NEWRY,NEWRYABBEY,BAGENAL, SCASTLE

After 1641 Some Of the Bagnalls or Bagenals in Ireland were definitely counted as "Irish Papists," and with good reason. Col. Walter Bagenal (1641-1653), a prominent member of the Supreme Council of the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny, was hanged by Cromwell and in the next generation his son Col. Dudley Bagenal (1638-1712) recruited and commanded an infantry regiment for James II’s army. He was a member of the 1689 "Patriot" Parliament and was attainted by the victorious Williamites. Col. Walter's Co. Carlow estate was recovered by the family after the Restoration and a considerable property in that county was still in Bagenal hands until quite recent times. These properties were Dunleckny and Bennekerry near Carlow, a few miles north of Bagenalstown which was named from this family. This has been superseded by the older Gaelic name Muine Bheag, but it is still used by many of the inhabitants in preference to the town's official name.

The Bagenals, however, are not one of the old Anglo Norman families so many of whom became hibernicized, Sir Nicholas Bagenal first came to Ireland in 1539. He was of an influential Staffordshire family - the name is taken from a village in that shire. He left home in disgrace but, having been pardoned by Henry VIII, became a privy councillor and marshal of the English army and acquired estates around Newry.

One of his sons, Sir Henry Bagenal (1556-1598), was killed at the famous battle of theYellow Ford; he wrote a description of Ulster in 1586 and was a bitter foe of Hugh O'Neill,who had eloped with his sister Mabel Bagenal. His half-brother, Sir Samuel Bagenal, commanded a regiment under Carew in the Munster campaign. A generation later, this family of English soldiers and settlers was to take its place among the most determined opponents of English aggression. The reversion of the family to Protestantism came about through Walter Bagenal's marriage to Eleanor Beauchamp, the children of this second marriage being brought up in their mother's religion. One of these, Beauchamp Bagenal (1735-1802), a picturesque character of the eighteenth century duellist M.P. type, was a consistent supporter of the Catholic cause. Philip Henry Bagenal (b. 1 850) was a prolific political and legal writer.

The Irish name Ó Beigléighinn, normally anglicized Beglan and Beglin, has assumed the form Bagnall in some isolated cases, e.g. in Co. Meath. In the Drogheda area Begney has been recorded as synonymous with Bagnall. The O'Beglins were one of the hereditary medical families of mediaeval Ireland; the Annals of Loch Cé record the death in 1529 of Maurice O'Beglin. The sept was located principally in Co. Longford