A view from the mountain top

Damian McCarney

“Well I wouldn’t be calling myself an historian,” says Sean Galligan modestly, when the Celt enquires what prompted him to pen the booklet - ‘Lough-an-Leagh and Muff, Poems and Songs, Heritage and Folklore.’
By profession Sean was an agricultural officer with the Department, but in his retirement he’s turned salvager of the folklore of Lough-an-Leagh and Muff. His publication has been brewing for maybe 30 years, as he devoted whatever free time he could steel between rain showers to collect the old yarns and poems. Despite his lack of history credentials, his booklet sold out on its recent launch in a packed out Muff School. He was “delighted” by the community’s response and happily reports that another print run is in the planning.
The Bailieborough man’s interest in the area was piqued from his work in local farms, and cherishing long mountain rambles amidst the scenic Lough-an-Leagh.
Over the decades Sean came to hear of a much admired poet and songsmith, Johnny Lynch who lived on Lough-an-Leagh mountain, and passed away around 1959. Intrigued, Sean decided to compile what he could of Lynch’s work in one collection.
“I heard people quoting a line or two of his poems, so I started looking them up and it was difficult to get them. I got a couple here and a couple there, eventually I ended up with ten or twelve and that’s what got me going on this booklet.
“I was afraid that Johnny’s poems and songs would die out - and I thought it was worthwhile for the local area to have that, as part of their heritage.”
Sean is impressed by Johnny’s writings given his education was likely limited.
“He would have had to go two miles or more to school across the very top of the mountain - and he would have only got to it when the weather was fine,” says Sean.
The project expanded to include the Lynch family’s background. He believes the Lynchs sold turf from their section of bog, and drew lime on horse and cart over from Barleyhill to sell in marts and fairs. But it was their beliefs that fascinated Sean.
“They believed in all sorts of pisheougs. They were a very unusual family, there was five of them and none of them married.”
Sean expands on the pisheougs: “It’s stories that they used to believe in, that if you met a red-haired woman going to the cattle mart, or anywhere, it was regarded as unlucky and they wouldn’t go ahead with their journey.
“They used to be afraid that if they had good animals, some of the neighbours might be jealous and they might ‘overlook them’. ‘Overlook them’ meant that they would put a spell on them and they wouldn’t thrive. So, to prevent that, the Lynchs, and other people before them, used to tie ribbons on their tails. I don’t know how that would prevent it, but people long ago believed in all sorts of things.”
Such fantastical beliefs married nicely with the rich folklore in the area. Thus Sean’s embraced local myths, for which the late Vincent Hanratty proved a most valuable and authoritative source.
“There was a little lake at the top of the mountain,” begins Sean of his favourite yarn, dating from the 1600s, “and there was also a Mass rock where they would gather when it was illegal to say Mass in Ireland. They had people looking out, and a lady up on the mountain saw there was a army coming along - some of Cromwell’s. When she found them coming, she alerted the people attending the Mass and they ran for their lives - and so did the priest.”
Presumably to safeguard the sacred chalice, the priest threw it into the little lake, and this act of desperation had a miraculous effect on its waters.
“The people said there were cures from the lake, particularly from the mud for skin ailments,” says Sean.
However the lake’s charm was undermined by a landlord from Carrickmacross.
“He bathed his dogs in it because they had mange, and after that the cures disappeared. Later too the lake disappeared.”
The Celt wonders if anyone has went in search of the chalice?
“I’m sure they have,” Sean replies with a laugh.
Sean notes that there may be some truth in the tale, as it is possible for lakes to disappear given fissures in rock surfaces, and speculates that it could be the source of a lake in nearby fields on the Bailieborough side of the mountain, which was later used by the council as a reservoir for Bailieborough for many years.
Given Lough-an-Leagh’s close proximity to Muff, it was natural for the booklet to include its proud history, which was compiled by Alacoque McMahon. This includes details on the famous fair, the ancient church, and Muff castle which survives no more.
“It’s completely flattened,” said Sean, who suspects local farmers centuries ago made use of the old stone from the castle for lanes and buildings.
“They weren’t as active in those times about heritage or important buildings.”
Fortunately thanks to Sean’s work, these fragments of the area’s heritage won’t suffer the same fate as Muff castle.