Arigna Iron Works

[Jane Donovan]

I'm looking for information and a specific location for the Arigna Iron Works, which were located somewhere near Carrick on Shannon from about 1785 until about 1808.<br>Many thanks.<br>
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donovangj@erols.com

[Gus Ellis]

There is a lot of info in the archive messages<br>Goto th etop of this page and click <br>Enter ARIGNA and get 98 messages<br>Gus<p>: I'm looking for information and a specific location for the Arigna Iron Works, which were located somewhere near Carrick on Shannon from about 1785 until about 1808.<br>: Many thanks.<p>
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aj204@home.com

[Mary Evans]

: I'm looking for information and a specific location for the Arigna Iron Works, which were located somewhere near Carrick on Shannon from about 1785 until about 1808.<br>: Many thanks.<p><br>Jane -<p>The following was written by Father Leo Layden C.S.Sp. of Kilronan Parish for the 1981 Rededication of the Church of The Nativity of Our Lady, in Keadue. Before I continue with his writing, let me just say that Arigna is on the Kilronan Mountain in Northern Roscommon and Keadue is the main town, albeit a very small town. <br>According to Father Layden: "The church at Arigna ... seems to have been built by the big mining company associated with the area in the first half of the 19th century - the Arigna Iron and Coal Company. There is some evidence that the iron mines of Sir Charles Coote at Arigna were destroyed in the rebellion of 1641. However,there is much clearer proof of the work of the three O'Reilly brothers who started the Arigna Iron Works about 1788. They were not very successful. One little item in their regard is of interest. It was the time when firms were changing over from charcoal to coal to heat the furnaces. Some new technology was involved. One of the O'Reilly brothers had to go to France to study the new process as he was not welcome in England. The inference was that the Iron idustry there had to be protected. Much money was spent during the next half century in a vain effort to get an iron industry established at Arigna. There was all the drama of a parliamentary inquiry into the affairs of the Arigna Iron and Coal Company in 1826-27. Maybe this hint of scandal had something to do with the efforts of the company two or three years later to provide a church locally for the mine workers. Certainly the church-goer in 1830 had a vivid reminder of local industry when he emerged from worship every Sunday. The iron works lay directly in front of him with its high tower and its Upper and Lower works as they were called.<p>"The production of iron never prospered by the mining of coal which was first used to fire the furnaces now began to assume an importance in its own right. Various companies took a hand in the production of coal and work in the mines has provided a living down the years for many who otherwise would have had to emigrate or depend for a precarious living on the small holdings and poor land of the area. Nearly all the better coal has now been worked out and there remains only the 'crow coal'." end of quote.<p>I will e-mail you a photograph of the mining road up to the old works. I was in Keadue and across the Kilronan Mt four months ago in search of the two townlands from which my grandfather emigrated - Cuiltygower and Rockhill. Mary Evans mtevans@netlabs.net <p><br>

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mtevans@netlabs.net