The Townland and Village of Mochara

Mochara is a townland in Shrule Parish. Shrule Parish is in southern County Mayo near the Galway border, about 10 miles south of the town of Ballinrobe.

In 1271 Shrule was known as Sruthra meaning "a stream or current".

The townland of Mochara is in the northwest section of the parish and abuts the parish of Cong on the West and the parish of Killmaine on the north.

Variations in spelling over the years include: Mohorra, Mughorra, Mocorha, Mochara, Mohara, Mohorra, Mackarroe, and Moycharry.

According to Martin Noone, our guide to Mochara in June 2000, it means "my cousin" in Gaelic. According to Peter Mass in Father and Son (a novel), Mo chara means "My friend".

However, the origin of the name comes from "Magh Cartha" meaning "plain of the standing stone".

Census information indicates the following population for Shrule:

• 1841 at 729
• 1851 at 590
• 1871 at 330
• 1891 at 246
• 1911 at 205

Shrule parish suffered a loss of 139 people between 1841 and 1851 (This included the years of the Great Famine, 1845-1849). This is a surprisingly low decline in population for western Ireland where thousands died of hunger and disease during the famine and thousands of others emigrated.

There were several aspects that contributed to the low death/emigration rate from Shrule parish during the famine years:

• Sympathetic Catholic landlords, who did not evict tenants for lack of rent and who made large concession to rent payments. Some of these landlords ultimately lost their lands as a result of their famine policies.
• A large amount of "corn" (wheat) was grown in Shurle parish. It was locally milled and distributed to the population.
• Alternative crops, like turnips, were grown.
• Local relief boards and landlords provided provided work relief like ditch digging and wall building. You can still see relief walls today. They are much higher than any wall needs to be to keep cattle and sheep from roaming.

During the early part of the 18th century there was a move to convert the land in the area from tillage to grazing. Tenants opposed the evictions that came with this change in land usage by maiming and killing the landlord's livestock. In January 1712 it was reported that 300 head of cattle had been killed in Mayo during the second week in January. Other forms of agrarian protest by the Catholic tenants included stealing sheep and crops.

This area was noted as being a predominantly Gaelic speaking part of the country.The 1901 and 1911 censuses confirm that everyone in the village was Gaelic speaking or bilingual Gaelic/English.

Go to Photos of Mochara now or at the bottom of the page.

Archaeological Sites in Mochara

An Archaeological Survey of Ballinrobe and District produced by Lough Mask and Lough Carra Tourist Development Association 1989-1992 lists three archaeological sites of interest in Mochara:

• A standing stone, "In level pasture. Rectangular in cross section. Height 1.2 meters, Width .04 meters."

  Standing stones were markers for graves, boundaries, routeways, or to commemorate some important event. They have been erected from megalithic times to the present.

• A holy well, "In wettish pasture".

  The Lough Mask and Lough Carra Tourist Development Association listed the well as being "shown" on the Ordinance Survey Maps of 1838 and 1929 as Tobersharve. The well was not located in the field work done by them.

  When Penelope Berren (Byrne) married Mathew Langan in the Roman Catholic Chapel of Shrule, on June I, 1865 she was listed as the daughter of Michael Byrne, poor tenant, Tubbersharre.

  Well veneration was a widespread and ancient tradition in Ireland. The water was connected with cures and was not used for personal consumption or watering livestock.

• "Mochara Castle", according to the Lough Mask and Lough Carra Tourist Development Association was really a "tower house". It is described by them as a

  "Rectangular tower (12.3 meters North by South, 10.1 meters East by West, on North facing slope, in pasture. Ground floor survives; filled with rubble and roofed by poor remains of vaulted ceiling. Ground floor divided into two rooms, the smaller one on the South end. Part of splayed window in an arched recess on external face of West wall. Owned by Brian boy Mac Donnell in 1574."

Go to Photos of Mochara now or at the bottom of the page.

www.shrule.com is one of the best genealogical sites on the internet.