1891, An unfortunate dispute between the local Scutch Mill owners as to the relative claims of Clonakilty, Dunmanway or Ballineen, West Cork to have a flax market was the means of preventing northern buyers attending the Southern markets and Flax growing in Ireland generally.

During World War 2 the Northern Buyers returned to West Cork.

Courtesy Four Courts Press, 2008.

St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Kenmare (Teampaill Naomh Pádraig Eaglais na hÉireann an Neidín, proposed seating 1858 included Marquis of Lansdowne, Mayberry, Herbert, Herman, Orpen, Hutchins family members, Outrage when windows broken 1898 and resolution condemning same by Catholic Vestry.

The Mayberry family were extensive landowners in the area and were intermarried with the Mahonys, of Dunmore Castle. The Marquis of Lansdowne were descendants of Sir William Petty who founded Kenmare and still have Derreen Gardens in the area.

Sir William Petty:

Sir William Petty, 1623-1687, True Genius, founder of Modern Economics and Government Accounts and Prohobition of Non-Protestants working in his Berehaven Mines

Pounding the furze for the mare in foal.

Pre the mid 1960s the workhorse on Irish farms was literally the horse. The diet was supplemented by furze (whin or gorse in some areas), chopped up with a furze machine. These sturdy machines of cast iron are still around and grinded the plant and then chopped it. Mares in foal have a delicate digestive system and the furze was further pounded to make it palatable.

Farmers would often travel a mile of so to get a cart load of furze. Brakes or waste land of up to a half an acre would often be planted with a harvest within two years

Donal Hickey Irish Examiner:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/property/homeandoutdoors/arid-30839915.html

In his book, Farming In Ireland, John Feehan mentioned many registered accounts in legal documents from the 15th and 16th centuries listing gorse being used as animal fodder: “It was especially valued in feeding horses, though cattle throve on it also, either fed on its own or as part of a mixed diet.”

Feeding gorse continued until the 19th century, with many admitting to getting more gorse per acre than they would if they made hay. Feehan also recalls how farmers, in Cork especially, grew a few acres of what was called “furze meadow”. Given current fodder shortages, maybe there’s a lesson there.

This furze machine was sold in 1889 auction as new:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OaTv0viw8AKxaoUtJEym5y0Dp0xAqTqZj5nE7nyitDg/edit

Aiteann gaelach, Tufts of furze

Garbhóg, forked hazel stick used in divining, a furze stick was used by an English artist who bought Sea Lodge in the 1940s to divine for water. The house had no water which was obtained from the nearby priest’s well. The English lady found a small stream near the house

In 1891 Sir John Gorst, Reforming MP, 1891 visited Aughadown and the detailed account in the Southern Star carries description of furze sticks used as fuel:

Comments on use of furze sticks for heating.

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Generally on Furze from Blog:

welshboy
Gorse/Furze Fuel and feed

Just been reading about the capability of gorse as a fuel or feed for cattle/horses.

Apparently it has half the protein of oats and can be harvested at a two year rotation yielding ” 2000 20lb faggots from an acre” so about 9 tons per acre per year. Cattle and horses love it once processed for them.

Furze can be used as fodder for animals. It was said that an acre of furze could provide enough winter feed for six horses. As a fuel it has a high concentration of oil in its leaves and branches, and so catches fire easily and burns well, giving off a heat almost equal to that of charcoal.

The question is how do you harvest it using modern machines ?
It grows well with us -difficulty keeping it down
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/FRA_GAE/FURZE_GORSE.html

‘In France,’ to quote Syme and Sowerby, British Botany, 1864, ‘it is used for burning, being cut down every few years, in places where it grows naturally. In Surrey and other counties, it is used largely as fuel, especially by bakers in their ovens and is cultivated for that purpose and cut down every three years. When burned, it yields a quantity of ashes rich in alkali, which are sometimes used for washing, either in the form of a solution or lye, or mixed with clay and made into balls, as a substitute for soap. The ashes form an excellent manure and it is not uncommon where the ground is covered with Furze bushes to burn them down to improve the land and to secure a crop of young shoots, which are readily eaten by cattle. In some parts of England, it is usual to put the Furze bushes into a mill to crush the thorns and then to feed horses and cows with the branches. When finely cut or crushed, sheep will readily eat it.’
welshboy

Just what somebody does
” I tie the branches of gorse in bundles and hang them up for horses. This is an excellent addition to their winter feed and our Welsh Cobs would always leave their hay until they had finished the gorse. It also takes some time for them to eat as they are careful due to the spines; this again is a real advantage in winter and provides them with something to do. They will peel and eat every strip of bark that they can reach

The bundle of peeled sticks (a faggot) which is what you are left with when the horses have finished with it is great firewood.”

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Drinagh,+Co.+Cork/@51.6513977,-9.1471506,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4845aa1a8b511ff3:0x2600c7a819bb5a12

Survey and Map by Robert J Wolfe December 1835, of Estate of Major Edward Powell (Estate of the Late Lieutenant Colonel Richard O’Donovan of the Enniskillen Dragoons by his marriage with Miss Powell of Wales) at Drinagh, West Cork showing Major Tenants, Keelnacolly, Corrigfadda, Corrigagrinane, Kippagh, Knockmore, Corriglas Pike mentioned.

The Powells acquired the O’Donovan estate by the marriage General O’Donovan with Miss Powell from Wales.  They and no children, on his death she succeeded and left the property to her brother.   This caused consternation in the extended O’Donovan family this being part of the ancestral estate in direct line from c the 13th century.

Major Powell at the time also possessed the old O’Donovan Estate at Bawnlahan.

http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie:8080/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=2439

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Myross+Island,+Co.+Cork/@51.5284991,-9.1458248,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4845ae6564afd551:0x4a5b47a590409925!8m2!3d51.5285005!4d-9.1370684?hl=en

Later deed minor children of Daniel O’Donovan and Jane Becher she was between 14 and 16 when she married it was his second in his 60s.

 

 

Survey 15th March 1727 of O’Donovan Estate, Bawnlahan, Parish of Myross, West Cork Coolagon, Bawnlahan, Coolblaw, Cuppogh 2 Ploughlands 4 sub denominations Brade, Castle Jane, Ffooldoragh, 1788 deed Minor children of Daniel O’Donovan and Jane Becher she was between 14 and 16 when she married it was his second in his 60s.

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Views of Bantry and Castle Donovan West Cork c 1840 by Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden (1816-1899).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/sir-henry-edward-leigh-dryden-18181899-4th-bt-of-canons-a171188

Sketches by Cork Antiquarian, John Windle (1801-1865), Ross Cathedral and Old Church, Mount Gabriel, Sherkin Island, Baltimore Castle, Ancient Brazen Vessel found in June 1845 and deposited in Castle Bernard (burnt down 1920), Lough Ine, Coppinger’s Court,

John Windle:

http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/w/Windele_J/life.htm

Article in Dublin Penny Journal on journey from Drimoleague to Durrus.

https://durrushistory.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/rides-through-the-county-of-cork-castle-donovan-dublin-penny-journal-11th-november-1834/

Courtesy RIA Digital Library,

http://cats.ria.ie/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=PREV_BLOCK&XC=/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fcats.ria.ie%2Fprintssimple.html&TN=Prints&SN=AUTO28489&SE=535&RN=105&MR=35&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=1&XP=&RF=Web+Display+-+List&EF=&DF=Web+Display+-+Full&RL=1&EL=1&DL=1&NP=1&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=0&NR=0&NB=3&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=printssimple-out&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1

George Victor Du Noyer, MRIA, (1817-1869), some West Cork Drawings, Monoith, Ballingeary, St. Gobnait’s Stone and Cloghaun and Old Church, Ballyvourney, Old Head of Kinsale with old and new Lighthouse, Ballinacarriga Caastle Dunmanway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Victor_Du_Noyer

Courtesy RIA Digital Library,

http://cats.ria.ie/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=PREV_BLOCK&XC=/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fcats.ria.ie%2Fprintssimple.html&TN=Prints&SN=AUTO28489&SE=535&RN=105&MR=35&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=1&XP=&RF=Web+Display+-+List&EF=&DF=Web+Display+-+Full&RL=1&EL=1&DL=1&NP=1&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=0&NR=0&NB=3&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=printssimple-out&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1

SAORSTÁT EIREANN, Number 1 of 1922, An Act to enact a Constitution for the Irish Free State SAORSTÁT EIREANN) and for implementing the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland signed at London on the 6th day of December 1922 (Constitution of the Free State of Ireland) with special facilities in the Annex, Dockyard Port of Berehaven, Queenstown, Belfast Lough, Lough Swilly. Aviation Oil Fuel Storage at Haulbowline and Rathmullen, Government of the Irish Free State precluded from having submarine cables or wireless stations without the consent of the British Government and said Government be entitled to establish such stations for communication with places outside Ireland.

Power of Attorney of Mrs Jane Fitzpatrick, Galway, Devisee of Edward Eyre Esq., Macroom including Agent John Puxleys report 25th March 1748 of 60 Ploughlands and Gnives with Tenants names and holdings at Berehaven and Crosshaven, Co. Cork, Ireland

Crosshaven, Co. Cork with Tenants details.

The Berhaven lands were O’Sullivan forfeit and ended up with the Eyres of Macroom Castle. They were intermarried with the Whites of Bantry House. They also did business in the area smelting, wood felling with the Whites, Davies of Macroom and Fenwicks and possibly Blairs of Dunmanway (later Bantry and Durrus)