Swanlinbar

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Swanlinbar (Irish: An Muileann Iarainn, meaning The Iron Foundry) is a small village situated in north-west County Cavan, Ireland, close to the Claddagh river and near the Fermanagh border.

The village is in the barony of Tullyhaw.

In the 1860s Swanlinbar had the most celebrated of Cavan's numerous mineral springs.^[1]

[edit] History

The earliest name recorded for the village was Sra^[2]-na-muck which means The River-field of the pigs.^[3] The current official Irish name 'An Muileann Iarainn' meaning 'Iron Mill' reflects the foundation of an ironworks in the town in 1700,.^[4] as does the name Swanlinbar which derives from the four entrepreneurs who built the iron foundry. Jonathan Swift in his 1728 essay On Barbarous Denominations In Ireland wrote

There is likewise a famous town, where the worst iron in the kingdom is made, and it is called Swandlingbar: the original of which name I shall explain, lest the antiquaries of future ages might be at a loss to derive it. It was a most witty conceit of four gentlemen, who ruined themselves with this iron project. 'Sw' stands for Swift (Swift's uncle, Godwin Swift, for whose memory he had no special regard, seems to have been concerned in this ingenious anagram and unfortunate project), 'And' stands for Sanders, 'Ling' for Darling, and 'Bar' for Barry. Methinks I see the four loggerheads sitting in consult, like Smectimnius, each gravely contributing a part of his own name, to make up one for their place in the iron-work; and could wish they had been hanged, as well as undone, for their wit.^[5]

By 1850 the name of Swanlinbar was the common usage. Reverend William Henry in his 1739 book 'Upper Lough Erne' writes

The River Duanim or Stragownagh sweeps by the small market-town of Swanlinbar where once was a great iron-work. Some time ago there were forests of oak along the bank of this river; but they have been so entrely extirpated in order to supply the iron-works at Swanlinbar, that there is scarce a stump left.^[6]

However the old people in the district still refer to the town as "Swadlinbar" and this name is mentioned in John Wesley's Journal

Thursday 4th May 1769 — I found near Swadlinbar, as artless, as earnest, and as loving a people as even at Tonny-Lommon. About six I preached at the town’s end, the very Papists appearing as attentive as the Protestants; and I doubt not thousands of these would soon be zealous Christians, were it not for their wretched Priests, who will not enter into the kingdom of God themselves, and diligently hinder those that would..^[7]

The poet George Sackville Cotter (1755-1831) wrote an amusing poem entitled "Epistles from Swanlinbar" in 1788 which recounts the adventures and upsets experienced by visitors to the Spa at Swnlinbar.^[8]