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Castle Park

Parc an Chaisleain

Castle Field

 

 
  
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MOIRA O' NEILL

 

Moira O'Neill was a famous poet. Her first name was Nesta. She was a member of the Higginson family and had two sisters.

 

One of her sisters taught Sunday school in a house in Knocknacarry.

 

They lived in Rockport which was built in 1815.

 

The Higginsons left Rockport in 1915.

 

Moira got married and moved to Canada but never forgot her childhood in Cushendun. She felt close to the Glens people and understood the way they spoke and used it in her poems. She has written about many aspects of life and nature in her poetry.

 

Sir Hamilton Harry set this poem to music.

 

The wrack was dark an' shiny where floated in the sea.

There was no one in the brown boat but only him and me;

Him to cut the sea wrack, me to mind the boat,

And not a word between us the hours we were afloat.

The wet wrack,

The wrack was strong to cut.

 

 

 

 

 

CARRA CASTLE

 

The McDonnells were beaten at the battle of Glen Taisie by Shane O'Neill. Sorley Boy McDonnell was taken to Dungannon and thrown in prison for two years.

 

Shane O'Neill came to ask McDonnell for advice and help because he'd made many enemies. Sorley agreed that he'd assist Shane into a trap. Shane found the McDonnells in Cushendun after visiting Dunaneanie Castle where most of the McDonnells had been staying. They travelled on to the Glens village. The evenings were spent dining and drinking.

 

On the third day most people were too tired to travel up again to the mountain, so they just lolled around. Idle minds lead to mischief and argument broke out between Shane's secretary Eugene O'Hara and a McDonnell's widow, the duchess of Argyll.

 

Men were standing around and in a moment the daggers were out. Shane attempted to calm the situation and was struck down and in a few minutes he lay dead.

 

After this Sorley, with considerable difficulty, got repossession of Dunluce Castle. Shane O'Neill's head was struck on a pole in Dublin and his body was buried at Shane's Cairn which is an old graveyard.

 

Carra Castle was used in three periods:

 

    • When the Stone Age people made flints there before the Castle was built.

 

    • When the McDonnells lived there and Shane O'Neill was killed there.

 

    • When it was used as a cillin for burying children.

 

 

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