My name is P J Dunne and I was born in Butlersbridge village in 1952. I have lived there and in nearby Cavan town for all of my life, except for a five-year period back in the 1970s.

I was pleased to have been asked to compile information on the history of our village, and to present this to you on our village website. It is essential for us to look back. We can get a better understanding of ourselves and our community by doing so. Overtime, the community becomes the home of our identity. So, we will reflect on the hard work, the struggles, the sacrifices and the achievements of our ancestors; their world, their community more than now, was a society of mutual inter-dependence. As a new era emerges we plan our future aware of our shared responsibility to support and advance community and personal development and welfare. This duty is far more onerous when we understand, appreciate and accept the hard won rich heritage from the past generations of honourable hard working men and women of our neighbourhood.

The following work that I have compiled is as a result of my interest in local history and I stress is not presented as an account of a qualified historian. Where detailed works already exist on a particular aspect of our history I have included it here in full, with suitable reference. The book “Butlersbridge and Its People” edited by Paddy Leddy has been a valuable source for such articles and other information. Some of those people whose articles are featured in this compilation and many of those people who are mentioned in these and other articles, are now deceased. I have not inserted ‘Rest in Peace’ after their names. Although it is appropriate that each person is especially remembered, it is hoped that their inclusion in the following articles will describe how they have enriched our community and that this is a fitting tribute to their memory. We also remember all those from our community who have lived and died abroad. May each and every one rest in peace. Elsewhere you will note that some women have been described by their pre-marriage names.

I suppose the first thing that strikes the local and the visitor to our village is its beauty. Butlersbridge is a most attractive place. Its single street is dominated by a beautiful stone church and enhanced considerably by a matching cut stone bridge over the serene and peaceful Annalee River, which wends its leisurely way through the green drumlin countryside and caresses the village on its path. The local people probably appreciate its beauty, taking it for granted to some extent perhaps. But its ideal location, its charming character and its proximity to excellent road infrastructure and the fine shopping town of Cavan enthral visitors. The local people are well known for their hospitable and generous welcome, their engaging and good-humoured company, their commitment to hard work and their Christian faith.

Almost all of the Village street divides the two town lands of Tullybuck and Kilnaglare Upper. Tullybuck extends from north of the laneway at the side of Seamus Lane’s old post office premises which led over to McCourts (now Flynn’s) and beyond, down to and adjoining the townland of Drumsillagh. Kilnaglare Upper extends from the Chapel site, down both sides of the Clones Road to the turn for Innishbeg and also on the right side of the Belturbet Road to just about opposite James O’Rourke’s house (formerly Gillan’s).

The earliest imprint of man on the landscape of Butlersbridge was discovered in the construction of the Cavan Bye-Pass. The grounds works in Drumany beside Pat Flynn's present residence (formerly McCourt's), uncovered discarded struck flint which indicated human activity in the area as far back as the Stone Age period approximately (4000 – 2000 BC). This flint was used as primitive tools and weapons i.e. for hunting, preparing skins and the like. Nearby, also in Drumany it was already known that “the Giant's Grave” - a wedge tomb – existed. This was a characteristic of burial practice in the early Bronze Age, (after 2000 BC). The proximity of a river was an extremely important feature in settlement patterns at that time. There are other references to nearby archaeological structures called raths or ringforts. These are circular enclosures of earth where families lived, secure from wild animals and human predators. There is a record of these in townlands close to the village, i.e. Drumsilla, Drumullig, Plush. These fortified structures built in a lake are referred to as crannógs. One such is recorded in nearby Annagh Lake. Not far away from there at Inishmore there is a record of a “Cornabrassan Fort” and a “Granshagh or Riverside Fort”. The original function of the latter was defensive. These raths, crannógs and forts are most commonly associated with the early Christian period (500 – 1100 AD). This historical evidence is all around us, if not a little hidden by overgrown vegetation.

Our forefathers' way of life would have developed in common with developments in adjacent parts of county Cavan and surrounding areas. Their means of survival would have evolved from a primitive hunting economy in the Stone Age depending upon local sustainable resources, to an eventual food producing society. Through the control of pests and wild animals our ancestors were enabled to lead a settled existence and so permanent settlements developed, leading to the first villages and towns in our country.

This process of domestication led to the keeping of animals and the cultivation of cereals. The economy and culture evolved over many centuries. Our island people are fortunate in that our proximity to the Atlantic Ocean's cyclonic westerly winds gives us a damp and mild climate with high rainfall levels. We also have a reasonably good quality of land dotted with drumlins, hedgerows and woodlands all common features of our Cavan landscape.

Central to the agricultural economy was the keeping of cows. They produced milk, cheese, buttermilk, whey, curds and butter. Tillage was confined to production of oats, which was used in oaten cakes, and of course porridge. Some wild plants like nettles and wild carrots were part of their diet also, as were birds and fish. Another important animal central to their diet was the pig. These were reared, slaughtered and stored for use. Generally, nothing useful was wasted. Wool was used for clothing and bedding, skins for ropes, bags and outer clothing.

The average cottage or dwelling was made of a mixture of rubble, stone and mud. Its floor was clay covered by straw and wood shavings. Roofs consisted of sods or “scraws” on rude timber, covered over with straw thatch. Windows were unheard of until the 17th century and when used were usually very small. Even as late as the 1770’s, according to the book ‘The Legacy of Light, a history of Irish Windows’ by Nessa Roche, published in 1999, page 38:

“A visitor to rural Ireland in the 1770’s, Mark Elsob, described the tenant workers houses as having a chimney (a hole in the roof) and ‘a window of about a foot square in the front, and a whited outside, an imitation of their tyrannic Lords.’ The window of these houses was not used for the purposes of admiring a well–groomed landscape but for providing a modicum of daylight……. At the most basic level the kitchen table doubled as shutter, hinging up to cover the window at night.”

It is against this backdrop of everyday life in a rural landscape that our ancestors reacted and responded to dramatic changes over the centuries.