KILQUIGGAN - 'Cill Comhgáin' or 'The Church of Cogan'. This beautiful village perched on the eastern slopes of Gowle Hill symbolises everything Irish. Once a bustling village with its own school and church with many local trades such as a blacksmiths, stonemasons, public house, basket makers and bakers, it has suffered the effects of rebellion, famine and emigration and some might say a melancholic past. Nicknamed 'The Harbour', for reasons now lost, it has been said that it received this name from the summer mist that descends and covers the Lackeen valley below the hill and gives the appearance of a seaside bay. Another story states that the smell of sea salt was highly evident from the fish that was brought up from Arklow to Thorpe's shop and hence the name stuck. The medieval monastery was not confined to the street as some think. It was actually closeby on Kealy's land according to the 1840 OS map. There was evidence of a medieval church and graveyard there. The street has a cemetery known today as 'Old Kilquiggan Graveyard'. The church that stood here was burned by Captain Abraham Augustus Nickson and members of his Coolkenna Corps Yeoman Militia in March 1799. In 1890, the new church was constructed further down the hill. In 1552, the village is recorded as 'Kilcogan' in the Calendar of Fiants. Liam Price, the antiquarian, believed that St Comhgáin came from Taghmon in South Wexford and the similarities between the two monasteries are astounding. All that remains of medieval Kilquiggan is a battered High Cross known locally as 'The Crush'. This has been identified as similar to a cross in Taghmon. On May 6th 1930, Price visited the village. He wrote - "Followed the old road via Harris' Hill to Kilquiggan. Mr. Kealy said his father in law remembered how people used to have to go from Laragh and Kilquiggan round by Boley into Shillelagh." This is true as the main road and the Union Road that passes New Kilquiggan Church were not constructed until the Board of Works Famine Relief work in 1849. Many roads around were constructed by the poor through the Shillelagh Workhouse in order to survive hunger. In relation to the old monastery in Kilquiggan, Price states "Kealy pointed out a very low bank or slight rise of ground, making what might be an arc of a circle in the field that might be the enclosure of an old graveyard." The Folklore Commission that was inaugurated by the new state in the 1920s gained some touching information from Kilquiggan. It mentions an ageing blacksmith they met in 1928 named James Neill. "Formerly a blacksmith but now blind. He has a prayer which is said to be the most effective in stopping bleeding from the head and lungs. The prayer is in secret." The Fitzwilliam Rental Books of 1827 shows Michael Byrne (Stonemason), Arthur Darcy (Weaver), Pat Donohoe (Blacksmith), James Neill (Blacksmith) Lawrence Toole (Cooper) Timothy Doyle (Tailor), Dan Loughlin (Shopkeeper) Patrick Byrne (Cobbler) Pat Byrne (Carpenter) and Pat Toole (Stonemason) as the local tradesmen. John Slater was a cattle dealer, Martin James was a jobber, Thomas Byrne dealt pigs and 67 year old Widow Mary Nowlan lived rent free as one of Earl Fitzwilliam's pensioners. The population of Kilquiggan in 1841 was 194. Many would take the offer of emigration to Canada and the USA during the assisted emigration programme initiated by the Coolattin Estate between 1848-1852. Thorpes Pub closed in the 1940s because the owner married a schoolteacher. A rule at the time encouraged certain frowning on such a union of marriage. This pub had been established by the Stephens Family in the 1820s. There is an eloquent saying about Kilquiggan - "Kilquiggan was the last place God created; he left his Tooles (O'Tooles) on one end and his Nailes (O'Neills) on the other." (from https://www.facebook.com/Coolkennohistory/posts/1504531739844187)

Watch out for the parking meter, you might get clamped!