Bekan Parish - A brief Historical Sketch
Remains of old Monastery in Bekan Cemetery
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Old Bekan Map
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Thatched cottage in Cullintra Townland
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Bekan
(Béacán)
Bekan, according to local tradition, derives from St Béacán, whose feast day was celebrated by an annual ‘pattern’ held on 9 July. A mound near the ruin of the medieval church marks his reputed burial place. [Local Gaelic scholar, Pilib de Bhaldratha (1874-1952), suggested that an ‘abbey and noteworthy school’ founded by St Béacán once flourished here.]
Bekan parish comprises 67 townlands covering an area of 17,500 acres. It was restructured in 1894 when 27 townlands(including part of the town of Ballyhaunis) were transferred to Annagh parish in exchange for 31 townlands.
[An early reference to Bekan parish has been tentatively identified in a 700-year-old document, the so-called ‘papal taxation’ of around 1306.] ‘For centuries’, wrote Monsignor D’Alton in his History of the Archdiocese of Tuam in 1928, ‘the history of the parish, both civil and ecclesiastical, is wrapped in obscurity’. The veil of obscurity lifted, however, in 1986 with the publication of ‘Béacán/Bekan: Portrait of an East Mayo Parish’. This comprehensive parish history, co-edited by Fr Michael Comer (Bekan) and Dr Nollaig Ó Muraíle (Knock), incorporated earlier research by Rev Martin J Heaney, curate at Logboy from 1935 to 1943.
There is archaeological evidence of human habitation in Bekan going back 4,000 years. Megalithic wedge tombs occur at Greenwood, Feamore and Larganboy while burial mounds from a later period are found at Belesker and Larganboy. Bronze
implements were discovered in Carrickmacantire and Bracklagh bogs. There are many ring forts scattered throughout the parish.
A unique musical instrument, (‘the Mayophone’), dating to 700AD, was discovered in a Bekan bog in 1791. It is now in the National Museum. An Irish song, or planxty, relating to Bekan, dating from about 1760, is preserved in the Royal Irish
Academy.
The first recorded parish priest of Bekan, around 1590, was Rev Walter Kilduff. In 1649, according to one tradition, Cromwellian soldiers murdered the prior of the Augustinian abbey in Ballyhaunis, Venerable Fulgentius Jordan, while he was
saying mass in Bekan parish.
Between 1723 and 1740, Bekan parish became the hub of the Archdiocese of Tuam when the Archbishop (Brian O’Gara) lived here, in Carrickmacantire townland. He used the old church in Tulrahan as his pro-cathedral, not far from the ruin of Tulrahan Castle which had been burned in a raid in 1557.
In Penal times, the congregation attended mass in Cloontumper at a spot known as ‘Gleann a’ Phobail’. Today, the oldest church still in use is St Mary’s church in Logboy, which was built around 1840. The present church of St Margaret Mary
Alacoque in Bekan was built in 1931-4 by Rev Charles White, who also built St Teresa’s Church in Brickens in 1927.
Several hedge schools were recorded within the parish, in surveys of 1826 and 1834. Later, National Schools were built at Larganboy (1876), Brickens (1882), Tulrahan (1888), Bekan (1889) and Logboy (1903). Only the latter two survive, following amalgamations since the late 1960s.
[Gaelic football has been popular locally ever since the first match (Bekan v Knock) was organised on Christmas Day, 1903. The GAA club was revived in the 1970's only to disappear again after a brief period but a new club, under the name Eastern Gaels, was established in 1984 and continues to thrive in 2013.]
(Béacán)
Bekan, according to local tradition, derives from St Béacán, whose feast day was celebrated by an annual ‘pattern’ held on 9 July. A mound near the ruin of the medieval church marks his reputed burial place. [Local Gaelic scholar, Pilib de Bhaldratha (1874-1952), suggested that an ‘abbey and noteworthy school’ founded by St Béacán once flourished here.]
Bekan parish comprises 67 townlands covering an area of 17,500 acres. It was restructured in 1894 when 27 townlands(including part of the town of Ballyhaunis) were transferred to Annagh parish in exchange for 31 townlands.
[An early reference to Bekan parish has been tentatively identified in a 700-year-old document, the so-called ‘papal taxation’ of around 1306.] ‘For centuries’, wrote Monsignor D’Alton in his History of the Archdiocese of Tuam in 1928, ‘the history of the parish, both civil and ecclesiastical, is wrapped in obscurity’. The veil of obscurity lifted, however, in 1986 with the publication of ‘Béacán/Bekan: Portrait of an East Mayo Parish’. This comprehensive parish history, co-edited by Fr Michael Comer (Bekan) and Dr Nollaig Ó Muraíle (Knock), incorporated earlier research by Rev Martin J Heaney, curate at Logboy from 1935 to 1943.
There is archaeological evidence of human habitation in Bekan going back 4,000 years. Megalithic wedge tombs occur at Greenwood, Feamore and Larganboy while burial mounds from a later period are found at Belesker and Larganboy. Bronze
implements were discovered in Carrickmacantire and Bracklagh bogs. There are many ring forts scattered throughout the parish.
A unique musical instrument, (‘the Mayophone’), dating to 700AD, was discovered in a Bekan bog in 1791. It is now in the National Museum. An Irish song, or planxty, relating to Bekan, dating from about 1760, is preserved in the Royal Irish
Academy.
The first recorded parish priest of Bekan, around 1590, was Rev Walter Kilduff. In 1649, according to one tradition, Cromwellian soldiers murdered the prior of the Augustinian abbey in Ballyhaunis, Venerable Fulgentius Jordan, while he was
saying mass in Bekan parish.
Between 1723 and 1740, Bekan parish became the hub of the Archdiocese of Tuam when the Archbishop (Brian O’Gara) lived here, in Carrickmacantire townland. He used the old church in Tulrahan as his pro-cathedral, not far from the ruin of Tulrahan Castle which had been burned in a raid in 1557.
In Penal times, the congregation attended mass in Cloontumper at a spot known as ‘Gleann a’ Phobail’. Today, the oldest church still in use is St Mary’s church in Logboy, which was built around 1840. The present church of St Margaret Mary
Alacoque in Bekan was built in 1931-4 by Rev Charles White, who also built St Teresa’s Church in Brickens in 1927.
Several hedge schools were recorded within the parish, in surveys of 1826 and 1834. Later, National Schools were built at Larganboy (1876), Brickens (1882), Tulrahan (1888), Bekan (1889) and Logboy (1903). Only the latter two survive, following amalgamations since the late 1960s.
[Gaelic football has been popular locally ever since the first match (Bekan v Knock) was organised on Christmas Day, 1903. The GAA club was revived in the 1970's only to disappear again after a brief period but a new club, under the name Eastern Gaels, was established in 1984 and continues to thrive in 2013.]
See Local History PowerPoint Presentation created in Bekan N.S. on aspects of Bekan Parish