Drumswords
Drumswords is a townland in South-East County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Area 81:2:36
Etymology
Drumswords is believed to mean "Holy well"
Griffiths Valuation 1862
Occupier…………………………….Lessor John Elliott………………………………… Rev John Richardson H Os & L John McManus…………………………….. Rev John Richardson House R.C. Chapel, caretakers’ house,
office & graveyard………………………… exemptions
Patrick McCollin………………………….. .Free House
1901 Census
Head of Family……………………..Landholder if different Mary A. Maguire………………………….. Hugh McDonald Hugh McDonald……………………………Hugh McDonald R.C.Church………………………………... Hugh McDonald
Surnames in 2005
McMahon West McDermott O’Reilly
St McCartans Chapel
On the road to Clones a short distance from Dernawilt cross roads is the town land of Drumswords, the site of St. McCartan’s R. C. Church. About the middle of the 1700’s a little thatched chapel was erected in the townland of Aghadrumsee on the farm of a man called Blakely. In the year 1822, the then parish priest of Clones, a Father Duffy, began building in the neighbouring townland of Drumswords. The Church was not completed till 1829 being first used on the 1st November of that year. It was an oblong building with a gallery at each side and the altar in the centre of the sidewall. There was a two roomed sacristy, with a second storey, which served for a time, as a residence for a priest. The church built by Father Duffy was stripped of its roof on the night of the high wind, 6th January, 1839. It is remarkable that this is the only story that has survived about that particular freak wind storm.
A later priest, Father Keown C.C. who died in 1857, was buried there. The ground for this cemetery was given by the Elliott family of Drumswords and the gift is still recorded on an old stone there: ‘God bless Mr John Elliott that gave us this place’ (p )