Historical Locations of the Fagans
According to The Irish Genealogical Foundation's Irish Genealogy Notes & Coats Series, County Meath & Westmeath Genealogy (ISBN 0-940134-78-0), Fagan is one of the "Numerous Families from Westmeath" during the 19th century. During our research, we have come across the locations below as being the most common environs of the Fagans.
Bullock
Bullock was, doubtless, known in times long prior to the English settlement as the site of a rocking-stone, which stood on its lands near the Castle, until the destructive hand of man removed it at the beginning of the 19th century. The Castle of Bullock in the history of the coeval edifice at Monkstown, was built by the Cistercian Monks of the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near Dublin, and was erected by them to protect the fishery, which rose to such great proportions, under their auspices, on the portion of the lands of Carrickbrennan known as Bullock.
Dublin
The name is written in the annals as Duibh-linn [Duvlin], which, in some of the Latin Lives of the saints, is translated Nigra therma, black pool; it was originally the name of that part of the Liffey on which the city is built, and is sufficiently descriptive at the present day. In very early ages an artificial ford of hurdles was constructed across the Liffey, where the main road from Tara to Wicklow crossed the river; and the city that subsequently sprung up around it was called from this circumstance Ath-cliath [Ah-clee], or 'the ford of hurdles', which was the ancient name of Dublin. This name is still used by speakers of Irish in every part of Ireland; but they join it to Bally-Baile-atha-cliath (which they pronounce Blaa-clee), the town of the hurdle ford.
Malahide
Malahide is an ancient village, 16 kms. north of Dublin City on the east coast of Ireland. Paddy's Hill, overlooking Malahide Estuary, is the earliest evidence we have of a habitation site in the area C.6000 B.C. The Fir Domhnainn are also reputed to have settled here, where they remained "fishing and fowling" for a few hundred years. Tradition has it that St. Patrick visited the locality in 432 A.D. The Vikings landed in 795 A.D. and the Danes were resident in 897 A.D. McTurkill, the last Danish King of Dublin retired to Malahide in 1171, from whom the Normans took over in 1185. The modern name Malahide ( Mullagh h-Ide ) probably derives from this time, meaning the sandhills of the Hydes, a Norman family from the Donabate area. From the 12th century onwards, Malahide developed around the Talbot Castle. In 1547, it was described as one of the chief haven towns of Ireland because of its very safe harbour.
At the turn of the 19th century a small village had developed; coal, slate and timber was imported; Yellow Walls cotton mill and Killeen Terrace ribbon factory were in operation; the local Talbot Bank issued 25,000 bank notes and Malahide was justly proud of its coalyard, sawyers factory, steam bakery and saltworks. In 1831, the total population was 1223 of which 90 labourers were each earning 15 pence per day. In the 1880's cod liver oil was being exported to England and the Scott's Emulsion trademark of a man with a huge cod on his shoulder is said to have been modeled on a Malahide fisherman. In the latter part of the 19th Century with the advent of the railway, Malahide became a tourist resort and a residential town. In 1914, it was described as a genteel ghetto for disengaged West Britons. In the 'twenties the buses came and croquet was played alongside the Band Garden on Sundays. In the 'thirties there was greyhound racing at Gaybrook while many Malahide men earned 11.5 pence an hour in the building of Dublin Airport. But the greatest change of all came in the 'sixties when Malahide became attractive to speculative builders and Malahide's first housing estate, Ard-Na-Mara came into being in 1964. Since then, though the population has mushroomed in a major way, Malahide Village has still managed to retain an old-world elegance about it.
Feltrim Hill
A mile or two out Dublin Road stands the remains of Feltrim Hill. What was once The Hill of the Wolves is to-day ravished by quarrying. An archaeological dig took place on Feltrim Hill in 1947 and upwards of 500 items of interest were found. These included Roman coins and a tinned bronze mount dating to the 4th Century A.D. Feltrim Castle was originally a 'Ten Pound Castle', built in 1429. The Fagan family has always been associated with Feltrim and in 1574 Sir Christopher Fagan allowed Gerald, Earl of Desmond, to escape even though he had been committed to him as a prisoner on parole.
In 1690, fleeing from the Battle of the Boyne, King James stayed for some time with Richard Fagan of Feltrim. From the 1700's onwards the Fagan family suffered an eclipse and Feltrim Castle was demolished by the mid-eighteenth century. In the environs of the castle, Fagan's Well still stands in a good state of preservation.
Superstitions abound at Feltrim. Stories are still told to-day of the grey ghostly horse, the big black dog with blazing eyes and the old hag, with her bundle of faggots always gliding in the direction of the Holy Well.
Grand Hotel
The history of the Grand Hotel goes back much further than the turn of the century. The Hotel was built in 1835 by Mr. James Fagan of Feltrim, who also built St. James Terrace. The Feltrim Fagans had roots in Feltrim for centuries and when the Earl of Desmond was a state prisoner during the reign Elizabeth I, he was held in custody by Christopher Fagan of Feltrim. James Fagan was a member of the British Parliament and when he built his Malahide hotel he was granted a royal warrant and so called the hotel the Royal Hotel. The very first picture of the hotel available is a watercolour, entitled "RoyaI Hotel and Terrace - Malahide. The property of James Fagan M.P". The motivation for building the Royal Hotel was obviously influenced by the impending arrival of the railway in Malahide and the subsequent development of a tourist resort in an area already furnished with natural amenities.
Once the hotel was in operation, visitors began to arrive by stagecoach and a sprinkling fountain in the middle of the Diamond had to be removed to facilitate easier passage for the stagecoaches. When the Dublin and Drogheda Railway arrived in Malahide in 1844, some excellent town planning resulted. A recreational square was railed off, where the tennis courts now stand, a promenade by the waterfront was devised and new streets were laid down.
The Royal thrived for some years under a succession of different owners and managers. The records show a William Shaw in 1857; Anthony Jesson 1867; Mrs Gamble 1877; and William Green in 1887. In 1897 H. Bethell owned the Royal Hotel, but with the awakening of Irish nationalism the name had changed to the Grand Hotel by the time Dr. Colohan took it over in 1911.
Phoenix Park
The Phoenix Park (in Irish, Páirc an Fhionn-Uisce) is a large park near the outskirts of Dublin City, Ireland. It is the largest urban enclosed park in Europe at over 1700 acres. The park contains the residences of both the President of Ireland (Áras an Uachtaráin) and the United States ambassador to Ireland (Deerfield Residence). The headquarters of the Irish national police force, An Garda Síochána, is located in the park, as is the State Guest House, Farmleigh. The park contains Dublin Zoo, several sportsgrounds including cricket and polo, the Wellington Monument, a 205 foot tall obelisk memorial for the Duke of Wellington and the Papal Cross. The cross was erected in the park for the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979. An estimated million people attended an open air mass in the park at the time.
The name is a corruption of the Irish fhionn uisce meaning "clear water". The park featured prominently in James Joyce's novel, Finnegans Wake. It is occasionally used for open-air concerts and the annual Phoenix Park Motor Races.
It is also recorded that in 1671 "the Phoenix and Newtown lands," formerly in the possession of Christopher Fagan of Feltrim and Alderman Daniel Hutchinson, were purchased on the royal mandate for £3,000 by the Duke of Ormonde in trust for Charles II. There is a Fagan's pub is opposite the constituency office of Taoiseach in Dromcondra
If Fagans are Ohagans...
Tullaghoge Fort and Inauguration Site:
According to the GoIreland site, in or near Cookstown in Tyrone is the Tullaghoge Fort and Inauguration Site:
"Tullaghoge is a prominent rounded hillock about half-way between Cookstown and Stewartstown, and it was there that the leading member of each O'Neill generation was inaugurated from the 11th to the close of the 16th century."
"Equivalent to the crowning of a monarch, the inauguration gave the individual the right to bear the title 'the O'Neill', the head of the family that had ruled for centuries over Tyrone - an area larger than that covered by the modern county of the same name. The inauguration ceremony was conducted by the throwing of a shoe over the head of the new O'Neill, to indicate that he would follow in the footsteps of his distinguished ancestors who had borne the title. In the last years of her life, Queen Elizabeth I was determined to oust Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, from his title and lordship, and when Hugh finally had to submit to the Queen's deputy, Mountjoy, in the April of 1603, he vowed to renounce 'the name and title of O'Neill'. He had been inaugurated on a stone chair on top of Tullaghoge, which had had the reputation of having been blessed by none other than St. Patrick himself, and in 1602, Mountjoy deliberately smashed this venerable inauguration throne, so that nothing now remains of it. What does survive, however, is the site itself - a raised, central area surrounded by a low bank, and separated by a ditch from a larger bank which ran concentrically outside it. A short walk uphill from a car-park close to a bad bend brings the visitor to this historic site which, with the aid of some historical imagination, can be made to yield up some of its ancient magic."
Note that Wikipedia erroneously lists an O'Cahan performing the ceremony rather than an O'Hagan.
From some information I found on the Internet...
"Tullaghoge, the ancient O'Neill inauguration site, is situated between Cookstown and Steartstown in County Tyrone. There has been no O'Neill inauguration there since that of Hugh 'The Great' O'Neill late in the 16th century. The site consists of the O'Hagan rath (which is at present overgrown with trees), the O'Hagan burial ground, and the O'Neill inauguration site. This site is situated half way down the hill from the rath. It consists of a very peculiar and impressive stone which is a part of the hill itself. This is where the three sandstone slabs were placed around the stone to represent a chair. Lord Mounjoy had these slabs destroyed in 1602 due to his impression that they were an important part of the site. In all references to this site there is no mention of a 'chair' but of a stone and since this was also called the 'Leac na Ri' (or or Stone of the Kings), we can be certain that the surviving 'stone' at Tullaghoge is that stone.
The O'Neill was inaugurated with traditional ceremony. The chieftain and his vassels would gather in a local church and then parade along a pathway leading up to and through the O'Hagan rath. The O'Neill would sit on the stone which had been made to resemble a chair. O'Cahan and O'Hagan played the most important roles in the ceremony. One threw the golden or brass shoe over the O'Neill's head and another placed the rod, a symbol of authority in his hand. It is thought that the O'Neill then stood up and turned 'thrice forward and backward', observing his territory as he did so. However, this is impossible to do standing on the present stone, maily because of its situation on the slope of a hill. It is still exactly where one would expect it to be according to the Bartlett map of 1602 though.
In the local Church of Ireland church, there is a small section of one of the sandstone slabs that surrounded the 'O'Neill' stone. It is part of the arch over the doorway into the church which is dated AD 1735. There is also an interesting miniature O'Neill 'chair' in the church itself. A fully sized reconstruction of the 'chair' is now in the Benburb Heritage centre.
There was also another O'Neill chair at Castlereagh, an area of farmland near Belfast. This chair was taken from its site to Belfast before being transfered to Sligo. There it was cared for by Mr. J. Walker. A Mr. S, Millagan arranged, in or around 1898, to have it taken to the Ulster Museum in Belfast where it is now preserved and protected. It had been hoped that this chair would have been used in the 'O'Neill of Clann Aodha Buidhe' ceremoney in 1982 but permission was withheld by the Trustees of the Museum.
If Fagans are Ó Faodhagáins...
County Louth
As pointed out elsewhere, there is a "Gaelic Irish family of Ó Faodhagáin, anglicized as Fagan, which belongs to Co. Louth. There Fagan, Fegan, Feighan and Feehan are numerous and much confused; probably these all derive from Ó Faodhagáin." I have not been able to find much about this group, but in Louth are some fabulous ancient sites (as elsewhere in Ireland).