Crossmolina () is a town in the historical barony of Tyrawley in County Mayo, Ireland, as well as the name of the civil parish and Catholic parish in which the town is situated. The town sits on the River Deel near the northern shore of Lough Conn. Crossmolina is about west of Ballina on the N59 road and north of Lahardane village. Surrounding the town, there are a number of agriculturally important townlands, including Enaghbeg, Rathmore, and Tooreen.
Etymology The name Crossmolina is from the , meaning "Cross of Mullany", or "Maoilíona's cross". In the 18th century, the name was sometimes spelt as either Crossmalina, Crossmaliney, Crosmolyna or Crossmaling.
History
Crossmolina lies within the historic territory of Tír Amhlaidh (Tirawley), which for many centuries formed part of the Gaelic lordship of the Ó Dubhda (O’Dowda) dynasty. The O’Maoilfhiona (O’Molina), O’Gaibhtheachain (O’Gaughan), and O’Flynn families were the local chiefs of the district of Calraighe Magh Eileog, the plain through which the River Deel flows. These families held the area as subordinate lords within the broader lordship of the Ó Dubhda (O’Dowd) dynasty, the dominant Gaelic power in north Mayo.
The O’Dowds were the leading sept of the Uí Fiachrach Muaidhe, a branch of the ancient Connacht ruling lineage of the Uí Fiachrach. Their authority over the territory of Tír Amhlaidh (Tirawley) is documented in medieval Irish annals from at least the twelfth century. The O’Dowd control of Tirawley was periodically contested — most notably by the Anglo-Norman Barrett family following the Battle of Kilroe in the thirteenth century. The family continued to assert lordship over the area until the Tudor conquest of Connacht in the late sixteenth century.
The origins of present-day Crossmolina are tied to the founding of a religious settlement in the area: Errew Abbey was founded by St. Tiernan in the 6th century. In the 12th century this Abbey came into possession of the invading Hiberno-Norman de Barry.
During the 15th century, Crossmolina passed into the hands of the Bourke Family. In 1526 O'Donnell of Tir Conaill (County Donegal) invaded Tirawley and destroyed Crossmolina Castle. In response, the Bourkes constructed a replacement in Deel Castle. Their possession of this new fortress did not last however as during the Williamite War in Ireland of the 1690s Thomas Burke fought for the defeated Catholic
Tudor period During the Tudor reconquest of Ireland in the later sixteenth century, English officials attempted to document and reorganize the lands of north Mayo through surveys connected with the Composition of Connacht. These surveys, conducted by Sir John Perrot, sought to identify local rulers, measure territories, and convert the traditional Gaelic system of landholding into land controlled by the Crown.
In the areas around Crossmolina, the surveys found that the region largely lay under the lordship of the O’Dowd dynasty. The records suggest a predominantly pastoral economy based on cattle grazing, supplemented by limited grain cultivation on the better soils along the Deel valley and by fishing in the nearby lakes and rivers. These Tudor surveys provide one of the earliest administrative descriptions of the Crossmolina area and mark the beginning of the gradual transformation of its traditional clan-based economy into a system of legally defined estates under English authority.
Anglo-Protestant Ascendency Deel Castle was granted by the English crown to the Anglo-Irish Protestant Gore family. In the 17th century, Francis Jackson, who had fought with Cromwell in Ireland, also received land in North Mayo. The Jackson family later built Enniscoe House. Again, the land taken over by the Jacksons was previously owned by the Burke family. The arrival of these landlords ushered in the era of Protestant Ascendancy into the area.
In 1798 Crossmolina was swept up with the events of the United Irishmen Rebellion when French Forces under General Humbert came from Ballina, passed by Crossmolina, towards Lahardane and on towards Castlebar as they went west of Lough Conn to fight the Battle of Castlebar.
In the late 18th century, the town emerged as a commercial and administrative hub. During this period, local landlords formed the Crossmolina Volunteers militia. By the early 1800s, a granary and bonded warehouses had been established. Petty Court sessions began weekly in 1823, and by the 1830s, the Revenue Police and Constabulary were stationed there.Lewis, S. (1849). A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland: Comprising the Several Counties; Cities; Boroughs; Corporate, Market, and Post Towns; Parishes; and Villages; with Historical and Statistical Descriptions: Embellished with Engravings of the Arms of the Cities, Bishoprics, Corporate Towns, and Boroughs; and of the Seals of the Several Municipal Corporations. United Kingdom: S. Lewis and Company. Regular fairs occurred in May, September, and December. The 1831 census showed a town population of 1,481 across 296 households, while the rural parish totaled 10,198. Approximately half the town's households were engaged in trade, manufacturing, and handicrafts.
The town is referenced in the Leigh's pocket road book of Ireland, published in 1827, as a "village in Mayo", whose "most remarkable object is the ruin of an Abbey dedicated to the Virgin Mary". Crossmolina was also mentioned in Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837). The town contained "one good street and two converging ones".
19th century Poitin production
Poitín, a traditional Irish spirit made from fermented grain or potatoes, boasts a high alcohol content. Produced in Ireland for centuries, it significantly impacted Crossmolina's local economy. In the early 19th century, Ireland's government worried about prevalent illegal private distillation, leading to frequent conflicts with locals. By February 1816, North Mayo's poitín production alarmed the government enough to station troops in the town to curb the trade.
In July 1833, a party of Revenue Police, based in Crossmolina, made a routine patrol and made an unexpected discovery—individuals engaged in the illicit distillation of poitín. The police apprehended two members of the group. However, as they returned with the prisoners, a daring attempt to rescue them was made, with a prominent role played by one of the prisoners' father-in-law. Tragically, the situation escalated, leading the police to discharge their weapons, resulting in the death of one man.
Rural unrest in the 19th century Land issues in North Mayo were a constant source of tension during the 19th century. Large landowners, often residing in England, rented land to tenant farmers with precarious tenure, risking eviction at any time. This situation led to significant resistance, occasionally violent, when rents were adjusted. Surrounding Crossmolina, endemic poverty prevailed. The 1838 "Royal Commission into the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland" visited the town, and its report highlighted the dire living conditions of the rural poor. Their diet consisted almost entirely of potatoes, with meat consumed rarely, once or twice a year. Laborers earned 6 to 8 pennies daily, partially paid in food.
During the first decade of the 19th century, local peasants formed a secret society called "The Threshers". The group was responsible for a number of "outrages" including destroying crops and breaking into houses. In 1806 a local man – Thady Lavin – had informed the local magistrate of the activities of the group. He was later found murdered near Crossmolina. Six local men - Coll Flynn, Laurence Flynn, Charles Flynn, Thomas Horan, Daniel Regan, and Daniel Callaghan - were convicted of his murder, and hanged in Castlebar in December 1806. In December 1813, violence again broke out when a crowd of local residents, armed with pikes and guns, tried to take back cattle that had been sequestered to pay for outstanding rent arrears.
Between 1820 and 1840, the "Ribbonmen" agrarian movement was active in Crossmolina. In December 1821, John Carr, Peter Gillaspy, Eneas Early, and Mathew Chambers were imprisoned for their Ribbonmen membership and for administering illegal oaths. Local magistrate George Ormsby, Esq. of Gortner Abbey, facilitated their imprisonment. Due to significant rural unrest, a yeomanry detachment of three officers and 85 men was stationed permanently in the town starting in 1820.
In February 1839, the Crossmolina Parish Priest - Fr John Barrett - was murdered at Enniscoe Gate, about a mile and a half from Crossmolina. He was attacked late at night while returning from the town to his residence. It was widely speculated at the time that he was murdered because he denounced at the pulpit the activities of a secret society called the "Steel Boys". In 1842, a local Crossmolina Man - John Walsh - was convicted of being a member of the Ribbonmen and transported for seven years. He was found to be in possession of secret passwords and documents relating to the secret society.
Rural violence and political unrest continued through to the second half of the 19th century and even into the early 20th century. In March 1881, the Crossmolina home of the high constable of Tryrawley was attacked by a group of armed men. In November 1882, the local Parish Priest was arrested for permitting a Land League meeting in the Crossmolina Chapel. In June 1882, a Crossmolina farmer called Michael Brown was shot and severely wounded. He had taken over a farm that had been boycotted by local residents. Violence broke out in 1911 when a local man, Patrick Broderick who along with his neighbours, resisted the efforts of over fifty R.I.C. Officers to evict Broderick from his Crossmolina home. Resistance to the eviction was organized by the Crossmolina tenants league.
The Big Wind The town was badly damaged during the "Night of the Big Wind" (Irish: Oíche na Gaoithe Móire) that swept across Ireland on 6 January 1839. Almost every house in the town was damaged with four houses destroyed completely. Eight residents were killed.
Mystery of the drowned woman In June 1843, the body of a young woman was discovered drowned in the river near Crossmolina. An apron was found tied around her feet, and her knees were bound together with a shirt. A piece of ribbon was tied on one of her arms in a manner that suggested both arms had been bound, and she had managed to free one before she died. The deceased appeared to have been a young woman of considerable beauty. The woman was never identified.
Potato crop failures In the early 19th century, frequent potato crop failures led to localised famines. In June 1822, North Mayo experienced a widespread failure. The Archbishop of Tuam visited and reported to the London Times seeing “half-starved men, women, and children” in Crossmolina and surrounding areas. Local landlords and clergy formed an inter-denominational relief committee. Richard Sharpe, agent for the Palmer estate with extensive land in Crossmolina, spearheaded relief efforts by organizing oat shipments to combat starvation.
In early 1831, a potato crop failure led to starvation. Sharpe organized a fundraiser among landlords to buy oats for the starving tenants. In June 1831, Crossmolina experienced a Typhus outbreak, a disease recurring in North Mayo until the 1920s. Dr. James McNair reported over 100 Typhus cases to the Connaught Telegraph, with 38 in Crossmolina. The following June, Rev. Edwin Stock surveyed the area, finding over 3,000 families, totaling 17,000 individuals, suffering from food shortages. George Vaughn Jackson, a local landlord and relief committee secretary, described the dire situation in the London Times, mentioning starving mothers, men seeking work, and rampant fever, indicating widespread starvation and disease.