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KEENAN FAMILY in Australia

PORTGLENONE and GLENONE

Northern Ireland

Last updated 23 January 2012

         

                           Clady River near Inishrush              Old Keenan home at Glenone              Lower Bann River             Church of Ireland, Portglenone
  • May Keenan (1924 -       ).  May still lives in Portglenone, or, to be more precise, just out of Portglenone, at Innisrush, Northern Ireland.  Apparently, she is the last of the "Glenone" Keenan's.  See photograph taken in October 2002 by Peter Keenan of Australia. The Inishrush Townland is a short distance north of the Glenone Townland.

  •  Glenone is understood to mean "Meadow of two rivers".  (This information is from  www.greenlough.com) .  The two rivers are the River Bann and the Clady River.

The following information was found at The IreAtlas Townland Database  at http://www.seanruad.com/

Townland AKA Acres County Barony Civil Parish PLU Province
PORTGLENONE T.   xx Londonderry Loughinsholin Tamlaght O'Crilly Magherafelt Ulster
PORTGLENONE T.   xx Antrim Lower Toome Ahoghill Ballymena Ulster

                   Glenone is the place where Henry John Keenan (b.1842) lived before leaving for Australia in 1863-4:

Townland AKA Acres County Barony Civil Parish PLU Province
Glenone   825 Londonderry Loughinsholin Tamlaght O'Crilly Magherafelt Uls

 

 

HOME OF KEENANS IN GLENONE

 

 

 

Early home of the Keenans  in Glenone, Northern Ireland..

  Photo supplied by Anne Waghorn, of Australia, a descendant of the Keenan's who settled in Western Australia in the mid to late 1800s.

The home in Glenone has been pulled down.  On a visit to the area in 2002 I was shown the site by Sheila Johnston, a Keenan relative now living in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland.   According to Sheila "there is a bungalow there now (Sept 2011) where the old Keenan home was.  I think the man who lives there is a distant relative of Keenans". Sheila has provided me with a map with the site marked on it.  It seems to be located at 59 Clady Road, Glenone, County Derry; well back from the left hand side of the road travelling East towards Portglenone, about half way between Kirea Road and Ballymacombe Road.

 

 

Glenone School built 1836 adjacent to the River Bann

 

The photo above and the text below are from the website of the Parish of Greenlough, Tamlaght O'Crilly.  For more go to www.greenlough.com

REGARDING HISTORY OF INNISRUSH

 

Extract from a "Quiet Places of the Lower Bann Valley" by John HUGHES and Donal BARTON. (circa 1998)

 

 

“In Co Derry across from Portglenone is Innisrush, named after an island that used to be in the middle of Green Lough (green lake). There was the residence of Hercules ELLIS, local landowners. It was once quite a thriving village. John CLEMENTS owned a woodworking business. The Green Lough which gave its name to the parish (Greenlough) has now disappeared, having been drained in the process of draining bogs in the late 1800's. However once there was an island in the middle of it and Brian CARRAGH built a castle on it and lived there till he died in 1586. He was the great grandson of Dumnhall Donn, Donnell the Brown, O'NEILL, who founded the sept clan Domhnaill-Duin-Na-Bana. He lived on the Antrim side but seized the O'Cahan clan's lands, which this was. Many tried to capture him but at this time the land was bog, water, and wood.”

 

Extract produced in an email by Linda Merle n 1998 to Ancestry.com. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Scotch-Irish/1998-10/0909120970

 

The book mentioned above - "Quiet Places of the Lower Bann Valley" - has been published on the Kiwi Celts website (http://family.kiwicelts.com/21_Places_and_History/Quiet_Places_of_the_Lower_Baan.html#Cranfield ).  It mentions other sites and persons of historical importance, such as Clady, the Clady River and John Keenan, and has a number of photos of the Lower Bann area.  A copy of the book, without the hyperlinks, is also published on this site. To see my PDF copy CLICK HERE.  For my Word copy CLICK HERE.

 

Parish of Greenlough History:

Schools

 

"Although Greenlough parish has only two primary schools at present, in the past it could boast of several. No less than 20 schools are listed by the Commissioners of National Education, Dublin, for the parish of Tamlaght O’Crilly in their Report for the year 1823. The schools listed with their principals were:

Drumoracannon (Drumnacanon) (William Spoole– Protestant)

Hervey Hill (Patrick Quinn– Catholic)

Drumlain (Dominic Heyland & Mrs Heyland– Protestant)

Drumnacanon Catholic School (Daniel O’Connor)

Lisnagrotte (James McLaughlin– Catholic)

Tyanee (John Rea– Catholic)

Innisrush (William Thompson– Protestant)

Kildare Place School at Glenone (James McLester)

Bovedy (James McArthur– Presbn.)

Drumolish (Drumoolish) (James Workman– Protestant)

Drumagarner (James O’Neill)

Lismoyle (Joseph Pollock)

Ballynion (Robert Doriss)

Drumcan (Mary McCotter)

Glenone (John Henry, Catholic) stone and mud

Glenone (James McLester, Protestant) stone & lime, an excellent house

Money Haghan (Mary Ferguson– Protestant)

Innisrush (Miss Ellis– Protestant)

Mayogeny (James Diamond– Catholic)

Leslea (Margaret Dunbar, Presbn.) a poor cabin

Both Catholics and Protestants attended these schools. In 1838 Fr John McLaughlin built the first Greenlough National School on a site opposite the old Parochial House. At the same time a National School was built alongside the River Bann in the Townland of Glenone. This was known as Glenone National School. The old Greenlough National School proved inadequate for the numbers attending and the parish priest converted the old stables at the edge of the graveyard into classrooms. The teacher’s illustrations can still be seen etched on the walls of the old stables. These two schools were later amalgamated in the modern Greenlough Primary School built at Moneystaghan in 1962."

 

The map and text below are from the website of the Parish of Greenlough, Tamlaght O'Crilly.  For more go to www.greenlough.com

.......................................

 

The Townlands in Greenlough

 

 

Townlands in our parish:

1. Ballymacpeake- Lower
2. Drumlane
3. Drumnacanon
4. Drumoolish
5. Eden
6. Fallahogy
7. Glenone
8. Innisrush
9. Lislea
10. Moyagoney
11. Moneystaghan- Ellis
12. Moneystaghan- Macpeake
13. Mullaghnamoyagh
14. Tyanee
 

 

Click here for link to Tamlaght O'Crilly Upper Church of Ireland 1831 Census

(Added 23/1/2012)

Griffiths Valuation of Ireland 1848-1864  

For an extract of the 63 Keenans in County Derry at the time, showing names, townland and parish,  go to http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths.php and do a search.  The same type of search can be done for any County.

Henry Keenan of Ballybeg, Ahoghill, County Antrim, may also be an ancestor, as this area is close to Portglenone.

 

Here's some interesting reading material:

(Added 23/1/2012)  Below are descriptions of Portglenone and Kilrea as they were in the 1840s.  The descriptions are from

Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland 1846

Ulster 

http://www.failteromhat.com/slateru.php

"Scanned images of Slater's Commercial directory of Ireland 1846.  These are in PDF format so that they can be more easily viewed. Please note these files are large. The average size is 250k. Slaters's directory goes through the towns of Ireland alphabetically. It lists a detailed description of the town or city, post office information and shows the names of nobility and gentry living in or close to the town. The traders of each town are arranged according to their trade."

 

                                         

 

Available from the Irish Ancestors website

                                                       

OTHER PARTS OF NORTHERN IRELAND:

SCENE FROM ALONG THE ANTRIM COAST

Hundreds of other photos of Northern Ireland