Qualla: Garvagh https://qualla.com/garvagh en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Garvagh https://qualla.com/garvagh Garvagh: Introduction https://qualla.com/garvagh/ There is a folk song called 'The Battle of Garvagh' that loyalist marching bands have been playing for two hundred years. The tune is a jaunty, almost cheerful air; the lyrics commemorate a small sectarian skirmish that took place on 26 July 1813 when Catholic Ribbonmen attempted to burn down a tavern frequented by Orangemen, and the Orangemen fought them off. A handful of men were killed. By Irish-history standards it barely registers - but in the loyalist musical canon it became something larger: a parable of Protestant defence, sung at Orange parades from Garvagh to Glasgow and beyond. The actual battle was a tavern brawl that escalated. The song made it into mythology. And the village of Garvagh, population 1,252 at the 2021 census, has carried that mythology forward for two centuries while quietly going about the business of being a small Plantation town on the banks of the Agivey River.

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/3/garvagh-wp/gcg3-garvagh-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Garvagh: The Cannings of Warwickshire https://qualla.com/garvagh/ Garvagh was founded in the early 17th century by George Canning, an agent for the Ironmonger's Company of London - one of the City livery companies allocated land in Ulster during the Plantation. Canning came from Warwickshire and his descendants would, by the time of the Napoleo...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/3/garvagh-wp/gcg3-garvagh-the-cannings-of-warwickshire.mp3 0:06 2 full Garvagh: Denis Hampson, the Blind Harper https://qualla.com/garvagh/ In the walled garden of Garvagh House, where the Canning family seat once stood, there is a granite pillar memorial to Donnchadh Ó hÁmsaigh - Denis Hampson - the great blind Irish harper who lived from 1695 to 1807. Hampson spanned three centuries in a way few people have ever ma...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/3/garvagh-wp/gcg3-garvagh-denis-hampson-the-blind-harper.mp3 0:06 3 full Garvagh: 1813 and What the Song Did https://qualla.com/garvagh/ On 26 July 1813, a group of Ribbonmen attempted to attack the tavern in Garvagh where local Orangemen were known to drink. The Ribbon Society was a Catholic-defence organisation that had grown out of the sectarian tensions following the United Irish defeat in 1798. The Orangemen ...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/3/garvagh-wp/gcg3-garvagh-1813-and-what-the-song-did.mp3 0:06 4 full Garvagh: Famine, Mill and Railway https://qualla.com/garvagh/ Like every village in this part of Ulster, Garvagh was reshaped by the Great Famine. The Catholic and Protestant populations that emerge in the 19th-century records reflect waves of population loss and rural depopulation that continued through the 20th century. The Derry Central ...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/3/garvagh-wp/gcg3-garvagh-famine-mill-and-railway.mp3 0:06 5 full Garvagh: After the Troubles https://qualla.com/garvagh/ Garvagh and the surrounding area were drawn into the violence of the Troubles in the late 20th century like every village in Ulster. In August 2009, more than twenty windows were smashed in Catholic-owned businesses in the village in a coordinated overnight attack; the PSNI inves...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/3/garvagh-wp/gcg3-garvagh-after-the-troubles.mp3 0:06 6 full