150 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



to be found in old ecclesiastical ruins. Human remains have been 

 turned up frequently from the earth near these buildings. 



The house, called Cahemacapol's on the Ordnance Survey Map. 

 is now popularly known in the neighbourhood as " Squire "Weaver's 

 House." This name it acquired from having been held by a former 

 tenant. Richard Cosby, by a deed bearing date the 15th of June, 

 in the fourteenth year of James I.'s reign, let the lands of Ballyniad- 

 dock to one John Allen for a term of twenty years.* This tenant 

 must have held from about a. d. 1617. The old castle now standing 

 there seems to have been built about that period. In the year 1691, 

 John Weaver, Esq., lived in Ballymaddock, and he was an active 

 partisan of King William III., during the Irish wars with James II. \ 



Sqivire Weaver is now forgotten by persons long residing in the 

 surrounding country. We have some particulars recorded, however, 

 regarding Cahernacapol, in connexion with Ballymaddock. Owing 

 to reverses of fortune, the O'Hempseys, who had been formerly the 

 Lords of Glenmalire, were reduced to indigence. Nevertheless, some 

 members of this family clung to their home, and resided in the Castle 

 of Lea, in which the famous O'Xeill is said to have lodged, a. d. 1645. 



About the commencement of the last century, one of the O'Demp- 

 seys was distinguished among the people, having been called Cohir 

 na Coppail, or Charles the horse- stealer, from his many depredations 

 committed on that species of cattle. This desperado, associated with 

 others, was watched closely by the Government. A posse comitatus 

 was organized under the sheriff to apprehend the leader and his gang. 

 These were beset, at last, in a wood near Monasterevan ; but it was 

 found impracticable, for some time, to force the pass. Then a strata- 

 gem was conceived, it is said, and the trunk of a large tree was cut 

 down ; it was painted and mounted in the shape of a cannon, and 

 placed at the entrance of the Rapparees' pass. This so much deceived 

 and intimidated them, that all surrendered at discretion, except Cap- 

 tain O'Dempsey, who made his escape. He then took upa residence 

 in the Castle of Ballymaddock. In this castle he was secreted, and, 

 after some time he died. (See G 1 Byrne's History of the Queen's County, 

 Chap. XXL, pp. 61, 62.) There is another traditional account, re- 

 ferring to Cohernaeapol or Charles the horse-stealer, in connexion 

 with the Castle of Ballymaddock. An intelligent farmer, Mr. Patrick 

 Moore, who rented a considerable portion of Ballymaddock lands, and 

 who died at an advanced age, in the year 1839, gave the following 

 statement of facts to the writer : — 



In the time of Cohernaeapol, a gentleman named Fitzgerald — pro- 

 bably one of theMorett family of that name — was tenant of the lands, 

 and a resident in Ballvmaddock Castle. He was an uncle to the outlaw 



* See the Roll of Inquisitions of the Irish Court of Chancery, dated the loth 

 of March, 1631. Lagenia, Vol. I. Queen's County. 



t See Walter Harris' History of the Life and JReiffa of William III. Appendix. 

 Z^os. LVII-, LVIIT., pp. lxxi, lxxii. 



