Evidence of Neolithic peoples from as early as six thousand years
ago are scattered about the region in the form of court cairn
tombs, but they're hard to find unless you know what you're
looking for. Similarly invisible are the lakes' crannógs -
artificial islands built as early as the Stone Age, but more
typically developed as secure settlements from the first century AD
and now melted back into the general landscape, indistinguishable
from natural islands. The Celts had their principal pagan
shrine at Magh Sleacht near present-day Ballyconnell. Several
Celtic stone idols bearing bold representations of the human head
have been found in the lake areas of Cavan and Fermanagh,
particularly potent pagan symbols. Some of them were found in
circumstances suggesting that they were deliberately hidden in more
recent times to deny them their power, a sign of their continuing
folkloric importance. Sadly, though, none of these idols can be seen
in their original setting; most now form part of the collections of
The National Museum in Dublin and the Fermanagh County Museum at
Enniskillen. Replicas of them are on display at Cavan County Museum,
Ballyjamesduff.
When St Patrick established his seat at Armagh, he also set up a
monastery at Kilnavert. Rather than crudely asserting a new dogma, the
proselytizing Christians allowed pagan and folkloric traditions to
continue, mingling them with the new creed. The filtering through of the
new faith was fairly rapid; but more brutal invaders found the area far
harder to penetrate. The network of lakes and waterways proved difficult
to negotiate, and foreign invaders arrived with neither knowledge of the
terrain nor the apparatus needed for conquest. The O'Reilly
family, who dominated Cavan from the beginning of recorded history to
the seventeenth century, continually blocked Anglo-Norman attempts to
take control, and this explains the lack of Norman developments in the
region.
Despite Elizabeth I's attempts to divide and rule by creating the
County of Cavan (more a piece of propaganda than a sign of real
political strength) and playing one Irish barony off against another, it
was only after the failure of the Irish cause at the Battle of Kinsale
that Cavan received the stamp of foreign invaders. Ancient Gaelic ways
were crushed by the Jacobite plantation, and the county was divided up
between English and Scottish settlers. Every parish was to have a
Protestant church, and the new town of Virginia was built in memory of
Elizabeth. As usual, the best land was given to the English and Scottish
newcomers, leaving the Irish population to face poverty and the loss of
religious freedom. The rebellion of 1641 was a direct result, and
Owen Roe O'Neill, the Ulster Confederate leader based at Cavan,
played an important part, defeating the British General Munro at Benburb
to the north of the county in 1646. However, O'Neill failed to follow
his victory through, and the Irish Confederates were eventually
defeated. After O'Neill's death in 1649, Cromwell quickly took control
of Cavan and the resulting confiscation of land and property from the
Irish guaranteed the Protestant domination of the county.
Until Partition, Cavan's subsequent history was much in line with the
rest of Ulster. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the linen and
woollen industries ensured a measure of economic growth - though Cavan
was always one of the poorer parts of the province because of the
difficulties of the land; and the Famine of 1845 to 1849 brought
large-scale emigration. At Partition , Cavan was included in the
Republic, thus retaining its Irishness; but it shared the fate of
Monaghan and Donegal in being torn from its historic and cultural Ulster
identity.
Ireland
