The Parish of Cloghran

(i.e.., The stony place).

The parish of Cloghran, is stated in the seventeenth century to have comprised the townlands of Ballycoolen and Grange.

It contains now the townlands of Ballycoolen, Cloghran, and Grange. **

Cloghran-Huddart**

The parish of Cloghran, which lies to the south-east of the parish of Mulhuddart, is not the only parish of that name in Dublin county; and no attempt to distinguish the two parishes to which the name is attached has been made by the Ordnance Survey. But in the present case the addition of Huddart, which is evidently a form of the last part of Mulhuddart, is found in mediaeval times, and is still in current use.

Before the Anglo-Norman invasion the lands of Ballycoolen were granted to the Priory of All Saints - the site of whose chief house is now occupied by Trinity College-by Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, and under the Anglo-Norman settlement, they were confirmed to the priory.

Over the lands of Ballycoolen, as well as over the priory’s lands of Baldoyle, the lords of Howth appear to have acquired or assumed some right; and in the thirteenth century a surrender of this right was made an act of grace.

At the close of the thirteenth century, when Ballycoolen with its chapel was valued at ten marks, Cloghran-huddart is treated as a separate possession of the priory. It seems possible that the lands denoted by that name had some connexion with the lands of Killmellon in Castleknock manor, which had before that time been granted to the priory as an addition to those of Ballycoolen by various persons, including Gilbert le Spencer, son of Walter de Brectenham, William, son of Bartholomew, Thomas Foyll, husband of William’s daughter Matilda, and Henry Tyrrell; land near the church of Clogliran was also given to the priory by Richard fluff, and land elsewhere in the vicinity by Margery Sarnesfield.

Towards the close of the fourteenth century the lands of Ballycoolen were claimed by the Crown on the ground that the terms on which they had been granted had not been observed, and that the heir of the donor, as an Irishman and enemy of the king, had forfeited his rights to the Crown. According to the plea made on behalf of the Crown the lands had been given to the priory by one Sitric MacMurrough, and their tenure had been made conditional on maintenance of three chaplains to pray for him and his successors; but the jury before whom the suit came relied on the grant by King Dermot, and found that the priory had established its right to the lands by its long and undisputed possession.

At the time of the dissolution of the religious houses in the sixteenth century the priory’s lands at Cloghran-huddart were noted for their arable qualities; but the priory was dependent for fuel on turf procured from the neighbourhood, and required its tenants to assist in drawing it to the priory house.

In common with the other possessions of the priory the lands were granted by the Crown on the dissolution of the priory to the Corporation of Dublin, and were leased by the corporation to middlemen.

Some years later a royal pardon was granted to a kern of Cappoge for a theft from the grange of Ballycoolen, his booty being described as an axe worth three shillings, a saw worth sixteen pence, sixteen awls appraised as of no value, and a baking-dish worth ten shillings, “of the goods of John Byrne, husbandman.”

As appears from the records of the corporation, the profit of Ballycoolen was assigned to the mayor for the better maintenance of the honour of the city.

During the rebellion in 1641 all the buildings were demolished, and until the Commonwealth the lands lay waste. On a representation made by the mayor’s servant it was decided then to lease to the mayor the possessions of the corporation at Ballycoolen as fully as Robert Hackett, who was a tanner, had enjoyed them.

For the first ten years the rent was to be forty pounds, and afterwards fifty pounds. In addition the tenant was to render annually “a brawn, two turkeys, and two couples of capons,” and to expend three hundred pounds in “building, enclosing, and quick-setting.”

By the Commonwealth surveyors there were found on the lands of Ballycoolen a thatched house and four or five cottages with the walls of an old castle, and on the lands of the Grange a thatched house with a stone chimney, some offices, and two or three cottages.

The population was returned at the time of the Restoration as two persons of English and forty-one of Irish extraction ; and from the assessment rolls it appears that no house on the lands contained then more than one hearth. Before the expiration of the lease of Ballycoolen to the mayor, in 1682, a new one was executed by the corporation to the clerk of the privy council, Matthew Barry, in consideration of the great services rendered by him to the city. It was again a condition that three hundred pounds were to be expended on building and planting; and, as a fine, a hogshead of the best claret and a quarter cask of the best canary were to be given to the mayor. **

Ecclesiastical History**

The church of Cloghran-huddart, of which scarcely a trace remains, was said in the beginning of the sixteenth century to be so small as to be almost undeserving of the name of a chapel, and before that time every tradition connected with it would appear to have been lost.

It was served then by one of the canons of All Saints, and under the Corporation of Dublin the middlemen were bound to provide “an honest priest” to perform service in it. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the chancel was in a state of decay, and neither the parishioners nor the corporation were anxious to bear the expense of rebuilding it.

Finally the government intervened, and by billeting the lord deputy’s troop of horse on the chief parishioner, Richard Strong, obtained an assurance that the chancel would be repaired. At that time the church, which is said to have been unprovided with books, was served by the vicar of Castleknock; but twenty years later, when there was not a Protestant in the parish,” it was in the charge of the vicar of Finglas.

After the Restoration it reverted to the vicar of Castleknock, but before the end of the seventeenth century it was again vested in the vicar of Finglas, with whom it remained. At that time it is probable that the church was not used. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, in 1779, when Austin Cooper visited Cloghran-huddart, there was but “the scanty remains of a ruin.”

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