Eighth volume of Navan history journal launches this week

Navan and District Historical Society continues its sterling work exploring and promoting the history of the town and the surrounding area in the latest volume of its journal – 'Navan Its People and Its Past', which will be launched in Navan Library on Thursday 27th November at 7.30pm.

As in the previous seven volumes of the journal there is a great variety in the almost 300 pages of articles, including dozens of old photographs published for the first time. These include a series featuring Corpus Christi processions from years gone by. From the Tithe Wars of the 1830s in Stackallen to the story of the Navan man working in Moscow in the 1960s, all human life is here.

The journal opens with an article by Geraldine Fanning on the huge growth in home and craft industries in the Navan area in the 1890s up the World War I. A leading figure in the movement was Mrs Everard, wife of Major Nugent Talbot Everard of Randalstown. Producing a wide range of goods for sale, including lace, napkins, waistcoats and hand-knitted socks, almost £350 (€45,000 in today’s money) was distributed to local women in 1898 at a time when many families survived on low incomes. Damien McBride writes on the Tithe Wars in Stackallen in the 1830s with a report of the sale of cattle seize to pay the unpopular tax which funded the Church of Ireland clergy. Fr Michael Tormey, along with a number of other priests active in the tenant right movement in the decades after the Great Famine of 1845-51, is the subject of Paschal Marry’s article. Professor of Classics in St Finian’s College in Navan, Fr Tormey stands alongside Fr Eugene O’Reilly, founder of St Finian’s and builder of St Mary’s Church in Navan, and Fr Anthony Cogan, another key figure in the town’s history in these years, as important advocates for the people they served.

Trotter’s Memorial Fountain, known as ‘Trotter’s Spout’, once stood at the front of the old Garda barracks on Watergate Street. Vincent Mulvany tells the story of Captain John Trotter, master of the Meath Hounds, and how his memorial, following tortuous debates at Navan UDC meetings, found its way to Moatlands in the 1960s. The journal features two articles based on extended interviews with two well-known Navan figures, Maxie Maguire and Jimmy Maher. Maxie, born in 1931, brings us on a tour of the town, recalling businesses and shops in Trimgate Street, Market Square, Flower Hill and Ludlow Street from fifty and more year ago. Tom French interviewed Jimmy Maher about his life spent working on the railway. The Navan of the 1950s he portrays of cattle drovers, farm yards, dairies, horse and carts and piggeries seems a very long time ago. Both articles are lavishly illustrated with terrific photographs.

Mairéad Crinion writes about a proposed Navan-Dublin canal, plans for which were put forward in 1801. The article describes a report, commissioned by the Boyne Navigation Company and compiled by local men John Fay of Blackwater House, Dr John Gibney of Athlumney and Matthew Codd of Trimgate Steet. While the report supported the building of the canal, the plans remained unrealised. In 1966, Norman Dungan from Proudstown, travelled to Moscow to work on the building of the stand for the British Industrial Exhibition. His article recalls viewing the May Day parade, his amazement at seeing women doing construction work and driving trucks and spotting a Meath registered car in Red Square! In 1810, James Vaughan of Athboy was commissioned to carry out a survey of the Preston estate, centred on Bellinter House. The survey, consisting of a set of magnificent colour maps and accompanying lists of tenants, forms the basis of Peter Connell’s article on the estate in the years between 1810 and the end of the Famine. Several of the maps, including one of Bellinter House and demesne and another the village of Kilmessan, feature in the article.

Clare Ryan’s article on the Clayton Woollen Mills records housed in Meath County Archives highlights the company’s rich industrial heritage and the contribution of Navan’s many skilled textile workers. Cepta Dungan contributes two interesting short pieces to the journal. The first reproduces a touching poem dedicated to Matthew Gaffney, a young man of twenty-four from Donaghmore, who died in 1867. The second features documents relating to rationing during World War II, bleak years when shops required licences to sell tea and sugar. The licences reproduced are for Foley’s shop in Academy Street.

Luke Smyth was a prominent Navan citizen in the 1880s and 1890s. He was a miller, a member of the Town Commissioners and a strong supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell. To mark his silver wedding anniversary in 1893, Town Commissioners and ninety-seven Navan residents presented Luke and his wife, Julia, with an elaborate photo album. Peter Connell’s article reproduces part of the album, recounts Luke Smyth’s career and reflects on the politics of the time.

A recent archaeological discovery at Church Hill in Navan is the subject of an article by Clare Ryan. Excavations uncovered a well which may have supplied water to adjacent buildings, including the Belfast Bank (now Boyne House) and the parochial house. The well may also have been linked to an elaborate private scheme developed by Bishop Nulty in the late 19th century before the town had a public system.

Patrick Murray tells the story of his grandfather, Michael Patrick Murray. Born in Navan in 1895 he was an apprentice chairmaker in Athlumney before emigrating to England and joining the RAF. Navan Rugby Club recently published a lavish book marking the centenary of the club’s founding in 1925. Peter Connell writes about the very early days of the club, with reports on matches played in the Showgrounds on Brews Hill in the 1920s, culminating in Navan winning the Ryan Cup in 1930. Finally, the journal contains a report from Patricia Fallon, until recently Meath County Archivist, on the proposed new County Archives at the old Study Hall of St Partick’s Classical School, together with descriptions of newly acquired collections in the archives.

The journal is edited by Mairéad Crinion, Margaret Farrell and Peter Connell.

It will be available for sale at the launch for €20. All are welcome.