Ballinderry

TO JOHN HENNING, OBE

EDITED EXTRACTS FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY GAZETTEER OF IRELAND, PUBLISHED IN 1846

BALLINDERRY, a parish, containing a village of the same name, in the barony of Upper Massereene, County Antrim.

The surface is low ground along the east side of LOUGH NEAGH; and consists in general of good arable land.

In the north-east and south-west parts of the parish are some valuable bogs.

The weaving of linen and cotton affords employment to a considerable number of persons, but the greater number of the inhabitants are engaged in agriculture.

The Lagan Canal from Lough Neagh, on the north-west, to Belfast passes within a mile.

The parish is within the jurisdiction of the manorial court of Killultagh, held at Lisburn.

Amid flat ground on the west border, about half within the parochial boundary, and not far from the lip of Lough Neagh, are the lakeland ruinous castle of Portmore, redolent of associations connected with the name of Jeremy Taylor.

At Portmore, an extensive castle was erected by Lord Conway, in 1664, on the site of a more ancient fortress: it contained accommodation for two troops of horse, and orange of stabling 140 feet in length, 35 feet in breadth, and 40 feet in height; the remains consist only of the ancient garden wall, part of the stables, and the ruins of one of the bastions.

During the Protectorate, the learned Jeremy Taylor retired to this place, and remained at the seat of Lord Conway till the Restoration when he was promoted to the bishopric of Down and Connor.

On a small island in the lough are still some remains of a summer-house, in which he is said to have written some of the most important of his works, and in the neighbourhood his name is still held in great respect.

The chief residences are Portmore, Killultagh, Crew, Oatland, and Mount Prospect.

The village of Ballinderry stands on the road from Newry to Antrim, 4½ miles north of Moira, and five north-east of Lurgan.

This living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Connor, and in the patronage of the Marquess of Hertford, in whom the rectory is impropriate.

The vicar is non-resident.

The parish church was built in 1824, through the exertions of Dean Stannus; it is a handsome edifice, in the later style of English architecture, with a tower and spire 128 feet in height, and is beautifully situated on rising ground near the small village of Upper Ballinderry.

There is a glebe of 8 acres, though no glebe house.

Ballinderry Middle Church (WA Green/NMNI)

The old parish church, which was built after the Restoration of CHARLES II, still remains; and on the eastern side is a burial-place, called Templecormack, in the centre of which foundations of a small building may be traced.

The Middle Church has remained virtually the same as it was more than three centuries ago. Lych gate, pews, and mullioned windows still feature. A ballad from the locality commences:-

"Oh, 'tis pretty to be in Ballinderry,

'Tis pretty to be in Aghalee;

But prettier far in little Ram's Island

Sitting in under the ivy tree."

Ruins of Old Church, Portmore, 1893 (WA Green/ NMNI)

There are also some remains of an ancient church close to Portmore Lough.

The manor of Killultagh gives the title of Baron Conway of Killultagh to the Seymour family.

A Presbyterian meeting-house is attended by 200, and a Moravian meeting-house by 40; a Roman Catholic chapel, attended by 200-300, which is united to the chapel of Aghagallon.