Trillick
western County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
approx 54° 26'N 7° 32'W, altitude 329m (1079')
Lat: 54 27 N Long: 007 30 W (represented in degrees minutes direction)
Lat: 54.450 Long: -7.500 (represented in decimal degress and fractions of degrees)

Note: This page is still under construction
[Lewis, Samuel, 1849, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 2nd. ed.]:
TRILLICK, a market-town, in the parish of KILSKEERY, union of LOWTHERSTOWN, barony of OMAGH, county of TYRONE, and province of ULSTER, 9 miles (N. by E.) from Enniskillen, on the road to Omagh; containing 434 inhabitants. It owes its origin to the family of Mervyn, who settled at the neighbouring castle of Mervyn in the reign of James I.; and is a small but very improving town, being a convenient stage from Enniskillen, and having an excellent hotel. The surrounding district is undulating and hilly, and is embellished with several lakes: the land in cultivation is generally fertile, and a large tract of waste has lately been reclaimed. Here is a good market-house, recently repaired by the late Gen. Mervyn Archdall, of Trillick Lodge, the proprietor of the town and adjacent lands: a market is held every Tuesday, chiefly for butter and provisions; and there is a fair on the 14th of every month. A receiving-house for letters is in connexion with Enniskillen and Omagh. There is a constabulary police station: petty-sessions are held on alternate Mondays; and courts leet and baron every three weeks, for the recovery of debts under 50s. Here are meeting-houses for Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, in the former of which also divine service is performed by the clergyman of the Established Church, monthly in winter and once a fortnight in summer. There is likewise a dispensary. The Londonderry and Enniskillen railway passes near the village. No vestiges are discernible of the abbey said to have been founded here in the 7th century; but near the town are the ruins of Castle Mervyn, from which a wide prospect is enjoyed..
michael o'donnell mod@together.net 11dec1999
Hearth Money Rolls, from "Around Trillick Way" by Michael McCaughey (copyrighted by the Trillick Historical Society and
published by the Donegal Democrat Ltd. Ballyshannon, March 1990.
Mike O'Donnell, Vergennes VT USA
In the list of those who paid the tax (Hearth Money Roll, 1666) this parish is included with Magheracross parish and not all townlands are included. According to the Hearth Roll Castle Mervyn was in 1666 the largest house in Tyrone, paying tax for six hearths, being also described in other records as the best house of the period in Tyrone. Other names shown in the Hearth Roll include Connollys (Trillick), Donaghy and Meehan (Shanmulllgh) Moynagh, Connolly, Corrigan and McDonnell (Keenague), Milligan (Cavanamarra), Doorish (Liffer), Gormley and Tanney (Grannan), Devlin (Moneygar), Keane (Dreigh), O'Brien (Cordromedy), Harkin (Derry), Montgomery and Conlon (Magheralough), O'Bnen and Grace (Cabra), Woods and Burke (Feglish), McQuaide and McGrade (Ferney), McCusker (Crossan), McElroy and Traynor (Glassrnullagh), Mitchell (Relagh) Elliott and Hunter (Makeny), Beacom (Drumsonnus), McColgan (Effernan), Lee (Cloncandra), Edmond and Shane O'Neill (Killlyblunick).
 
 
[McCaughey, Michael, 1992, Come Listen a While, pp 4-8]:
Few towns can trace their direct ancestry as far back as Trillick can. The name is referred to in early records as Trelic and Trelic Mor, (and Mor or great/grand we always were), taking that name from the three pillars or standing stones located at what was the original Trelic and now generally referred to as the Old Castle. Even today, after 4,000 years of weather and land development, the stone circle, the three pillar stones and a stone doorway facing the rising sun, can be seen. It is believed to be a settlement of the Beaker people, who came from Holland to Britain and then to Ulster around 2,000 B.C. They were skilled in making decorative gold, copper ad metal objects and the gold lunula preserved in the National Museum in Dublin is proof of their presence and activities here.

Remarkably the name of Trillick has been preserved through 4,000 years of history. Records show that the Celts had a major base here and, on being converted to christianity, had established an Abbey at Trelic Mor by 613 A.D. Various records refer to St. Mobec of Trelic, whose commemoration or feast day is on 29 May. The Annals of the Four Masters record the death of Cinead Ó Ceallaigh, Bishop of Trelic, in 813 A.D. The O’Neills of Shane the Proud clan had a strong fort here, with their soldiers based at nearby Dernagilly. The fought the famous battle of Dreigh Hill in 1379 against the Maguires and won a victory which settled the Tyrone/Fermanagh county boundary here. The Annals record the death in 1526 of Henry O’Neill, Lord of the Braghaid, the name given to the territory ruled by the O’Neills from Old Trielic. Henry’s memorial stone, which lies at the bottom of Wood Hill, shows the name H. O’Neill and three shamrocks encircled in a fort. Henry was a grandson of Shane the Proud and his grandson Con, who died in 1723, has an impressive headstone in the old Kilskeery graveyard. The Civil Survey of 1654 says that the remains of a village, church, burial ground and mill could still be seen at Old Trelic but, by then, the new town of Trillick had been built.

After the Flight of the Earls from Lough Swilly on 4 September 1607, and the division of their escheated lands, the O’Neill territory here was given the description of the Manor of Stowy and alloted to Sir Mervyn Tuchet in 1611. He passed them on to his cousin, Sir Henry Mervyn of Hampshire, who in turn passed them on to his son, Captain James Mervyn. He arrived here around 1620, began building a castle which was completed in 1628 and the new town of Trillick was completed in the 1630s. A court was established, a weekly market and a fair on 3 May. The castle was described as one of the best of its kind and was occupied up until the 1800s, being vacant in 1814. It had then passed to General Mervyn Archdale, who built the hunting lodge at Glengeen. The Mervyns were noted parliamentarians, holding the Tyrone seat in Parliament from 1639 to 1747 and Captain Audley Mervyn being Speaker of the Irish Parliament from 1661 to 1666.

Our new town lost no time in writing its name into history. Being on the direct route from Dublin to Derry and within striking distance of the strong Enniskilling base at Enniskillen, Trillick became an important post during the Jacobite wars. From 1629, the planters were being trained in the use of firearms by Charles Bastard of Drumdran, while the natives, including reparees and members of the O’Neill clan on the run, were being trained by agents of Phelim O’Neill of Caledon. In 1641 O’Neill had garrisons at Golan and Liffer, while the planters had garrisons at Castle and Corkhill. Both sides had victories over the other here in 1641 an both sides were strengthened in 1642, when General Munroe arrived to bolster the royalist forces and Owen Roe O’Neill came to lead the Irish insurrection. Our town would have been a hot place in those years and in 1689 the Jacobite garrison here was for a time under the command of King James’ son, the Duke of Berwick. After lifting the siege of Derry, King William’s army billeted at Trillick on its way back to Enniskillen in August, 1689, a blacksmith in William’s army, who died here, being buried in Magheracross graveyard.

By the early 1800s, our town had well and truly taken shape. A market was held every Tuesday and a fair on the fourteenth of each month, with tolls being paid to the landlord, General Mervyn Archdale. Petty sessions for Trillick and Dromore were held here each fortnight in the new Courthouse, the ground floor of which was the market house. There were two hotels or inns in the town, 6 grocers, 1 general dealer, 5 pubs, 2 blacksmiths, 2 leather dealers, a shoemaker, nailer, carpenter, butcher, tailor and cooper. Surgeon John Slevin was the doctor, being succeeded by Dr. Alexander and later by Dr. Atihill. There was a tannery and candle makers in Trillick and an 1830’s survey states that the town had 50 houses of one storey, 26 of two storeys and 4 of three storeys. The houses were all built of stone, mostly whitewashed, with 25 of them slated and the remainder thatched.

Roads here were described as being quite good in the 1830s. The main road from Omagh to Enniskillen passed through Fintona, Trillick and Kilskeery and was in good repair, the road from Dromore to Trillick was just being made, while the roads from Trillick to Tempo and Fivemiletown were described as hilly and in great need of repair. There were two public conveyances serving the town, the Rover and Tallyho. Each was drawn by 2 horses, the first a sort of caravan or stage-coach and the second a double outside jaunting car. The conveyances left Omagh each morning at 5.30 a.m., arrived in Trillick around 9.00 a.m., then on to Enniskillen, arriving back here at 5.00 p.m. and continuing on to Omagh. Religious worship was put on a solid footing with the building in 1831 of St. Macartan’s Church, in the townland of Stranagomer, replacing a small thatched church with flagstone floor. The new church was officially designated as St. Macartan’s Church, Kilskeery, but came to be locally known as Magheralough Church. The 1830s saw the building of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Church Methodist meeting-house, both congregations uniting in 1878 to worship at the Wesleyan church. Church of Ireland services were held fortnightly in the Methodist Church, up to the building of their own church in 1872, the Church of Ireland church at Kilskeery having been built 100 years earlier in 1772. In the 1820s and 1830s the town had schools taught by Bernard Slevin, Henry McCann and Thomas Campbell, along with a Sunday school taught by Rebecca Irvine.

From the 1800s, the corn mills at Cavanamarra and Corlea were in full swing and the ‘floe’ bog kept the town well supplied with turf, which sold in the market at around one shilling a crate. There was fire in people’s hearts also and fights between Orangemen and Ribbonmen were a regular fair day feature. A famous battle was fought o 14 October, 1821, beside the Black Lion Inn on the Moneygar road, between the Orangemen, led by Dr. Alexander and the Ribbonmen, let by Captain Doyle of Effernan. In the battle scythes, grapes, spades and pitchforks were used, both sides suffering sever casualties. Twenty years late, the Temperance Crusade led by Father Matthew reached here in 1841, a short time before the famine years of 1846/7/8 were to bring this and every other town and village to its knees. The town’s soup kitchens were at the dispensary and at McQuaides at the Dromore road junction. The Church of Ireland rector, Rev. Arthur Irvine, the Catholic curate, Father Joseph Shields and the rector at Kilskeery, Rev. John Porter, along with doctor Eaton, worked tirelessly to aid a stricken people, while Cathcart’s and McCullagh’s home bakeries supplied bread daily as far as supplies permitted, mainly made from the new Indian meal. The opening in 1854 of the railway stations at Trillick and Bundoran Junction brought a new life to the town, carters and side cars began operating a regular service to meet the trains and there was a big increase in business at the Imperial Hotel, then being run by John Rutledge.

The residents of Trillick 150 years ago were as follows (starting at the top of the town where the church, built in 1872, now stands, continuing down that side of the street and up the other side):
Mary Kelly, James McFarland, Hugh Caufield, Anne Carroll, Thomas McQuaide, Rose Campbell, Andrew Holland, John Ferries (forge), Hugh Smith, Joseph Sherrard, Primitive Wesleyan Chapel (now Orange Hall), Andrew Crawford, Dispensary, John Cluff, Courthouse and Markethouse, Patrick Brien, Fanny McCaffrey, Brigid Crozier, James Corrigan, John Donnelly, Gerard Crawford (drapery and boots), Patrick Tierney (forge), Patrick McCourt (pub), William Johnston, Thomas McDonagh (shop and pub), Owen McQuaide, William McMullen, Margaret Kelly, James McSorley (shop and pub), Owen McQuaide, William McSorley, Patrick McGlinchey, George Bradley (tailor), Thomas Morrow (shop and pub), Edward McLoughlin, George McLoughlin (butter and egg merchant), Rebecca Irvine, Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Noble Morrison, Dorothea Armstrong, Margaret Lambert, Bernard Mullholland, Michael McMulkin, William Fyffe (forge), George Elliott, Robert Pacely, Anne McMulkin, James Kerr, George Thompson, Bernard McCann (shop and forge), Henry Coulter, Anthony Mohan, Thomas Pacely, Terence Durnin, Edward Funston, Ellen McGrade, Sam Curry, Thomas Rutledge (pub), Matthew Morrow, Martin Robinson (shop), John O’Hara, Edward Gault, Terence McQuaide, Eliza Gault, Police Barracks (at barracks corner), Michael Nugent (schoolhouse upstairs), Anne Eaton, Margaret Eaton, Doctor Eaton, James Graham, Mary Woods, John Rutledge (Imperial Hotel), Robert Bowker (draper and seeds merchant), Andrew Crawford, Anne McSorley, Arthur McGirr (butter and egg merchant), Thomas McQuaide, Church Education Society School, William Beatty, James Browne, William Browne, Terence McQuaide, Edward Gault, Thomas Pennywick, Robert Bamford, Thomas McBrien (cooper). The total area of the town was given as 458 acres.

The town had a population of 412 in the 1860s and the parish population was 6,273.

[Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1844]:
TRILLICK, a village in the parish of Kilskeery, barony of Omagh, co. Tyrone, Ulster. It stands on the south-west border of the county, and on the road from Omagh to Enniskillen, 4 miles south of Dromore, 5 east by south of Lowtherstown, and 6¾ south-west of Fintona. It contains two Methodist meeting-houses ; and within 1¾ mile of it are Kilskeery church, a Roman Catholic chapel, five schools, Trillick-cottage, the ruins of Trillick-castle, the lake of Maghera, and the demesne of Relagh. Fairs are held on the 14th of every month. A court of petty-sessions is held on the second Monday of every month. A dispensary in the village is within the Lowtherstown Poor-law union ; and, in 1839-40, it expended £150, and made 3,469 dispensations of medicine. Area of the village, 21 acres. Pop., in 1841, 434. Houses 82. Families employed chiefly in agriculture, 16 ; in manufactures and trade, 50 ; in other pursuits, 19. Families dependent chiefly on property and professions, 5 ; on the directing of labour, 48 ; on their own manual labour, 29 ; on means not specified, 3.

 

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