Remembering the mills

The Cloona Corn Mills

Musings
Sonia Kelly

Recently the long-defunct Cloona corn mills seemed to spring back to life. This animation came in the form of a photo taken in 1901 from someone in Co Down, whose ancestors had once worked in the industry.
The original mill is seen towering in the majestic glory of its seven stories, whereas all we ever knew of it were two sad gables, which have themselves now vanished.
Altogether there were four corn mills on the site, but these had been preceded by a linen mill, which had been established in the first half of the 18th century and had operated for 100 years. It was at the end of that century that the original corn mill was built.
It’s hard to imagine now the hive of activity that must have enlivened this remote spot, but the contemporary ballad, which was sung throughout Connaught, gives some idea of Cloona’s fame:

I stood amazed, on their beauty I gazed
And reviewed them with great admiration.
No monarch can boast of so stylish a place,
In any European Nation.
The falls of Niagara are not so complete,
For they manufactured both linen and wheat,
Fit for the queen both to wear and to eat,
All dressed in the Cloona grand buildings.

The falls that are spoken of ran through the garden of the mill house (now belonging to my family), forming an ornamental lake on its way, but they are silent long since, although they were remembered by the oldest inhabitants of the village and described to us after our arrival at the end of the war.
Cissie Mellon was also fondly remembered – the family connection of my correspondent, who also appended a photo of the cottage where she lived.
It was Foster’s Corn Laws, which were passed at the end of the 18th century in an effort to promote tillage in the country, that caused the spread of corn mills and the new prosperity of farmers. The industry continued to flourish until the repeal of the English Corn Laws in 1846, which was followed by the opening up of vast corn fields in America and Eastern Europe. These in turn brought prices down so sharply that the operation of mills in Ireland was no longer economic. The closure of many coincided with the famine.
Twenty years later a Yorkshire man, looking for a suitable place to establish a woollen industry, stumbled by chance on a disused mill at Cloona, rented it and set up a flourishing business in tweeds, shawls and serges.
A short time afterwards the Argentine was opened up and quantities of maize came on the market, which was in great demand for feeding stuffs.
At that point another Yorkshireman, recognising its possibilities, came over to Cloona and built a second corn mill. However, he ran into financial difficulties, resulting in his mill being taken over by the owners of the land, the McDonnells, and operated so successfully that they built yet another.
But alas, a prohibitive duty was then imposed on grain, causing both mills to be hastily abandoned. The woollen business was, however, carried on until 1927, when the introduction of modern machinery made it uneconomic to continue.
It is this mill that became the Cloona Health Centre and so its life was saved. The remains of the others stand forlorn on land depopulated by social and economic crises, famines and evictions.