OUTRAGE was caused when the tag of �Bandit Country� was attached to the South Armagh region by the Secretary of State, Merlyn Rees, thirty years ago.

But St Oliver Plunkett, as Archbishop of Armagh, wrote in 1670: �The people of South Armagh found it almost impossible to engage in trade, as nobody would buy or sell to them, for fear of bandits.�

The South Armagh area was described as �seething with rebellion against oppression and injustice, rack-renting by landlords and their agents. Assassination was a regular occurrence at Crossmaglen, Silverbridge, Glassdrummond and Clarebane, etc.

A Parliamentary Inquiry heard evidence from Fr Lennon, P.P., Creggan, as well as a Presbyterian minister. The Report described the Crossmaglen area as �a blot on the fair name of Ireland. Something like madness takes possession of a district, until it becomes a byword. Crossmaglen has attained that unenviable reputation.�

Historian Kevin McMahon from Cullyhanna referred to the period as �the worst 20 years in Irish history. There were several famines, and the country was ruled by martial law. Landlords and their agents were neither humane nor enlightened. They left the management of estates to agents, who squeezed as much money as they could. Since the people were struggling to keep body and soul together, it was no wonder that some landlords, agents or land-grabbers were murdered.�

In the 15th century, the O�Neill Clan from Tyrone invaded South Armagh, and conquered the territory known as `The Fews.` When the Clan chiefs departed in �the Flight of the Earls,� after the 1641 Rebellion, the region was divided among Protestant settlers. Thomas Ball received 8,000 acres, - and gave his name to Ballsmills, - Henry Flower and Thomas Coote each got 2,500 acres.

The British Government appointed land-owners to serve as sheriffs, magistrates and police chiefs. However, law enforcement was poor and social control weak. So the door was open for highly-organised and ruthless revolutionaries, such as Redmond O�Hanlon, the Ribbonmen and Defenders, who embarked on what the late Cardinal O Fiaich described as �a reign of terror in the Barony of the Fews.�

Most notorious landlord was John Johnston, who had the title of �Constable of the Fews.� He engaged in a barbarous suppression of the Catholic population, razing cabins to the ground, and �whipping curs, who cursed us in their Irish jargon.� He called on landlords to invite Protestant planters to settle in the region, and cleared the way by evicting Catholic tenants.

Residing at Roxboro House in Dorsey, Johnston hunted outlaws and earned blood-money from the Government. And he hounded poet Seamus McMurphy to his death. The `Beheading Stone`, from which headless bodies dropped down a hole, is still to be seen. His view was that �The Fews were so uncultivated that it became a refuge for thieves and `Ribbonmen.` But, by giving encouragement to Protestants, it is greatly civilised and improved.�

Johnston�s father�in-law, George McFarland (aged 77) was murdered at Roxboro House, having his head split open by a turf hatchet. A party of armed men had entered the house, seized three pistols and a sum of money, severely beating Johnston�s wife, Anne and daughter, Elizabeth. Three men from Dorsey, Owen McCann, Hugh O�Hanlon and Alex Wood, were put on trial but acquitted.

One murder over land involved Peter McCreesh and James McMahon from Drumlough. A son of McCreesh was beaten and stabbed to death, on his way home from Crossmaglen Fair. Put on trial were Ellen McMahon, James Woods, Neal Quinn and Neal Reynolds. All were acquitted. Some years later, a man named Michael McShane went to a police station in Liverpool and confessed to the crime, but was discharged.

An agricultural official, Thomas Powell, engaged to evict 28 families from their homes on the shores of Lough Ross, so that a mansion could be built for the owner, was shot dead at his home. Patrick Woods and Francis Hughes from Crossmaglen were found guilty and hanged. Hughes� speech from the scaffold, proclaiming his innocence, provoked a riot, with the army being called in, and many people seriously injured.

Sectarian strife had been greatly exacerbated in the 1790�s, as the growing Catholic population competed with Protestants for small farms. A Press report stated: �At a place called Crossmaglen, a few British Fencibles, with 40 Yeomen, encountered 250 United Irishmen, killing 14 and bringing 10 prisoners to Dundalk.� Lord Blayney, - who gave his name to Castleblayney, - led a band of marauding Yeomen, who killed innocent civilians, and burned 22 houses.

A Protestant named Bradford from Glassdrummond, who gave a building for a �Mass-house� to local Catholics, was publicly scourged on suspicion of being a United Irelander. And the home of William Alexander Donaldson at Freeduff was burned by Yeomen. His sister, Peggy Ban, who was Liaison Officer between the United Irishmen in South Armagh and South Down, survived the Rebellion, and is buried in Freeduff Presbyterian graveyard.

Owen O�Callaghan from Culloville complained to Dublin Castle about the excesses of the Yeomanry. He fled the country, and became a colonel in the French Army. By coincidence, his regiment captured Lord Blayney, who was leading a British raid from Gibraltar into Spain. It was ironic that Blayney, who had caused such havoc in the Crossmaglen area, should have been captured by a Culloville man in Spain!

Meanwhile, the Act of Union in 1801, which joined the Irish and British Parliaments, had little effect in the South Armagh region. The widespread poverty of the local population was exacerbated by having to pay high rents to landlords, as well as one-tenth of their produce to the Church of Ireland Minister at Creggan.

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