History of Doagh

Whilst still a young man William Galt, who was then the schoolmaster of the village was inspired with the notion of forming a book club and was supported in this endeavour by like-minded, enthusiastic men. In 1768 the Reading Society was established and had thirty members. Their objective appears to have been to promote the mutual attainment of knowledge.

They purchased and read books covering a wide range of subjects eg literature, science, history, mechanics, divinity etc. They also acquired a pair of 18 inch globes. Together as a Society the members had the opportunity to acquire what would have been beyond their reach as individuals. The desire for knowledge spread throughout the countryside and several reading societies similar to that in Doagh were formed in Ballyclare, Ballynure, Roughfort, Parkgate and Haytown.

The writer of the article in the Downpatrick Recorder entered the school in 1786 when there were 40 scholars and 3 teachers. To this reprint of the article in the Christian Life an appended note was attached. This stated that the year 1776 should be substituted for 1782.

The Doagh Sunday School claims to have been established 6 years earlier than that at Bright, if the year 1776 is correct, and 12 years earlier if the original year of 1782 is correct. Also, the Doagh Sunday School was nondenominational from the onset. The writer of the article may have been aware of the existence of a Sunday School established previously to the one in Bright, as he refers to it as “an early” Sunday School and not the “first” Sunday School.²

Although it is not of vital importance which Sunday School was established first, it is of considerable interest. In the absence of proof to the contrary, it is reasonable that Doagh could claim the honour of having the first Sunday School in Ireland. The Sunday School flourished and soon the number of scholars receiving tuition increased to 200. The Reading Society provided the books required and the teachers gave their services free of charge.

It is not known where the Sunday School was originally held. It is indeed probable that neither the library nor the Sunday School had any permanent home until 1780. In 1780 the members of the library applied to Edward Jones Agnew of Kilwaughter for a site on which to build a schoolhouse.

This was agreed and the members raised the funds required to erect a 2-storey building containing school accommodation and also a large room in which to house their library and hold meetings. School accommodation was on the ground floor and the external stairs to the right led up to the library/assembly room.

This building still stands beside the Methodist Church and is now known as the Doagh Community Hall, previously the Orange Hall. It was enlarged and renovated in 1958 by Mr John Thompson of Doagh and again in 2011 by Mr Thomas Downey of Toomebridge.

In the three days after the Battle of Antrim severe retribution fell upon the towns and villages thought to be at the centre of disaffection. The yeomanry whose duty it was to hunt for ‘rebels’ were thorough in following their instructions.

“They rudely entered houses, probed under beds, into darkened corners and cupboards with their bayonets, battered in doors and lids of boxes with the butt-ends of their muskets in the hope of discovering hidden rebels and threatened people in a most domineering and abusive manner.“ ⁸

At that time Reading Societies were popular and in official circles, it was deemed that the desire to read was clear evidence of disaffection. There was frequent opposition to Sunday Schools also. On a marble tablet erected in the memory of Rev. William Field, a former minister of the Unitarian meeting House in Warwick , it states that amid the bitterest odium he founded the first Sunday School in that town, and maintained it in the face of almost inconceivable violence.

The vicar of Warwick declared that if the school was not closed, Mr Field’s Meeting House, and the houses of members of his congregation would be burned down. This state of feeling in an old midland town in England may go some way to explain the reference on William Galt’s headstone to the “opposition and reproach of the prejudiced.”⁹

The authorities evidently knew that William Galt was a rebel in spirit if not in deed. He was a pioneer in education. He was an intellectual man who took a keen interest in the political issues of the period. He was a man of considerable influence in the neighbourhood. So it is not surprising that he received more attention from the guardians of the law than most other residents in Doagh.

William Galt lived in a thatched dwelling on the corner of Main Street and Ballyclare Road. It remained as he left it on his death in 1812 until 1879 when it was renovated and considerably altered by his nephew Alexander Galt. On one occasion as the yeomanry entered in the front of William Galt’s house he escaped at the rear.

By this time he had stopped teaching and was a grocer and provision merchant. However he continued to be very much involved in the organisation and running of the school as can be seen in the advertisements which were placed in local newspapers.

However, an article appeared 36 years later in The Northern Whig in April 1874. In it John Rowan gives an account of a conversation he had with Samuel McSkimin shortly before his death in 1843.

“I was one of a company of Carrickfergus Fencibles who received orders to visit Doagh for the double purpose of searching for arms and arresting proscribed rebels. We entered the village, but not finding the objects searched for,those in command of the party ordered the doors of the Club Room to be burst open; and the work of demolition at once commenced. The windows and the entire furniture of the house were broken in pieces; a pair of elegant new globes smashed to atoms; the library shutters enclosing the books and papers, beaten in with musket ends, and the books thrown into the street, forming a huge pile were set fire to and burned.” “I attempted,” continued the historian, “to preserve a single volume of Robertson’s History of Charles the Fifth, which the Goth by my side perceiving, snatched away the volume, and spurned it with his foot into the flames. Never, either before or since did I return home with a heavier heart than from the disgraceful proceedings at the edifice wherein I received the first rudiments of education. Even when I reflect on this unprovoked act of devastation, I can only compare it with the deeds of Ginghis [sic] Khan or a Tamerlane.” ¹¹

There is some discrepancy between the two articles with regard to the titles of the volumes mentioned. In the earlier account Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was burned and Robertson’s History of Charles the Fifth was saved. In the later account Robertson’s History of Charles the Fifth was burned and no mention was made of any book having been saved.

The library had about 800 volumes covering almost every branch of science and literature. There were 40 ancient maps around the room and a pair of very ancient large globes i.e. a celestial and a terrestrial by Jameson, purchased from London at a cost of £20. The members met quarterly to transact business and hear the report of the librarian, who gave out books required by members each week. James Love was librarian at this time and he received £2 per year, paid by the members, for the provision of this service.

The library was a centre for those with an inquiring mind and continued to prosper for many years. However, by 1850 it had ceased to flourish. The school books in use, (the school had been placed under the Board of National Education in 1832), cheap newspapers, the penny periodicals and shilling novels and indeed the famine and emigration all conspired to do what the authorities could not and the library began its downward spiral.

Some years later Rev. W.S. Smith visited the premises of the Sunday School/Library in the company of a grand-nephew of William Galt and was evidently saddened by what he experienced. He wrote:

“It is two-storied and white-washed, as indeed were most of the houses in the village. It was used from the first as a place of meeting for the Masons of the district, it is so used now. . . . . . The room in which Mr. Galt taught the Sunday School was on the ground floor and would probably seat 60 scholars. Above it we entered the apartment, in which are still the relics of the Doagh Library. I examined a number of the books, which are fast going to decay — many indeed are now almost beyond recognition. The oldest volume met with was printed in 1740 while most of those we saw were printed in the last half of the last century. . . . . . there appeared to be the best works accessible during the period in which the library flourished. . . . . . hundreds of volumes are rapidly turning to dust. The sight was a sad one. That fine library is a thing of the past – a mere memory. It had ceased to instruct, to inspire. It was in this same room that Rev James Porter occasionally lectured to the brighter intellects of the district.”¹³

No doubt there are many people who, as inscribed on his headstone, have cause to “bless his name”. A few of the more renowned are as follows.

In 1824 John Rowan built a foundry in Doagh. He was a self-taught mechanic and his 16 workmen including his 3 sons all served their apprenticeships to him. He was responsible for building the first steam coach in Ireland. He also invented and patented the piston ring. He acquired his taste for mechanics and his knowledge of mechanism solely from the Doagh Library.¹⁵

John Alexander, (McCalshander) who composed ‘An Acrostic Elegy’ was a local poet, a member of the Doagh Book Club, an Irish Volunteer and Freemason. He amassed a miniature museum containing antiquities found in the area. He published a rhyming catalogue of his collection in Rushlight which was a weekly magazine edited by Luke Mullan Hope (father of Jemmy) from December 1824 to September 1825 when it ceased. He died 10 December 1824 in his 64th year and is buried in Kilbride Cemetery.

Samuel McSkimin was born in 1775 in the neighbourhood of Doagh and received his early schooling in the Doagh Sunday School. He moved to Carrickfergus in 1797 and had a grocery business in the Irish Quarter. He was a member of the Carrickfergus Fencibles who attacked and destroyed the library in 1798. He was a notable historian and wrote articles for various magazines and newspapers. He is noted primarily for his “History of Carrickfergus” and “Annals of Ulster”. He died 21 February 1843 and is buried in St. Nicholas’s Churchyard in Carrickfergus.