Bohermeen

Originally one of the five famed ancient roadways that led from the mediaeval capital of Ireland, Tara, approximately 10 miles away cut through the area.

The quality of the roadway, in an era of dirt-roads (which still exist today), earned for it the nickname of the smooth road, An Bóthar Mín.

A curate in the parish of Navan, the large town nearby, Dean Cogan, who himself had once served as a curate in Bohermeen, and who wrote the acclaimed History of the Diocese of Meath (2 volumes) in the 1860s bemoaned the choice of the secular Bohermeen (or Bohermien as he wrote it) as the parish name ahead of the more religious Ardbraccan name.

Local folklorists record the disappearance of entire pre-famine settlements in, for example, the townland of Greetiagh within the parish.

However a series of unrelated economic, social and religious changes led to the large-scale disappearance of the Church of Ireland community.

The impact of the First World War, when many Irish Protestant families lost some or all of their sons at Ypres and the Somme left large numbers of families without heirs and Protestant daughters without Protestant potential husbands, had a devastating impact, an impact augmented separately by Pope Pius X's Ne Temere decree, which demanded that all children of Catholic-Protestant marriages be brought up as Catholic (previously, the tradition had been that the boys would be brought up in the religion of their father, the girls in the religion of their mothers).

In addition, The Troubles during the Irish War of Independence lead many Protestants, who had identified with the ancien regime of British rule in Dublin Castle to move to the United Kingdom.

When Colonel and Mrs Foster, who had moved into the old schoolhouse at the entrance to the Anglican Church grounds, decided to take on the task of restoring the derelict cemetery, in which both Anglican and Catholic people from the area were buried, the local Catholic parish joined the efforts, offering resources and manpower.

Whereas most of its employment was once farm-based, over 40% now would in urban centres, Trim, Kells, Navan and Dublin, commuting long distances.

A controversial new M3 motorway linking the towns of Cavan and Kells with Dublin cut through farmland within sight of Ardbraccan House and the ancient monastery site in Ardbraccan, before slicing through the archaeologically sensitive site of Tara, the capital of Ireland under the Árd Rí (High King of Ireland) in mediaeval times.

Though the route of the motorway at Tara has been the subject of an international outcry from academics, historians, environmentalists and others, the Irish government under the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his successor Brian Cowan, publicly supported the plans, and condemned those who criticise them.

The most recent of these wins came on 28 September 2015 after an epic final replay in Carlonstown against Oldcastle Ladies watched by an estimated 1500 people.

Bohermeen is located in County Meath (light green on map).
The now deconsecrated Anglican St Ultan's Church .
The future of the 18th century building is in doubt.
Stained glass window in St Ultan's Church
An early 20th century window in Bohermen RC Church.
showing Christ the King .
An early 20th century window in Bohermen RC Church.
showing the coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary .
The 1000-year-old tower at St Ultan's (deconsecrated) Anglican Church.
It was reroofed in the mid-1980s in a joint Protestant/Catholic effort.