MOCOLLOP

Mocollop - If you are not familiar with the area, you will be forgiven for thinking we made up the name. It has no town or village associated with it, it is a townland just west of Ballyduff. So why put up a page on a townland?... because this townland was an essential part of the industrial revolution in the Blackwater valley. "Mocollop" has been translated into a few different meanings, it could be Mo meaning my and Collop meaning a certain measure of land - or it could be, again Mo = My and Collop = adopted heir [loosely translated]. Both translations are valid in their own way - it could be one or the other. Equally it could be Magh Collop - Magh = Plain. The prefix "Mo" or my is very common e.g. Kilmolash - Cill Mo Laise = the church of St Laise, or, Lios Mor Mo(Heir to my name, in this case St Carthage) Chuda - The big Lios of St Chuda. Mocollop is on the broad northern flood pain of the river Blackwater.

St Michael's Holy Well

see also:St Fanahans

The photo shows Saint Michaels Holy Well at Tubbernahulla, (Anne & Rebecca) just north of Mocollop. Tobber na h'Ulla has been translated as, either Well of Penance or the Oils, in recent years someone has taken a special intrest in the upkeep of the site and it looks very neat. On my visits, the absence of a "Petition" bush [Rags tied to a bush] is noticeable. This spot has been in use as a place of worship from Pre-Christian times. As was the practice this well was dedicated to a Christian Saint. From the plaque we know that the Catholic Church was unhappy with the Ceremonies carried out here and forbade Catholics to attend. From Inishowen we get the following verse outlining the type of activity associated with holy wells:

"all vehemently whispering prayers but the ceremony finishes...

by a good ablution in the sea, male and female,

all frisking and playing in the water

stark naked and washing off each other's sins."

(McParlan 1801)

The early Christian church recognised Mocollop as a place of "special" intrest, so much so that the later Bishopric of this area was known as Lismore / Mocollop. Over the years this Bishopric has been carved up, today it is known as Waterford & Lismore.

In Mocollop today there is no trace of a Catholic church, there is the remains of a "First Fruits" church. not long abandoned, there is every likelyhood that it stands on the remains of an earlier Christian church. Perched on a slight prominence and surrounded by a low stone wall, inside the wall are buried the remains of native Catholics and Planters alike. Amongst them are Bill Ciss Aggie and Jane Naylor of Knockaun Ballyduff. [ Given as Gairha in the records.]. Naylors were of the Society of Friends or Quakers and under who's roof I saw the light of day.

[ A commission was established in Dublin to organise the erecting of Protestant churches and the (Forced) conversion of the local populace, they anticipated that these conversions would be the "First Fruits"... These early churches were built to a one design, with local variations, generally built with the stone from an earlier church possibly on the site, and including any other stonework which though not strictly Catholic, had a special significance for the local people - See Kilmolash. Some though not all First Fruits had an integral central heating system, fireplaces either side of the alter, with chimneys built diagonally in the walls led to an outlet in the bell tower - See Affane old church. These chimneys are a favoured nesting site for Owl's.]

In writing a piece on Mocollop I am mindful of an excellent website on the subject, by Denis Strangman of Canberra Australia. I have no hesitation in reccomending his site to you. On Denis's site he ask the question about the first fruits church, from memory, the explanation above is correct. And again Denis is not quite sure about the Ironworks, to quote from an unknown published source "There were furnaces situated here. In 1625 Boyle paid the remaining £200 for the construction of two new furnaces in the mountains of Mocollop" - "In the census of 1659 the area had a population of 70".

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