We spent a fantastic afternoon with the great Úna Walsh learning all about the townlands in our local area. Úna gave us a fantastic insight into the history of the area and that the passage tomb on top of Slieve Gullion is older than the Pyramids of Egypt. She is so passionate about our area and urged us all to start using our townland names and revive them as when we know our townland name we know directly the meaning of where we come from. Her advice to us was drop the road names and learn where we are from. Some of our townlands are Carcullion (Carr an Chuillinn) coming from the Irish for Holly, Cill Sléibhe (Killeavy), the Church of the Mountain etc. When we start to use our townlands, we follow the footsteps of our forefathers & mothers.
We also learned about our very own ‘Titanic’ called the Hannah that left Warrenpoint in 1849 heading for Quebec with 176 passengers & 12 crew. The majority of passengers were from Forkill. The Hannah struck ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence & 55 lives were lost. There is a plaque dedicated to those who lost their lives near Carrive Grove Nursery. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha dílis.
Go raibh céad míle maith agat a Úna. Bhain muid an-sult as. We were truly honoured to have you.
