Coolkenno History

HARRIS' HILL, Coolkenno: - Today, I was asked about the origins of how Harris' Hill gained its name and who were the Harris Family of Coolkenno? It is unique that some fields, roads or hillsides still contain associations with family names that are long extinct from Coolkennovian memory. The hill was originally a continuous steep road that connected the areas of Aghowle, Munny and the Crablane to Kilquiggan and onwards to Tinahely but afterwards this steep hill would be tamed and would become a staggered crossroads when the Board of Works established a wider road from Coolkenno to Cronelea (today's main Tullow-Shillelagh Rd R725). Having searched through the Aghold Parish Records, the earliest recording of a Harris appears to be the baptism of Thomas Harris, son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Harris, on 29th March, 1751. Throughout the 1750s and early 1760s, this Harris Family grew, with Thomas being the only recorded boy. Elizabeth Harris would pass away in April 1784. The 1766 Religious Census for the Parish of Aghold does not show us any Harris' who practised Catholicism, thus strengthening that the hill was indeed called after the above mentioned Harris Family. The 1799 List of Loyalist Claimants, a compensation benefit fund towards damage caused during the 1798 Rebellion, reveals to us Nathaniel Harrison of Coolkenno, who claimed towards household objects and furniture, which was plundered by the rebel army in the summer of '98. Harrison, quite clearly mistaken for the aged Nathaniel Harris, who resided on the northern reaches of the townland of Coolkenno, beside the hill to which still bears his name. Understanding that there are some gaps in the Aghold Parish records in the 1780s-1790s, we may have missed a generation of Harris', as the next record of a Harris residing in Coolkenno is of John and Sarah Harris who, in 1818, gave birth to a daughter, Susan and later to Thomas Harris in 1823. Sadly, John Harris would pass away in early February 1825. After the passing of John, it may be possible that Sarah moved to new pastures with her young family, as their is no future record of the Harris' residing in Coolkenno.