Irish Name: Liath Dhroim: "Grey Ridge"
County Town: Carrick-on-Shannon
Nickname: Lovely Leitrim
GAA Colors: Green and Gold
Famous People with Leitrim roots: Patrick McGoohan (actor, spent childhood years in parish of Drumreilly), James Cagney (actor, with Leitrim connections on both sides), Sean MacDiarmada (leader in 1916 Easter Rising, born in Leitrim), Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan
County Leitrim is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Connacht. It was named after the town of Leitrim.
Leitrim is the 26th largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and smallest in terms of population[1]. It is the smallest of Connacht’s 5 counties in both size and population.
In ancient times Leitrim formed the western half of the Kingdom of Breifne. This region was long influenced by the O'Rourke family of Dromahair, whose heraldic lion occupies the official county crest to this day. Close ties initially existed with East Breifne, now County Cavan, and the O'Reilly clan seated there. The Normans invaded in the 13th century and occupied the south of Breifne. Much of the county was confiscated from its owners in 1620 and given to Villiers and Hamilton. Their initial objective was to plant the county with English settlers.
However, this proved unsuccessful. British Deputy Sir John Perrot had ordered the legal establishment of "Leitrim County" a half-century prior, in 1565. Perrott also demarked the current county borders around 1583. Five forests are traditionally said to have stood in Leitrim up till the 17th century.
Leitrim was first hit by the recession caused by the mechanisation of [linen] weaving in the 1830's and its 155,000 residents (as of the 1841 census) were ravaged by the Great Famine and the population dropped to 112,000 by 1851. The population subsequently continued to decrease due to emigration. After many years, the wounds of such rapid population decline have finally started to heal. Agriculture improved over the last century. Leitrim now has the fastest growing population in Connacht.
Working of the county's rich deposits of iron ore began in the 15th century and continued until the mid 18th century. Coal mining became prominent in the 19th century to the east of Lough Allen in Sliabh an Iariann and also to the west in Arigna, on the Roscommon border. The last coal mine closed in July 1990 and there is now a visitor centre. Sandstone was also quarried in the Glenfarne region. William Butler Yeats spent the turn of the twentieth century fascinated with Lough Allen and much of Leitrim. In the northwest, 11 km from Manorhamilton can be found Glencar Waterfall, which was an inspiration to Yeats and is mentioned in his poem The Stolen Child.
Leitrim has a dramatic hilly and mountainous landscape in its northwest and is relatively flat in the southeast, each separated from the other by Lough Allen in the middle of the county. It is an unspoiled, tranquil area of great natural beauty, consisting of lofty mountains, deep valleys, pastures, lakes, rolling hills and rivers. Leitrim is not a landlocked county as it has a short length of Atlantic where Tullaghan lies. Coastline (5 km) between Sligo and Donegal in the northwest.
Neighbouring Leitrim are the Ulster counties of Donegal to the north, Fermanagh to the northeast, and Cavan to the east, the Leinster county of Longford to the south and, to the west, the Connacht counties of Roscommon and Sligo. Fermanagh is in Northern Ireland while all the other neighbouring counties are within the Republic. Leitrim offers scenic panoramic vistas of Lough Allen and the River Shannon. The Shannon is linked to the Erne via the Shannon-Erne Waterway.
Common Leitrim surnames: Reynolds, O'Rourke, Rooney, McGowan, Flynn, Kelly, Gallagher, Moran, Dolan, McLoughlin, McMorrow
4 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.graham | Feb 16, 2012, 10:46 AM EST
Just happened across this today and looking forward to enjoyable browsing in the future. amrc
etighe1130 | Sep 05, 2011, 11:57 AM EDT
When my first cousin was getting married in 1988, my parents were invited and since they didn't drive, I volunteered to go with them. I truly enjoyed the entire experience! The best, though, was when I brought my clothes to the laundry and the woman asked, "The name?", and I said, "Tighe" and she said, "Are ya here for the weddin'?" Now THAT'S special!!!
CitizenWhy | Nov 21, 2010, 04:44 PM EST
Two of my aunts were from Leitrim. Their enlightened parish priest chose altar servers on the basis of their ability in Latin. As a result my aunt became the lead altar server for the parish. This was well over 50 years ago.
wuilso127 | Sep 17, 2010, 10:55 AM EDT
Passing through Manorhamilton on the route from Antrim to Sligo in 2006, my son and I did not have the knowledge then to know that my Cavanaugh ancestors came over from somewhere in the County in 1853, to New York City and then up to the Hudson Valley in NY State. I believe that a man named Bernard Kavanagh and his wife, the former Ann McMahon, came over first and were followed by at least one of their children in an escorted party, Charles, and either siblings or cousins of his named Lawrence, James and Mary. I belive that Bernard settled near Port Jefferosn, New York, where he became an estate gardener, but Charles went upriver to New Windsor, New York, where he worked for many years in the Hudson Valley brickyards. Charles was one of my my maternal grandfathers.