Ballyeaston Co. Antrim

Just about three miles outside Ballyclare lies the tiny village of Ballyeaston , famous for the fact that many centuries ago the native Irish, followers of St. Patrick, were brutally banished from the area by an invading English army, their ancient church burned and levelled, their very cemetery lost for ever. For many years the Holy Well of St. Patrick stood at the foot of the Village, the new residents of the area used it for drinking purposes, etc, it dried up later in the 20^th Century when construction work nearby caused it to dry up. Back in the early to mid 1700’s the planters built an Anglican Church on the site of the Irish church. But it seems the little people had a bad view of all this for like the Holy Well the church didn’t flourish too well either and part of it was removed to a new site in Ballyclare to help there for the building of another church, the rest lies in ruins now. A huge “Heritage” grant is going to a local group to remove the ruins and present the ground for a park, no doubt there will be a plaque mentioning the Protestant Church and as usual nothing said of the Irish Catholic Chapel or the poor people who were scattered to the winds in their own country, but as usual I will be forwarding this article with a letter reminding them that to persist in this non recognition of the original people is no better than the original ethnic cleansing pogrom which drove them from their homes , church and their interred loved ones, their heritage further obliterated, so much for the “parity of Esteem” agenda of Stormont. That is not all the bloodshed linked to this beautiful little village there was a time when the local Presbyterian Minister of the village declared war on his very own flock, well, on those who were connected to the Society Of United Irishmen, and who were the vast majority of his neighbours. In fact the village played a major role in the actual “call to arms” for the rising in County Antrim There were no less than 35 “Colonels” and high ranking officers some of them from Belfast at meeting there they actually elected Henry Joy McCracken (left) as their Commander In Chief and urged that the rising should begin with out haste on the 7^th of June with an attack on Antrim Town. On the other hand some of the men felt perhaps not as the promise of French aid was in doubt. The majority of the men left on that day to assemble at Donegore Hill ready to March on Antrim. Meanwhile their Minister, the Rev. William Holmes, was training and parading his Yeoman Battalion to help put down the United Irish men at a field at the side of his manse, which to this day is known as Parade Manse. Then Ballyeaston once more became the scene of horror, bloodshed and arson, when on the 10^th of June 1798 a 300 strong military column, with cannon in tow attacked and plundered the village. Within days a meeting was held in the village and a petition was signed by its 486 inhabitants declaring their loyal to the constitution. The people was intimidated and subdued. Holmes reigned supreme but many of his fellow Presbyterians I am sure privately never accepted his politics and felt betrayed. As for the Holy Well of St. Patrick, pictured left with a woman filling her bucket some 100 years ago,, a marker on the wall of a car park at the foot of the village marks the spot where it existed. Throughout the six counties there are hundreds of places like Ballyeaston where the history and heritage of the native Irish have been written out and not recorded, sadly giving the impression that when the planters and English armies came they landed in some sort of desert, that no Irish communities had existed, and thereby they need not have to mention the terrible carnage they inflicted in putting these poor people to flight from their ancient homes.