Neesy O'Haughan

Naoise O'Haughan (also known as Neesy, Ness and Nessie) was a well-known highwayman in County Antrim, Ireland in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

He is said to have hidden in caves at the Hatchet Field on the Black Mountain north of Belfast, before he was captured and hanged at 'The Three Sisters', the gallows green, near Carrickfergus Castle in 1720.

The wild rolling hills of Antrim - Divis and Black Mountain - provided an ideal environment for O'Haughan.

From: Joe Graham, Rushlight.

1691 Naiose O’Haughan born , let us now slip back in time and look at the life of this heroic Irish outlaw......

The Legend of Naoise O’Haughan

IF Sherwood Forest has given Nottingham its Robin Hood so too has the Antrim Hills and the Divis Mountains given Belfast, the bold Naoise O’Haughan, our own Robin Hood, an old ballad of his time declares....

“ ‘Tis of a famous highwayman a story I will tell,

His name was Naoise O’Haughan, in Ireland he did dwell.

And on the Antrim Mountains he commenced his wild career,

Where many a wealthy gentleman before him shook with fear.”

Naoise O’Haughan, or Nessy O'Haughan, was born in 1691, a fearful time for Irish people for this was the period immediately following the victory of the Dutchman, King William of Orange over the English Catholic King James, who had fought a battle at the River Boyne a year earlier. Hordes of William’s followers roamed the land killing and looting those they felt were not sympathetic to the Protestant principles of William.

Shane O’Haughan, Naoise’s father and his mother reared their family near Braid, at the foot of Slemish Mountain, they lived as tenants in a small holding belonging to O’Hara, a local wealthy landlord, who owned land throughout the parishes.

In the early 1700’s O’Hara’s men came to evict the O’Haughan family, a terrible part of the persecution visited on many a family in those times. The sight of their mother and father being roughly manhandled by the bailiffs was just to much to bear by the O’Haughan sons, Shane Og, Naoise, Robert, Denis and an adopted son Philomy. A fight broke out in which Shane Og killed one of the bailiffs and from that instance the O’Haughan boys became outlaws, ‘Raparees’.

Moving their parents to safety among sympathetic Presbyterian families, like the Graham’s of Glenwherry, who provided ‘Clachan’ dwellings built on their own land, ruins of one exists to this day at Kerny Hill on the land of David Graham. These Graham’s. My fathers family were supportive in sheltering Naoise and indeed Henry Joy McCracken after he went on the run following the Battle of Antrim in 1798. Naoise and his brothers took to the hills and reeked havoc on the desolate homesteads of those who they felt ‘lackeyed’ to the wishes of the landlords. It would appear that Denis, the adopted son, went off on his own, for soon after he was captured in Carrickfergus when he was spotted wearing the coat of a man he had robbed there just hours before, He was hanged at the nearby gallows.

It was in Glenwherry that Naoise and his band of brothers carried out their ‘Robin Hood’ activities for many stories exist of how they robbed local rich landlords and gave the money to the poor tenants to help pay their ever increasing rents.

It was one of the o’Haughan’s own kinsmen, a James McKinstry from Glenhead, although he is mentioned in the ballad as having taken part in the raids, who ultimately betrayed Naosie‘s brother, Shane Og. The ballad relates of a raid when Naoise and his band, hopelessly outnumbered were being pursued by Redcoats and local lackeys, among whom are mentioned, Beggs and Craig, two families still linked to the area to this day. The Beggs are related ‘Beggs The Glenwherry Poet’ whilst the Craigs built one of the first schoolhouses in the area. When Naoise got to the hills they turned and fired point blank at their pursuers causing them to panic and flee back down the mountain, the old ballad describes well the event....The bold Naoise O’Haughan, and Shane Og, the tory;

Little Owen Murphy and his younger brother Rory;

Randal Dhu Agnew, McKinstry and Maginnis,

Though half the Braid pursue, Make good the upper Tennies.

The last man in the rear had barely cleared the clachan

When a bullet grazed his hair, ‘Twas the burly Naoise O’Haughan.

“Stand comrades now.” he cried “Why flee ye in such a hurry?”

“Let’s tame the Begg’s pride, and cowe the Craigs of Skerry.”

“Range round your chief, my men, they are but shabby fellows;

We’ll fight them one to ten, ere we swing upon the gallows.”With that whizzed through the air, a bullet fue the ca

Which carried off the ear O’ singing Robin Allen.

Naoise and his band of wild raparees continued to torment and rob the rich but being so hopelessly outnumbered, and by the betrayal of lackeys and paid informers one by one they were captured. John McCrea, of Ballynure, received £5 for the capture of the brave Randal Dhu Agnew in 1717. Randal was taken to the Gallows Green at Carrickfergus and hanged, as was the noble Shane O’Haughan who had been ‘sold ’ for £10 by his brother-in-law ‘White James’ McKinstr

The rest of Naoise’s men had to keep their heads down, Toal, Magennis and Rory Murphy left the country to escape capture but Naoise alone carried on and there are any stories of his brave escapes from capture by the redcoats, one goes...

‘a troop of o mounted Recoats were sent out from Carrickfergus Castle to capture Naoise, They eventually espied him near his hiding place at Knockagh Mountain and made chase. His own chance to escape now lay in his speed of foot,So he gave his pursuers a smart race across the moors at Straid and reached Ballyboley Hill. There by coincidence he came across his brother Denis, also on the run. Seeing his brother was exhausted Denis sized the situation up quickly, He whistled to Naoise who fell flat into thick bracken and heather. Denis then waited for a few moments on the horsemen who came over the hill and made off as if he was the original fugitive. A fresh O’Haughan was more than equal to the tired horsemen and thus both escaped capture by the Redcoats‘.

On another occasion near Ballyeaston, again being pursued by the Redcoats, Naoise came round a sharp corner, out of sight of his tormentors, and seen a gang of farm workers carrying bags of grain. He picked up a bag and walked with the workers, the Redcoats came on and rode straight by. They never realised that one of the workers was the fugitive they were chasing and so Naoise escaped again.

Soon after this Naoise moved to the Divis Mountain range, and stopped around Ballyutoag where he took regular shelter. He continued to roam and raid around Ballymagarry, Ballymurphy, Ballyhill, Hightown Hill and Craigarogan. No doubt he would have been offered shelter among the good folk at Springhill Clachan, at the head of the Mountain Loney. A Clachan, by the way, was a nestling of a few houses built closely together. The present day Springhill housing estate was named from this old community.

Before long Naoise O’Haughan brushes and close escapes were becoming more regular as the Redcoats closed in on him. Nessy often hid out at the caves below the Hatchet Field on the Black Mountain. His last recorded chase occurred one day along the Belfast Hills with the enemy close behind him. They thought they had him cornered when he came on the banks of the River Lagan at a spot to wide to jump and too rough to swim, but Naoise took one wild leap and managed to clear the river landing safely on the other bank, leaving his pursuers stranded behind him.

Nothing more was heard of Naoise, it was as if he had vanished of the face of the earth. Then one day, on a military Barracks Square, where some soldiers were betting on who could jump clear over two horses, the bet was won by an English soldier. The wage was increased and a challenge went out to any one present to attempt to jump over three horses. No one came forward, there were mutterings that it would be an impossible task. Suddenly another soldier, an Irishman, stepped forward and said he could jump over three horses. To everyone’s amazement he took a running jump and cleared the horses easily and to much applause he collected his bets. But not everyone was applauding, an officer stepped forward and pointing at the victor he said, “Arrest that man, I have only ever seen one man capable of such a jump, and he was an Irishman too, that man has to be Naoise O’Haughan ”. The officer had been the officer in charge of the Recoats in the pursuit of Naosie when he escaped by making his daring jump over the River Lagan. And so our bold rebel lad was finally captured and brought to Carrickfergus Castle where he was sentenced to die. Naoise was hanged at the infamous Gallows Green, his head cut off and placed on a spike near that of his brother’s Shane Og, who had been hanged two years earlier in 1718. Folklore has it that a wren built a nest in the skull of Shane, it also claims that Naoise and his party had secretly buried their loot, gold and jewellery, along the Belfast Hills and it has never been uncovered.