Shrule

For the place in Longford, see Abbeyshrule.
Shrule
Sruthair
Town
Shrule

Location in Ireland

Coordinates: 53°31′14″N 9°05′19″W / 53.520475°N 9.08875°W / 53.520475; -9.08875Coordinates: 53°31′14″N 9°05′19″W / 53.520475°N 9.08875°W / 53.520475; -9.08875
Country Ireland
Province Connacht
County County Mayo
Elevation 64 m (210 ft)
Population (2011)
 • Urban 418
 • Rural 889
Time zone WET (UTC+0)
 • Summer (DST) IST (WEST) (UTC-1)
Irish Grid Reference M2853

Shrule (Irish: Sruthair, also anglicised to Shruel, usage deprecated) is a village on the N84 road in County Mayo in Ireland.[1] The county boundary between Mayo and County Galway follows the course of the Black River on the south side of the village.

The ruin of Shrule Castle, a fortification built by the Norman de Burgo family, dominates the view of the village as approached from the Galway side. The ruin is unsafe and closed to the public.

Massacre of Protestant refugees

On 18 February 1642, during the Confederate War that followed the 1641 uprising, a number of English settlers, including a Dr. John Maxwell, the Protestant bishop of Killala, surrendered to Irish authorities at Castlebar, in the hope of saving their lives.[2]

After staying at Shrule Castle in the company of Miles Bourke, 2nd Viscount Mayo, Sheriff of County Mayo, for more than a week, the group was given an escort with orders to take them 14 miles toward the border of County Mayo and County Galway, where other forces would assume the escort duty and take them on to the Galway fort.[2] After provisioning the Maxwell family with horses, Lord Mayo set out for Cong. Mayo handed over his prisoners at Shrule, on the border, as his authority only existed in County Mayo. Edmond Bourke, an Irish soldier who led the escort duty, and a cousin of Lord Mayo, then directed his men to begin killing their settler charges. Estimates of the dead ranged from less than 30 to as many as 65. Survivors were taken to Headford by monks from Ross Errilly. Though Mayo's son Theobald (later 3rd viscount Mayo) tried to save some prisoners, and had to be driven away, he was executed in 1653 by an English Cromwellian inquiry for complicity in the killings that was held after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.[3]

A depiction of Shrule from 9 February 1833 edition of the Dublin Penny Journal.

Religion

Saint Joseph's Church in Shrule is a Roman Catholic church in the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora.

Education

The village has one primary school, and no second level school. Second level students usually attend Presentation College Headford which is seven kilometres away in Headford.

Sports

People

The Mortimer brothers Conor, Trevor and Kenneth have all appeared for the Mayo County Senior Football team. Conor Mortimer was named on the team of the year and was chosen as an All Star in 2006. Kenneth received All Stars in 1996 and 1997. Trevor was named as team captain for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Christopher O'Dowd, a native of Shrule, was an original member of the Special Air Service British regiment.

Notes

  1. ↑ Shrule Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved: 2014-08-25.
  2. 1 2 Richard Bagwell (1909) From Ireland under the Stuarts and during the interregnum Volume 2, Longmans, Green, 1909. p. 6
  3. ↑ Lord Mayo's deposition of Nov. 1652

References

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.