New book titled Sliabh an Iarainn: History, Myth and Folklore by the author and historian Monsignor Liam Kelly launched

A new book titled Sliabh an Iarainn: History, Myth and Folklore by the author and historian Monsignor Liam Kelly was launched recently by Dr Brendan Scott at the Island Theatre, Ballinamore. Mr Paddy Farrell, the chairman of Leitrim County Council, spoke on behalf of Leitrim County Council, who had kindly sponsored the publication of the book. The book was researched and written by Fr Kelly, a native of County Leitrim who is now parish priest in Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan and it looks at the story of the mountain from earliest times to the present day.

The mountain was always a special place for those who lived on its slopes or near its base and the book explores how people related to it in different ways in different eras. There were myths about the ‘mountain of iron’ from the beginning, especially about the Tuatha Dé Danann, myths which were woven into the folk memory of the area. The mountain was regarded as a sacred place even in pre-Christian times with elaborate Court Tombs being built high up on its slopes and on Bilberry Sunday each July the great festival of Lughnasa was celebrated with music, dancing and athletic competitions at four different locations on the mountain - The Playbank in Ballinaglera, The Breveiga Stone in Barnameenagh, Polltaí in Kiltubrid and Skerahoo in Aughnasheelin.

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The lakes surrounding Sliabh an Iarainn, especially Lough Allen and Lough Scur, were the super-highways for the dug-out canoes which were used to transport both people and goods at a time when much of the land was forested and there were no roads or bridges. There were many important archaeological finds along these lake-shores, and the famous Keshcarrigan Bowl and Kiltubrid Wooden Shield, now in the National Museum of Ireland, were both discovered near Lough Scur in the 1800s.

Sliabh an Iarainn has rich deposits of iron-ore and it is from these deposits that the mountain got its name ‘the mountain of iron’. This new book looks at the iron-works around which the towns of Drumshanbo, Ballinamore and Castlefore were built and how these iron-works ceased in the second half of the 1700s because, by then, virtually all of the native forests had been used up. There were coal seams in the mountain too and small-scale coal-mining was carried on there for generations. However, the heyday of the coal-mining on the mountain was in relatively recent times - between the years 1926 and 1990 during which the Bencroy and Beál Beag coal-mines flourished. With the closing of the Arigna Power Station in 1990 the coal-mining on the mountain came to an abrupt end.

Throughout history the mountain was a place of refuge for people in troubled times, a place they could retreat to and hide until the danger passed over. It was also a place where the Ultachs, the refugees who were driven out of Ulster, could settle and make new lives for themselves. During the long period of Penal persecution, from approximately 1590 to 1750, Sliabh an Iarainn was a place of refuge for priests and people with Mass being celebrated at three Mass Rocks on the mountain – Cloch na hAltóra and Cloch an tSagairt in Ballinaglera and An Teampall in the townland of Mullaghgarve in Kiltubrid parish.

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The Mullaghgarve Mass Rock is now one of the most visited in the country thanks to the exciting development of a new car-park, re-surfaced walkways, bridges and new signage. In the year 2000, as part of the Jubilee Year celebrations, a temporary stone altar was erected in a large rock crevice near the top of the mountain and Mass has been celebrated at that site several times since then. However, following extensive research over a number of years, the location of the original Mass Rock has now been identified nearby, at a large rock-face about thirty metres away from the stone altar that was erected in the year 2000. The recently identified site of the original Mass Rock in Mullaghgarve was surveyed by Gearóid Conroy from the National Monuments Service in July 2024 and Mass was celebrated there two weeks ago, on 27 July 2025.

Sliabh an Iarainn has a long and varied history and those who lived on its slopes were great story-tellers, thereby handing on a rich oral tradition from one generation to the next. This book, explores the mountain’s long and varied past and should help the modern-day hiker identify the significant sites that speckle Sliabh an Iarainn.