Cavan: A capital town in a charming county

Jonathan Smyth's latest Times Past column looks at the history of Cavan Town...

This County town is one of Ireland’s oldest urban centres which can trace its origins back to an early Gaelic settlement. This makes it a unique place amongst the planned towns which grew up under landlords who received estates made up of lands confiscated from ancient rulers. Cavan town has grown greatly in size since the days of its princely origins under the Breifne O’Reillys. The Irish for Cavan is ‘an Cabháin’ which means a hollow, or valley.

Cavan Abbey

An urban centre began when a Franciscan Friary known as St. Mary’s Abbey was founded by Giolla Iosa O’Reilly and a band of Franciscan monks in 1300. For about 300 years the Franciscans controlled the Abbey until the Reformation. General Eoghan Rua O’Neill that great hero of Benburb is according to local tradition believed to have been buried in the Abbey grounds. He most likely rests beneath the site of the former church. Later with the arrival of English settlers Cavan became the capital town of the shire of Cavan. In 1610, the town received a municipal charter of incorporation from King James I. This allowed for a borough to be formed providing a platform to decide local matters through elected officials and allow for the holding of markets and fair days.

Farnham Street

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, a new street under the direction of Lord Farnham was built and named after him which parallelled Main Street. Farnham Street’s purpose was to accentuate the town's appearance of prosperity, providing living quarters for the middle class families of bankers, doctors, and solicitors and to highlight the civic professional and banking section of the town. The street's architectural highlights include the Court House building, churches, a former bank, masonic hall, and Georgian style dwelling houses. In 1825, the original Farnham Hotel (old Library building) opened on Erskine Row, Farnham Street.

A special highlight for locals and visitors along the street was the Farnham Gardens. The gardens were intentionally designed as a pleasure ground for the residents to spend their leisure time taking a walkabout, perhaps having a summer picnic, and a place to relax with their families on days off work. You can easily imagine the gentry ‘doffing’ their hats with a slight bow when greeting each other while out on a jaunty ‘constitutional’ in the fresh air after Sunday lunch. The Farnham Gardens came about when the widow of the fourth Lord allowed a piece of land stretching from the Abbey to Wesley Street for public use. Flowers, trees, manicured hedging, and lawns made this a picturesque place. The gardens were later replaced by buildings.

Jailhouse rock

The town's infamous jail stood on a hill overlooking the part of Farnham Street where the horse fairs occurred (just above Cavan Bus Station). Today, St. Felim’s N.S. occupies the old jail site, and behind the school is Cana House which in the old days was the female section of the prison. In its day, the prison housed Quakers, highwaymen, murderers, thieves, seduction cases and more. Prison conditions were not too pretty and would have been very rudimentary. In the early nineteenth century, the warden was a brute who denied interred people an opportunity to take a stroll in the exercise yard. However, when inspections of the jail took place, he was the model warden. Prisoners looked forward to those days because they could go for a walk in the yard.

Startling ditty

‘Come to Cavan for two black eyes’ rang out a startling song. An old ditty, now long forgotten, presumably from the pen of a visitor, painted a less wholesome picture, warning of dangers when attending a fair day. A troublesome matter to the unsuspecting, it seems. Of course, selling meant that money was traded hand over fist. Afterwards, in public houses the day's earnings were easily spent doing little to assuage men's tempers by evening. When the wit was out, raised fists were ready for a good fight with whoever they met on the road home. Facing their wives later that evening was a greater cause of fear. Faulty explanations about where the money from the animal sales had gone would not wash. That said, you can come to Cavan today and there you will only ever encounter the most agreeable people.

Characters

Cavan Town has boasted many interesting characters over the years. The respected Cavan historian T.S. Smyth wrote that, around 1725, a Mrs Donaldson kept an inn in the town and among her close friends she could say she was on good terms with the likes of Dean Jonathan Swift and Henry Brooke, a writer from Mullagh and father of Charlotte Brooke whose book ‘Reliques of Irish Poetry’ is an important source of poetry preserved in the Irish language. Mrs Donaldson’s was a favourite meeting place for the literary minds of the day. About her, T.S. Smyth wrote, ‘Mrs Donaldson advertised’ her inn ‘by poetical effusions.’

Prior to his election to the Urban Council in the 1900s, a man named Murphy took his landlady up the four steps over poor sanitary conditions at the property he and his family were renting. The court heard she had a toilet, and an ash pit installed but there was no pipe laid to connect it to the sewerage.

Change

The introduction of the automobile in the first half of the twentieth century helped people move away from the horse and cart. Cars became the main ‘mode of transport for both passengers and freight’ which brought about change to the town’s physical environment; road signage, parking spaces and road markings defined where and where not to park. In 1961, the Co. Cavan had 5,877 cars which by 1966 this had risen to 9,335 motor vehicles. In the late 1960s, a local authority report into the effect of cars noted that ‘the analysis’ undertaken ‘underscores the significant impact of motor vehicles on land use, environmental planning, and societal changes during that era’.

In the twenty-first century, Cavan town like all the great towns of the county has something to offer in terms of charm and character. So, for anyone living outside the region or abroad reading this column please come to Co. Cavan. You are sure to have a pleasant time.

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