History
A Concise History of the Parish of Carrickedmond
The parish of Carrickedmond is an amalgam of the three ancient half parishes of Abbeyshrule, Tashinny and Teachshinod. The area itself is part of the old Gaelic Thuatha of shrule (a stream), which merits several mentions in the mythology of Ireland - the drowning of Eithne giving rise to the name of the Inny - a corruption of Eithne. In the middle ages the area was sub-divided into one of six baronies of County Longford being named as the Barony of Abbeyshrule. The district had great strategic properties being well defended by natural properties such as the border of the Inny River and the vast expanse of bog on the eastern border. Here ruled for centuries the O'Farrell Buighe, a powerful Gaelic autonomous sect. This powerful clan was not subdued until the later end of the sixteenth century when the area became part of county Longford being shired at that time. Relics of a great defensive line were evident with castles on the Inny, and further to the west within the Parish at Mornine and Bawn in Moydow parish. The district was to suffer extensive confiscations and plantation during the Cromwellian and Williamite wars. Tashinny became the fiefdom of the Gore Dynasty while the King Harmon Family held possession of the entire Abbeyshrule district. The O Farrell finally lost most of its possessions to the Jessop of Doory in Teachshnod.
The emergence of a more enlightened age in the eighteenth century showed a return to religeous tollerance and the formation of what is now Carrickedmond parish. The established Church of Ireland had for centuries as its principle place of worship the Church of Tashinny. Catholiccs amalgamated the three half parishes with its main Church at Killendowd or Carrickedmond on the site of the old mass house the ruins of an old church in Teachshinod stand as evidence to its past parochial status. In 1817 the Royal Canal workers erected a chapel at Abbeyshrule on a site donated by the Canal company. A modern futuristic designed church on a new site in the village replaces this criciform church in 1981. In pure historical economic terms the area was and is of great self-sufficiency. It is easy to see why the district attracted visitors and settlers both welcome and unwelcome over the centuries. human habitation is evident from a very early era, from the number of fortified ring forts abounding in the parish. additionally and to reinforce the point over half of the townlands making up the parish have "rath" or "lois" (forts) as a prefix to their very names. Stone axes and other implements have been excavated at Ratharney and are in the diocesean museum.
In 1906 the Clonbrin Shield was discovered in that townland beside Abbeyshrule and is a prize National Museum exhibit in Dublin. The eleventh century saw a monasticism taking a foothold. Between the Cistercians at Abbeshrule and the Augustines at Abbeyderg, at opposite ends of the parish, contemplative life farmed over half the parish. The suppression of the monasteries in the sixteenth century saw the emergence of a privileged estate elite with the opposites of landlordism and the peasantry. The area was always endowed with rich natural assets such as pastureland, wooded copses and bogs on the perimeters. Additionally the Inny with its small tributaries provided fish and wildlife. The combination of bog and river had the ingredients for the flax/linen industry. Water renewable energy harnassed mills on the Inny - so eloquently painted by Bulfin in a chapter in Rambles in Eireann.
The Royal Canal came through in 1817 and snaked its way around the boundaries of the parish. This new transport mode provided an outlet to a diverse range of produce such as oatmeal and turf to the capital. Some grasped the transport as a way to take the first steps on the journey to the new world.
