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The Other View |
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Issue No.9 Summer 2002 Glaslough Village By John Clarke It seems that all the world now
knows of the whereabouts of Glaslough, one of Ireland's smaller and until
recently more obscure villages. A quiet little border community, Glaslough found
itself the centre of international attention recently when Paul McCartney and
his new bride chose County Monaghan as the location for their wedding ceremony. The first clear public indication of
the impending event came a few days prior to the wedding day when local
eccentric and owner of a large Victorian castle, Sir John Leslie told the media
that the celebrities had selected his home for their happy day. Media mania
immediately followed with even the staff of Expac (address, 59 Glaslough Street)
being badgered by several members of the Press for any lead on the 'big story',
Needless to say, we were unable to help. Glaslough may be a tiny village but
it has not been passed over by history. A plaque near the entrance to the Leslie
estate commemorates three local members of the United Irishmen who were hanged
for their part in the rising of 1798. Nearby, in the grounds of St. Salvatoršs
17th Century Church where the McCartney's were wed, a monument to the dead of
World War 1 lists the names of local men who died at the Battle of the Somme.
More recently still, the German born wife of the previous lord of the manor
experienced the repression of Hitler's Brownshirts. The church of Saint Salvator was
built during the first plantations of Ulster by Scottish settlers who arrived in
the area in the wake of the Elizabethan campaign. An early gravestone is marked
1609 indicating that this church is one of the first to be built post
reformation in the mid Ulster area. In spite of the family's Anglo Irish
history, they were known throughout the 19th and 20th centuries as ardent Irish
Nationalists. To this day, a bust of a former Sir John Leslie,M.P., Irish
Nationalist Parliamentary Party, is on display in the village.
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