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The name of a town-land can tell us quite a bit about a particular area’s history, and the town-lands of ‘McKenna Country’ are unusually interesting in this regard. All of them are derived directly from the Irish and the translations can be most enlightening. Besides the names of trees, which predominate the place-names of both Donagh and Errigal Truagh parishes, some townlands also give very obvious clues as to what events may have occurred in those same areas. Two clusters of town-lands towards the centre of Donagh parish (the southern half of ‘McKenna Country’) are particularly informative in this respect.
Towards the east of the parish, and in the vicinity of Glaslough, there is the townland of Cloncaw, coming from the Irish ‘Cluain Catha’, which means ‘the Meadow of the Battle’. This town-land is situated directly between, and dividing, the townland of Drumbanagher to the north-east, and Donagh town-land to the south-west. Drumbanagher was the centre of a Viking settlement (the fort is still almost entirely intact on the top of Drumbanagher hill) while Donagh was the centre of St. Patrick‘s mission and he founded his church there in the fifth century. He is recorded as having visited this site on no less than four occasions, all of which adds to the great importance of this particular Patrician Foundation. Whether it was simply a church or a monastic settlement is still open to debate. If just a church, it must have been an extremely important one, considering that it was thought fit enough to be included in all the early mappings of Co. Monaghan, and even of Ireland.
With such a prize directly under their noses – the two hills are less than a kilometre apart – it was obvious that the Vikings would make Donagh church (or monastic settlement) one of their targets. It must have proven ‘easy pickings’, and the fact that it never boasted a Round Tower suggests that these attacks were so frequently repeated that there was never sufficient time for the building of such a protective structure. The McKennas had become the dominant clan in the area a century earlier and the Donagh church had become ‘McKenna’s Church’, having been so described in one of the major Annals -‘McKenna’s Church in Donagh‘.
Obviously these McKennas would protect their Church from the marauding Vikings, and the fact that the town-land right between the two sites is called Cloncaw (Meadow of the Battle) clearly indicates that there was a clash of swords between the two forces, at least once if not many more times, on this same location. Only the unearthing of a Danish helmet or an Irish sword, however, will prove the authenticity of this piece of conjecture on my part. To the south—west of these three town-lands, and still in the parish of Donagh, is a cluster of three further town-lands, with meanings that clearly indicate a major struggle between rival forces having taken place in this particular area.
These three townlands are:-Drumcaw, from the Irish ‘Drom Catha’, which means ‘The Ridge of the Battle; Balderg, from the Irish ‘Baile Dearg‘, which means ‘Red Town’ or ‘Place of Blood’; and Drumgahan, from the lrish ’Drom Gathan‘, meaning ‘The Ridge of the Arrows or Small Spears’. lf all that doesn’t indicate a ‘battle‘ of some kind or other, then what does?
The explanation of this latter ‘battle‘ is more difficult to explain. Quite possibly it was a clash of the McKenna clan, defending their territory from the neighbouring McMahons, or even from the English. Several of the McKenna poems point to clashes between the McKennas and the foreigners, who always found them a difficult force to subdue. Or it could have been an even earlier battle between the Ui Meith and the Mugdoma. The final battle between those two forces was at Omne Rende, which has been proven to be at a site near the present town of Castleblayney. The Ul Meith, who came to this area in the fourth century and long before the McKennas, had advanced from the north-west and pushed the Mugdoma, the then reigning family in what is now Co. Monaghan, further to the south-east.
The clash at Drumcaw-Balderg-Drumgahon could quite easily have been one of the concluding stages in that advance and the precursor of the final overthrow at Omne Rende. Again, all this is conjecture, but I have yet to find a better explanation. Town-lands didn’t simply get their names by accident, and the fact that the aforementioned town- lands all bear witness to evidence of ‘battles long ago’ is enough to keep the imaginations of historians travelling at super—sonic speeds for the foreseeable future.
