sectarian violence in the Belfast Hills

[Phil Donnelly]

If you live near Belfast, PRONI (the public record office) has a complete set of the OS memoirs, in their main reading room, which you can consult free.

Unfortunately I live in Poland.
But planning a visit to Belfast this summer and will drop in to PRONI then.

[Phil Donnelly]

Have you looked at the Ordnance Survey Memoirs yet? Might be several volumes that cover the area of interest (not sure if any online)

Thanks. I wasn't aware of the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland for Antrim which is available to purchase online.

The memoirs may be accessible online, but 133 entries/parishes sounds far from complete. Below copied from an old Lurgan facebook post I made 26 Jun 2024, though if I recall the search, county selection part did not really work the way one might expect ie when specify County Armagh it still showed others. It may be better to access via the DRI Repository directly https://repository.dri.ie/catalog/cz313n17c which was where the Shankill (Lurgan) & Seagoe links took me anyway.

The Ordnance Survey commenced mapping Ireland 200 years ago 2024 resulting in the 1st edition 6 inch to the mile maps. That included all the Townland areas and their Names. A new website has materialised and there are several online blogs commencing. The new site collates info from several holdings and includes the OS Memoirs as published for N.I. These have not been online before being available in print book only.
https://irelandmapped.ie/pages/explore-the-resource
https://irelandmapped.ie/pages/the-sources
https://rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0613/1455340-first-ordnance-survey-maps-ireland-geography-townlands-place-names

Further background from the Royal Irish Academy Blogs
1 Maps: https://ria.ie/blog/os200-spotlight-on-the-1st-edition-ordnance-survey-maps
2. Letters: https://ria.ie/blog/os200-spotlight-on-the-ordnance-survey-letters [Letters (as County pdf's) have been available on AskaboutIreland for some time]
3. Memoirs: https://ria.ie/blog/os200-spotlight-on-the-ordnance-survey-memoirs

Print book summary https://ulsterhistoricalfoundation.com/assets/uploads/Ordnance-Survey-Memoir-Order-Form.pdf

Thanks very much!
Very interesting information.
The main search bar in the UHF interface seems to find all the volumes relating to Antrim.
But I'll have a dig around on the irelandmapped.ie site you mentioned first to see what I can find there before purchasing any paper copy/s from the UHF.

[Elwyn Soutter]

PRONI has a lot of papers on the United Irishmen in and around Co. Antrim. Search the PRONI e-catalogue to find them. An example is T3541/5/2 which is the autobiography of John Caldwell jr who describes his involvement in the 1798 uprising in the Ballymoney area. He was eventually apprehended and like many of the middle ranking officers, was offered the choice of facing trial for treason (penalty for which was often hanging) or being banished from the Kingdom for life. Like most, he sensibly chose banishment and, after many delays, sailed for America. It’s a lengthy document.


For most of PRONI’s records you need to go in person and look them up but a few are on-line. An example is this (D2095/178) at PRONI which is the text of a talk, first given in the 1920s I believe, about The “Hearts of Steel” in the Larne area in the late 1700s.

https://apps.proni.gov.uk/eCatNI_IE/ResultDetails.aspx

Another is the “Black Book of the Rebellion of the North of Ireland” (D272/1) which can be downloaded free.