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Early History

Prominent Families

The Friars

The French 1798

The Lough Allen Tragedy of 1831

Life in the 1800's

Priests of the Parish

Fr Myles McPartlan

Fr Tom Maguire

Notes on Some Other Priests

Old Churches of the Parish

Drumkeeran Town in 1901

HISTORY

Drumkeeran Town in 1901

The returns from the 1901 Census of Drumkeeran indicate that the town consisted of five streets; Main St, Market St, Church St, Chapel St and Back St.  The returns give the names and the occupations of those who resided on those streets on the night of the census,  31st March 1901.

The total population of the town on the night of the census was 273.  This number includes everybody who was resident in the town that night, including servants, visitors, lodgers etc.

Looking through the list of occupations as recorded in the returns we get a very interesting insight into the social and business life of the town at the beginning of the 20th century.

The biggest group with a total of 30  is that of "servant".  We include under that term those who are recorded as "labourer" but it does not include those who were recorded as "shop assistant" etc.  The large number of servants recorded for Main St and Chapel St is explained by the fact that many shopkeepers hired a servant to help in the household tasks. All of these servants were resident in the houses where they worked.

The next group is that of "shopkeeper", numbering 15, but if we include those who described themselves as "merchant", the number rises to 18.

"Farmer" is next, numbering 14.  This number includes both hose who owned farms of land and those were are recorded as farm labourers.

There are a number of unusual occupations:

Allan Nixon (54), the post master who lived on Main St, was also the Clerk of Petty Sessions.

Joseph Gallagher (30), who lived with Terence Kelly on Market St, was recorded as a “photographic artist”. 

Francis McNamarah, a lodger with Mary Flynn on Chapel St, was described as an “umbrella repairer”.