Book shines a new light on the ‘dear dark mountain sky over I’

A Sliabh Beagh and North Monaghan Miscellany

Writer: Mackie Rooney

Price: £35

Buy: www.mackierooney.com

I AWAITED the publication of this book with great anticipation as my mother’s people hail from the mountainous region of Sliabh Beagh, near where the three counties of Monaghan, Fermanagh and Tyrone meet.

The area is particularly rich in history, folklore, sport, music and archaeology. Its natural beauty is reflected in the lakes, mountains, blanket bogs, old famine roads, hen harriers, bog cotton, and peatland flora and fauna.

The author, Scotstown native and octogenarian, Mackie Rooney, has spent half a lifetime immersed in the folklore and local history of his native parish of Tydavnet and Sliabh Beagh.

Packed with at least 150 topics from the naming of Sliabh Beagh to recent GAA sporting events, we are taken on a journey through the folklore of the early Christian period and Penal Times and Mass Rocks to the more documented history of the 19th and 20th centuries—An Gorta Mór, the Fenians, evictions and the struggle for the land, the Tan War, the creation of the Border and the IRA’s 1956-1962 Border Campaign.

The former president of Sinn Féin, Fr Michael O’Flanagan, once wrote that in order to learn Irish history one does best to start with local history—‘love for Ireland will grow all the greater from the special love a person will have for his or her native place.’

I was particularly interested in Sliabh Beagh’s connection with the fight for Irish freedom, which features prominently in the book. Republicanism has a strong tradition in the area, and we learn about the exploits of the Fenians, and the Knockatallon IRA Company during the Black and Tan terror.

During the Border Campaign the IRA had its headquarters in Knockatallon from where it launched operations in the occupied area, including the famous raid on Brookeborough RUC Barracks on New Year’s Day 1957, that led to the martyrdom of Seán South and Fergal O’Hanlon. Prior to that Connie Green was killed in action in 1955 when an IRA splinter group Saor Uladh, attacked the RUC Barracks in Roslea.

The father of Coatbridge born Margaret Skinnider who fought in the Easter Rising, was born in the parish of Tydavnet and Rooney outlines the sterling work of the locally based Margaret Skinnider Appreciation Society, in remembering the redoubtable patriot, including the erection of an impressive nine-feet high monument at Cornagilta, which was built by local master craftsman Pat McKenna in 2020.

Rooney’s modus operandi involved interviewing elderly people and researching the archives of regional newspapers. Small wonder that the final product is a three-volume ‘book for the ages,’ which will ensure that both the struggles and, the lighter moments, of day-to-day life for our ancestors is not forgotten in this digital age. His interviews over many years illuminated the major events of the 20th century.

A Sliabh Beagh and North-Monaghan Miscellany abounds in folklore which was common to an Ireland of former times—a belief in fairies, ghosts, banshees, and superstitions of a malign nature. The story of the famous Coonian poltergeist and its exorcism by Bishop McKenna of Clogher in 1914, is told by the writer Sir Shane Leslie of Glaslough.

We learn that the region has a longstanding musical tradition and of the talent of men like the fiddle player Owen Connolly, widely regarded as the leading musician in Sliabh Beagh during the opening half of the 20th century. Fellow musician and cultural activist in the early Comhaltas Ceoltóiri Éireann, Eamonn Murray, lamented that: “Old tales are no longer told, old tunes but seldom played, and the old songs are dying.” In his opinion, the music traditions of the Sliabh Beagh region, an area he sometimes referred to as ‘Our Dear Dark Mountain with the Sky over I,’ were in retreat due to the advent of the record player and radio.

In compiling this miscellany, the author has made a valuable contribution to the history of Sliabh Bheag, one that will be appreciated by future generations, including exiles. Rooney has added so many humorous pieces that we can feel assured that he, at least, is not in thrall, to this past, while yet shining a light on the lives of our ancestors. The many poems and photos add lustre to this insight. He is to be lauded in this labour of love.

It is a fine publication and good value for the price. The book can be purchased at Mackie Rooney’s own website.