Blacklion

Infobox Irish Place
name = Blacklion
gaeilge = An Blaic (Learga)
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pin coords = left: 28px; top: 12px
north coord = 54.283333
west coord = 7.866667
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province = Ulster
county = County Cavan
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Blacklion (Irish place name|An Blaic) is a border village in west County Cavan, in Ireland. It is situated on the Cavan/County Fermanagh border beside the village of Belcoo in Northern Ireland.

History

The village is situated in the townland of Tuam, which means a tomb in Gaelic. A stone cairn, a burial-cist and two stone cashels are all within the townland, giving evidence of early habitation in the Stone-Age. The original name of the village was Largay,(Also Largy, Largain & Largan) which was a túath belonging to the Coffey McGoverns who were a sub-sept of the McGovern clan from the 8th century until the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. King James I then granted it to Nicholas Pynner in the following grant- "Patent 13 James I. XL-8. 14th December. Grant from the king to Nich Pynner, Gent. Cavan Co. In Largy, or Largin Ter. The Precinct of Toom, containing 4 polls, called Gortnesillagh, Mullaghgarrowe, Rossan and Ture or Toore. Total rent £1-12-0 English. To hold for ever, as of the Castle of Dublin, in common socage". The name was changed to Blacklion in honour of a famous coaching-inn in the village. William Seward in his 1795 'Topographia Hibernica' states "Black-Lion-Inn situated in County Cavan, is otherwise called Largay". [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7IAuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PT10&dq=%22black-lion%22+cavan]

The village is generally referred to as 'The Black' by locals.

In the 1950s the village name plate read "Learga". This was the name by which local -older generation - people would have called the place - ie colloquially called "Leargy". "Learga" is the plural of an Irish word "Learg" meaning rising ground, slopes, mountainside. This topographical feature would connect with the name of the village which sits below steeply rising ground and hills. Learga does not appear on the village signs which now show the legend - An Blaic

Geography

Blacklion in County Cavan is situated in between the lakes of Upper Lough MacNean and Lower Lough MacNean. The river which connects the two lakes forms the border between County Cavan and County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. A bridge over this river connects Blacklion to the village of Belcoo in County Fermanagh. Blacklion is on the N16 road that goes from Sligo to Enniskillen and on to Belfast (becomes the A4 road in Northern Ireland). In addition to being on the border of County Fermanangh, Blacklion is also just 3 miles from the border of County Leitrim. The point where the three counties of Cavan, Leitrim and Fermanagh join is in the center of Upper Lough McNean.

People

This village region is also the birthplace of the gaelic poet Cathal Bui Mac Ghiolla Ghunna(Yellow Charlie McElgunn) whose life and work is celebrated annually in a festival/summer school started in 1998 by Belcoo man, Aidan Mc Gourty. Cathal Bui's name is also visible on local tourist sign posts bearing the legend Cathal Bui Country with an image of a dead bird alongside. "Cathal Bui" - Yellow Cathal - perhaps derived from his facial colouring - sallow skin or perhaps his hair colouring or who knows maybe he was guity of some terrible act of cowardice, eg leaving a maiden in the lurch - the latter is highly unlikely despite his self-confessed proclivity for philandering - since anecdotal evidence form the time would suggest he was held in high esteem - in common with poets generally. Apparently the poet - was a famous drinking man - and was walking homewards along the lakeside on a frosty winter morning when he came upon a dead bittern which he assumed had died of thirst because it was unable to get water from the frozen lake. In any case he wrote the famous poem - "An Bonnán Buí" - The Yellow Bittern - which laments the fate of the bird and notes wryfully that the bird had died for want of a drink while he himself was dying because of too much of the stuff. There is a monument to his memory on the shores of Lough MacNean - 1 mile from Blacklion on the Sligo road.

Cathal Bui moved away from the Blacklion area and lived out most of his adult life as a travelling poet and seller of trinkets and tin cans in the South Monaghan/South Armagh/North Louth area - he is buried in a graveyard of Dunamoyne in this region.

Transport

In 1879 the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway line opened with Belcoo station serving both Belcoo and Blacklion. The last trains ran through the station on 20 September 1957. The railway bridge crossing the river between Blacklion and Belcoo was blown up by the British army in the late 1970s ostensibly to prevent its potential use by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) for moving arms across the Irish border.

Local attractions

There are many attractions nearby Blacklion including the lakes of Upper and Lower Lough MacNean, the Cavan Burren, the Marble Arch Caves, the Cladagh Glen Nature Reserve, Florence Court house and grounds, Glenfarne forest with its lakeside walks, the Shannon Pot (the source of the River Shannon, Ireland's longest river), Cuilcagh Mountain Park. The Cavan Way, a 25 km (16 mile) marked walking trail runs from the village of Dowra, County Cavan to Blacklion. It links up with the Ulster Way at Blacklion and the Leitrim Way in Dowra. Blacklion also has a nine hole golf course and fine dining at the award winning MacNean Bistro run by the chef Neven Maguire of RTE television fame. Upper Lough Macnean is known as an excellent coarse fishing lake and contains bream, roach, hybrids, pike, perch, eel and brown trout. The Lough MacNean Sculpture Trail circles the lakes.

Notable people

Notable people from Blacklion include:
*Séamus Dolan (born 1914), former Fianna Fáil politician, Cathaoirleach (speaker) of Seanad Éireann from 1977 to 1981.

Nevin Maguire - celebrity chef

References

* [http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/town_Home.aspx?co=5&to=106&ca=0&sca=0&navID=1 Culture Northern Ireland]
* [http://www.blacklion.ie www.blacklion.ie]
* [http://shannongaels.cavan.gaa.ie/index.html Shannon Gaels GAA Club]

See also

* List of towns in the Republic of Ireland
* Market Houses in the Republic of Ireland