Cornafean - History & Heritage

Cornafean  is a relatively small rural area about eight miles north-west of Cavan town. It is situated roughly within an inscribed circle of a triangle whose points are Arva, Ballinagh and Killeshandra.

The area is drained by many small streams which run into the river Erne as it courses through the southern and eastern flank of the area before entering Lough Oughter at Killykeen after a series of meanders and an extensive flood plain.

Because of its drumlin nature, it is anticline-syncline topography. In places the drumlin soil leads to poor drainage and depressions, some of which are filled with lakes, e.g. Cornafean, Farranseer, Quivy, etc.Today these lakes, the remnants of much larger ones, give the area its potential for tourism, especially fishing walking and cycling. 

Bruse Mountain

Besides the river Erne, the most noteworthy physical feature of the area is Bruce Mountain (856’), which stands sentinel over the entire area. The area is crossed by the main Cavan-Killeshandra and Cavan-Arva-Longford raods, and a network of more minor roads.

The area is given primarily to dairy farming. Because of the drumlin nature of the land, little or no cultivation is carried on.  The proximity to Killeshandra, with the latter's tradition in milk products also has a big bearing on this. Hence the area is one of small family farms, of average area 30-50 acres, which gives a fairly high density of dwellings. The presence of ceveral old flax mills and the many old corn mills in the area would suggest a more mixed type of farming early in the 20th century.

Cornafean would seem at first to have a very ancient history. The name Cornafean in gaelic is Cor na Feinne meaning the Fort of the Fianna. This conjures up a history  with links to prehistoric times. The number of very large forts on the immediate outer perimeter of the area, e.g. Kilmore, Dingins and Lisnamandra, along with the numerous smaller ring forts within the area point to a very early settlement. These early settlers most likely lived by hunting and fishing, using the lakes for transport and communication.

The River Erne at Slanore

In 1646 Owen Roe O’Neill stationed his army in the lands of Philip O’Reilly of Lismore Castle near the present-day village of Crossdoney. We have a well-documented account of this from the diary of Monsignor Massari, Dean of Fermo, Italy, who was sent to Cavan by Archbishop Rinuccini, the Papal Delegate to the Confederation of Kilkenny. The Monsignor tells us of the honour shown him, the hospitality he received, the manner of building houses in the area and his talk with Owen Roe "in a large eadow bordered by a small river".

The Lough Oughter area is traditionally held to have been the site of a 6^th century monastic church of St. Fedhlimidh, patron saint of the diocese of Kilmore. Today this site is marked by the 15^th century ruins of Holy Trinity Abbey. A few miles away on the shore of Lough Oughter is the castle where Owen Roe O’Neill died on November 6^th 1649.  Close by is the 19^th century Church of Ireland Gothic Cathedral of St. Fethlimidh with its famous vestry doorway whose history can be traced back to the earlier cathedral at Toneymore, and later Holy Trinity Abbey of the Derries, Lough Oughter. Close to the Cathedral is the grave of the famous Bishop Bedell, who had the Bible translated into Gaelic.

One of Cornafean’s most famous sons is Bishop Matthew Gibney of Perth, W. Australia. Early in his priestly life, he had attended the Ned Kelly gang when they were surrounded by the police at the Glenrowan Hotel in Northern Victoria and tried to arrange a dignified surrender, without success. Only Ned Kelly survived the burning building. Later, Fr. Gibney accompanied Kelly to the scaffold in Melbourne Jail. Some of the older people in the area remember their parents talking about Bishop Gibney arriving at the local station in 1900 and being paraded from their to the local Cornafean Hall for an address of welcome. The ruins of his birthplace are to be seen in the yard of Michael O’Brien’s farm in the townland of Aghaknock at the foot of the Stoney Brae on the road to Bruce Mountain.

Another, less known, son of the area is Colonel Patrick Henry O’Rourke, who was born in the townland of Drumbess during the 1847 Famine. The family emigrated to the US in 1849. He was the first Irishman to be educated at West Point Military Academy. He was made Colonel of the Confederate Army at the age of 26, and was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. His name is commemorated at the battlefield and in Rochester where he is buried.

A branch of the Midland Great Western Railway with the local Arva Road Station was opened on June 1^st 1886. This brought immense benefit to the area for the transport of passengers, livestock and freight as well as creating employment. It served the area wonderfully and there was widespread regret when the service was discontinued in 1959 and the railway line, including the viaduct over the Erne, dismantled,

The founding of the GAA in 1884, and the subsequent upsurge in the activities of the Gaelic League in the area, led to the formatino of several different football clubs in the locality such as Kilmore Rangers (1888) Cornafean Tom Moronies (1889) and alter Drumambry Junior Emmetts (1901) and Drumbess Sons of Tyrconnell (1903). When a number of clus amalgamated in 1908 to form Cornafean Naoimh Fionnain, the area was on its way to stardom, and a place in the history of Cavan football, not only because it won 20 Senior Championship titles in its first 50 years of existence, but also because of the many noted players and captains it gave to successful Cavan teams over the years. This is quite rightly a source of great pride in the locality. 

The area has also a pack of foothounds whose history goes back more than one hundred years. Camogie is another popular sport in the area and there is also a long and proud tradition of athletics. Today, Cornafean boasts a world-class athlete in Catherina McKiernan, whose many achievements include victories in the Berlin, London and Chicago marathons as well as four silver medals in the World Cross Country Championships. Cornafean is also the headquarters since 1988 of the Co. Cavan Pony Club which has an all-weather arena beside the local golf course.  

Today, the area is almost entirely dependent on agriculture, particularly dairying, for its livelihood. Some of the community travel to work in Cavan town, Arva and Killeshandra. There are two two-teacher primary schools, in Coronea and Corlis. Second-level students attend schools in Cavan town, Moyne (Co. Longford) and Carrigallen, Co. Leitrim.

To honour the great traditions of Cornafean, the local Community Development Association decided in 1999 to erect a monument to the great sporting and cultural traditions of the area. The 10’x 3’6" x 3’ block of limestone, weighing eight tons, stands on a slightly larger base opposite McSeains shop and public house in Cornafean.