CAPPALUG
The name means the “hill in the hollow.” The
hollow is formed by Rossmore Hill and Ballickmoyler Rise. In this hollow
is a rise or hillock. This is the Hill in the Hollow. This is Cappalug.
At the foot of Cappalug stands the former home of the Creede family of
eight, three priests and five nuns.
The Hughes family lived in Cappalug until the
Famine and they died there. Their gravestone is lying flat in the old
Killeshin Church down by the back wall and behind the ruins of the
church. The stone has four names from 1785 to 1821: the inscription
begins - “This stone is erected by Edward Hughes of Cappalug
for himself and family. Here lies the body of Edward Hughes who departed
this life 29 April 1785 aged 60 years.”
Yet the story of Cappalug goes back beyond this
date. Soot taken from a bedroom chimney in Cappalug was scientifically
analysed for age: it was over 400 years old. It seems probable that
after the Hughes died - so says local lore, a family named Ryan lived
here for a while. When other houses around the hill fell into ruins,
Cappalug alone remained, empty again, a tragic relic of the Famine.
Into the empty house came a John Gaskin from
Springfield, Co. Carlow. The Gaskins seem to have come from Gascony in
France when the Normans came to Ireland. A mile to the left from
Cappalug is a one-time landlord’s estate called Cooper Hill. Queen
Elizabeth I gave Cooper Hill and thousands of surrounding acres to an
Englishman named Cooper who lived in the district and who used the Irish
as his servants and tenants. This planter’s last descendants were killed
fighting for England in the second world war and Cooper Hill fell back
into Irish Catholic hands, the Brennans.
John Gaskin and his wife Julia had three sons.
One of them John, died 17 February 1867 aged 31, within one year of his
ordination to the priesthood for the diocese of Ayr, Scotland. He died
from an accident at Cappalug and is buried in the Old Graves, Carlow.
The third son, Thomas, was grandfather of the three priests. His wife
was Mary Nelson. His father John Gaskin died 2 August 1893 aged 90, and
his wife Julia died 5 August 1871 aged 55. A stone over them in the
Graves, Carlow begins: “Erected by John Gaskin, Cappalug in
memory of his beloved wife, Julia Gaskin.
Directly east or in front of Cappalug lie the
Wicklow hills. They are miles away but are part of the Cappalug scene.
Closer to the house, on the property itself are the remains of an oak
wood. Due to the interest of the Coopers and doubtless of other planters
also, the timber in the ceilings of Westminster Abbey was taken from
these trees. Over to the left as you look out from Cappalug and about a
mile away is a cluster of buildings, a few shops and a square. It is
Bade MhaoilMuire, (Ballickmoyler) town of the Son of Mary. Once it was
destroyed by the Danes later, as indeed most towns and villages in
Ireland, by British troops, yet it thrives again.
Through the trees beyond Ballickmoyler the
spire of Arles Church reaches to the sky, and from Arles church the
green plains sweep away to the Wicklow Hills. Killeen church is clearly
visible from Arles and the town of Athy. Jack Gaskin, uncle of the
priests used to walk to Mass at Arles across the fields from Cappalug.
May Meara, their first cousin is buried in the churchyard there. At the
back of the house is the unique Hill in the Hollow. If you climb this
hill you look down on Carlow town, three miles away. But the scene is
Killeshin Church less than a mile away across the fields. The old church
went back to 500 A.D. There was a great monastery there with more than
100 monks. Destroyed by British Forces, only the ruins remain. The “new”
church is the church of the Holy Cross.
Two fields away from the house is an old ash
tree. Thomas Gaskin aged about 25 and Mary Nelson the same age from the
nearby farmhouse were married in Killeshin about 1876. They often said
they would make an armchair from the wood of that tree. They never made
it but Fr. William Dominic Creede C.S.S.R. made a crucifix from it and
used it at his Mass. More important. Thomas Gaskin and Mary Nelson made
the home from which the three priests and five nuns sprang. Thomas and
Mary had a family of eight. One of them Mary Christina Creede nee Gaskin
was born 25 December, 1888, baptised 1 January, 1889. She died at Sydney
16 July, 1943 aged 55.
Mrs. Creede nee Gaskin began work as a typist
in William M. Byrne, solicitor’s office, Carlow in 1911. There she met
William Creede who had been working in the office since 1904. He was
born in Caragh (or Carogh) 6 June 1888 shortly after his father Peter
Creede had been transferred to Kildare, working on the G.S.W. Railways.
William lived in Caragh till he was three; then his father was
transferred to Rathvilly. At the age of 15 he attended the Christian
Brothers’ School in Carlow where he became proficient in shorthand and
typing. William and Mary Gaskin were married at Killeshin 16 June 1915
with nuptial Mass by Fr. James Dunny C.C. The wedding breakfast was at
Cappalug, on tables on the grass outside the house. Fr. Dunny rode out
on horseback to be present.
Their first home was in Carlow near St.
Patrick’s College. In 1917 William Creede who was an insurance agent was
changed to Kilkenny; then in 1922 to Dublin. In 1927 he left for
Australia to prepare a home for his wife and children. Mrs. Creede
returned to Cappalug where Fr. William D. was born 11 April 1927. The
family left for Australia in 1928. Mrs. Creede died in Sydney 16 July
1943, William her husband died 30 June 1955. Their grave in Rockwood
cemetery is marked by an inscribed Cross.
Fr. Thomas Creede C.S.S.R. was ordained 14
March 1943 at Ballarat, Australia.
Fr. Peter Creede C.M. ordained 7 December 1944
at Sydney.
Fr. William Creede C.S.S.R. ordained 16 March
1952 at Ballarat, Australia.
KILLANURE
Less than a mile west of Sletty in the townland
of Leagh there is an old burial-ground named Killanure, the Church of
the Yew, from the practice of planting yew-trees near churches. It is
sometimes called Rath Kilanure. Within a few fields distance there is a
remarkable Rath. There are no traces of a church here and no tradition
regarding one.
CARLOW - GRAIG
About 1823 Dr. Doyle detached Sletty from Arles
parish and added it to Killeshin. The Chapel in Carlow-Graig had to be
enlarged to accommodate the new population. The larger portion of the
Chapel in Chapel Street was built probably at this time. It was designed
by Cohden who also designed the Church of Ireland Parish Church,
Killeshin. He also designed the spire of St. Mary’s Church, Carlow
Cathedral and as we have seen, Holy Cross Church, Killeshin.
SLETTY
St. Fiacc and all the saints of Sletty were
thus added to Killeshin, but they are not lost to their former
territory, Arles parish. In May 1847, the house and farm of 127 acres at
Knockbeg were bought by Carlow College and St. Mary’s was opened there
as a preparatory school to Carlow College. In I 892 Carlow lay college
was transferred to Knockbeg. In 1898 Bishop Foley made it the junior
diocesan seminary. In 1933 the new church of St. Clare, Graiguecullen
was opened.
