Parish of Cruagh

**

Parish of Cruagh**

*(Formerly called Creevagh, and derived from Craobhach, a bushy place.) *

The parish of Cruagh in the seventeenth century appears as containing the town-lands of Killakee, Jamestown, Cruagh, Woodtown, and Tibradden, besides land described as mountain.

It now contains the townlands of Cruagh, Glendoo *(i.e., *the black glen), Jamestown, Killakee *(i.e., *the blind man’s wood), Newtown, Orlagh *(i.e., *the gold hill?), Tibradden *(i.e., *the house of Braddan or Britain), and Woodtown.

Within its limits are the hills or mountains known as Tibradden, Killakee, Glendoo, and Cruagh.

The only objects of archaeological interest are a cromlech in the townland of Woodtown, and a beehive hut and cairn on Tibradden hill.

Killakee and its Neighbourhood

Killakee**, *the seat *of Lord Massy, gives, in the present day, importance to the mountainous parish of Cruagh, which lies to the east of the parish of Tallaght and extends, like the latter, from the parish of Rathfarnham to the County Wicklow. Killakee is, however, entirely modern, as are also the other houses in the parish. These include Woodtown, which in the reign of William IV. was the residence of the Right Hon. Henry Joy, then Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer; Tibradden, the seat of a branch of the Guinness family; and Orlagh, which was built by Mr. Lundy Foot, and is now a college belonging to the Augustinian Order.

The only objects of antiquity in the parish, besides a fragment of the church, are remains of pre-historic times. There are two of these-a cromlech in a place called Mount Venus, and a stone building, which has generally been described as a cairn, on the summit of Tibradden Hill. The cromlech is one of the largest in the County Dublin. Only one end of the immense roofing stone is now raised from the ground, but two pillar stones lie beside it, and Mr. Borlase, in his important work on the “Dolmens of Ireland,” says that if the roof rock was ever raised on them the cromlech must have been one of the most magnificent megalithic monuments in the world.** **A drawing by Gabriel Beranger, whose skill in portraying these monuments has been remarked, is here reproduced, and shows several more stones round the monument than are now to be seen.

In a curious note in his sketch book Beranger puts forward a theory that this cromlech was overthrown by an earthquake which is recorded to have been felt in Dublin in 1690. The building on Tibradden Hill, from which an urn preserved in the National Museum is said to have been taken, appears to have been originally a bee hive hut, such as has been found on the west coast of Ireland. On this, at a subsequent time, a cairn was erected, and the roof of the hut has given way under its weight. No trace of a fortified dwelling is to be found within the parish, and it is probable that none ever stood upon the lands, which became a hinterland of the Pale, and formed part of what was known as the Harolds’ country. Of this clan, which has been already several times mentioned, more will be seen under the parish of Whitechurch, where, eventually, their headquarters were established.

After the Anglo-Norman conquest we find the lands of Killakee in the possession of that great proprietor, Walter de Rideleford, whose lands in Tallaght parish adjoined them, while the lands of Tibradden were part of the property of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham, and the lands in the neighbourhood of the church, then known as the lands of Cruagh, were held by the family of St. Michael, already mentioned as owners of Roebuck.

For a time, as in the case of the mountain lands of Tallaght, the owners enjoyed some benefit from their possessions, and under the St. Michaels the lands of Cruagh were constituted a manor, to which Roebuck was made subservient. Amongst the members of that family, whose chief residence was in the County Kildare, connected with Cruagh, we find Robert de St. Michael, who was a brother of Thomas de St. Michael, the owner of Roebuck; David, son of Robert de ‘St. Michael; Richard, son of David de St. Michael; and David de St. Michael, who, before the year 1247, assigned his interest in the lands to Sir Waleran de Wellesley, a justice itinerant. The lands were then held under the St. Michaels by the Canons of All Saints’ Priory, and a house near the church was occupied by one John de Wodeloc.

Towards the end of the thirteenth century the lands of Killakee passed with the remainder of the de Rideleford estates to the Crown. During the next two centuries these lands must have been completely under the dominion of the Irish tribes, and the owners of Tibradden and Cruagh can also have derived little profit from their property. Tibradden still remained the property of the Kilmainham Priory, and amongst the owners of Cruagh we find John Bermingham, James, fourth Earl of Ormonde; Thomas Butler, Thomas Wallis, Roger Finglas, and Patrick Finglas, of Dunsoghly, and Richard FitzGerald. In the sixteenth century the district still remained wild and uncivilized, and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as we have seen, Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam, of Merrion, was appointed seneschal of the Harolds’ country, in the hope of reducing it to obedience.

By Henry VIII. the lands of Killakee had been given to Sir Thomas Luttrell, one of the Irish judges, and soon afterwards the lands of Cruagh and Tibradden, which had come to the Crown through the rebellion of Silken Thomas and the dissolution of the religious houses, were granted to Peter Talbot, of Bullock, who was a son of Robert Talbot, of Belgard.

An improvement in the condition of the district took place in the seventeenth century, when the lands now comprised in Cruagh parish came into the possession of the Loftus family, Cruagh and Tibradden being sold by the Talbots early in that century to Sir Adam Loftus, and Killakee, on its forfeiture by the Luttrells, being granted by the Parliament to Sir Adam’s son, the learned Dr. Dudley Loftus. After the rebellion of 1641 several yeomen, described as British Protestants, including Thomas Price, John Whyte, and William Thomas, deposed to heavy loss of goods and cattle, and after the Restoration we find Mr. Richard Greene living at Cruagh in a house rated as containing three hearths, and Mr. Samuel Browne, at Newtown, in a house with two.

At the latter period the population on the lands of Cruagh is returned as thirty-seven, on those of Woodtown as twenty-seven, on those of Killakee as twenty-one, and on those of Newtown twenty-eight; while on the lands of Tibradden and Jamestown there were seven cottages.

Early in the eighteenth century, at the same time as Rathfarnham, the Loftus property in Cruagh parish was sold to Speaker Conolly, and towards the close of that century it passed into the possession of Mr. Luke White, of Woodlands, from whom it has descended in a female line to Lord Massy, its present owner. **

Ecclesiastical History**

The graveyard which surrounded the church of Cruagh lies not far from a village called Rockbrook. The only relics of the church are portions of the end walls, standing thirty-three feet eight inches apart. The western gable retains the northern side of a window splay, and is of large coarse blocks with an abundance of spawled work, marking either late construction or repair.

The church was probably demolished to build a low and now thickly-ivied tower which stands partly on its site. This tower, which is nearly round, contains a vaulted under-storey several feet lower than the ground and an upper room, between which there is no communication. According to tradition it was built for the use of men guarding the graveyard from body snatchers.

To the south of the site of the church there is a nearly square basin cut in a square block measuring twenty-eight inches by twenty-six inches, with a rim six inches thick, and containing a drain hole; and in the graveyard an early tombstone with concentric markings was found by Dr. Petrie.

The church of Cruagh was in existence at the time of the Anglo-Norman conquest, and it has been suggested by Canon O’Hanlon that its foundation may have had some connection with St. Dalua, of Dun Tighe Bretan, or Tibradden as the Canon supposes, whose festival is celebrated on January 7th.

After the conquest the church was granted to the See of Dublin, and was subsequently assigned to the Kilmainham Priory as owner of the lands of Tibradden.

After the dissolution of the religious houses the rectory fell into lay hands, but at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the fabric was in good repair, the church was served by the Vicar of Tallaght, who was obliged to bring books with him, as the church was unprovided with them. Some years later the cure was united to Ballyfermot and Palmerston, and given to John Lenox, who held, also, a prebend in the Kildare diocese; and afterwards Henry Brereton is mentioned as the rector.

During the troublous times that followed, the church doubtless fell into ruins, and it does not appear to have been again used.

After the Restoration the spiritual care of the parish was entrusted for a time to the Vicar of Tallaght, and subsequently was transferred from him to the Archdeacon of Dublin as Rector of Rathfarnham. At the beginning of the eighteenth century an attempt seems to have been made to revive Cruagh as a separate cure, and in 1701 Fleetwood Fisher, a scholar of Trinity College, was appointed rector. The cure soon reverted, however, to the Archdeacon of Dublin, and later on, after the tithes had been purchased from the lay owners for the Church by Archbishop King, it was again given to the Vicar of Tallaght.

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