Kilbegnet. Most of the small tenants were driven to the mountains + bogs, some went on the emigrant ships + amongst them were the savage inhabitants of Sonnaghbeg. Their cabins were levelled to the ground + their holdings made into a farm which grows nothing now but rushes, furze + heath. Here was a case of "Out of evil comes good".

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. agents (~1)
      1. people
         1. robbers (~423)

   Language

   English

   Location

   Sonnagh, Co. Galway

   Collector

   James Grady

   Gender

   Male

   Occupation

   Múinteoir