Draperstown - History

History

Historically it is a union of two settlements. In Elizabethan times the crossroads that was later to become Draperstown heralded a toll gate and a duckpond adjoining an earthen fort. At the onset of the Plantation of Ulster, annexed/expropriated land was distributed between the Established Church (the Church of Ireland) and twelve London Livery Companies that were to form the new county of Londonderry. The Ballynascreen area was divided between the Drapers' and the Skinners' companies, and the crossroads formed the boundary between the two. The area west of the crossroads which included Straw, Sixtowns and Moneyneena was part of the Skinner's portion. East of the crossroads belonged to the Drapers. The area was largely forgotten by the two companies until the turn of the nineteenth century, the land and properties being leased out to others.

The present town was founded in 1798 by Laughlin McNamee, who had a public house in Moneyneena, 3.5 km north west of the crossroads. When he realised that his business was going to suffer when the local fair was to be moved, he transferred his premises to the crossroads and built a number of houses alongside. McNamee is buried in the front graveyard of the Catholic parish church, St Columba's, Straw (1.5 km SW of Draperstown). The new settlement was referred to by different names: the Cross of Ballinascreen, Moyheeland, and Burboy. In 1812, the Drapers' Company had a resurgent interest in their portion, and built a new planned town in the western reaches of their land, overlooking and adjoining the crossroads. This they referred to as Draperstown, and this was the name subsequently recognized by the Post Office. The properties within the area in the present day which still belong to the original Drapers Company include the "Fair Hill" area and the "Gate House" on Magherafelt (Gortnaskey) Road.

In the 1840s the town garnered notoriety as a place with a severe, albeit unusual drug problem. This has been described in detail by a Dr Nagle who made a report on licit and illicit drugs on behalf of the Consumer Union in the mid nineteenth century where he stated: "About 1840 a Catholic priest, Father Matthew, led a great temperance crusade through England, Scotland, and Ireland. It was one of the most successful that ever occurred; thousands took the pledge. One of them was an alcoholic physician named Kelly who practiced in Draperstown, in the north of Ireland. Aghast at the pleasure he had given up, but not wishing to break his pledge, cast about for a substitute. He had prescribed ether by mouth on occasion and knew of its pleasant effects. After a few personal experiments he imparted the knowledge to his friends and patients who had also taken the pledge. Ether sniffing became endemic in Draperstown. Fifteen years later, when the British government placed a stiff tax on alcoholic beverages and when the constabulary clamped down on home distilled Irish whiskey, Kelly's discovery was recalled and exploited to the hilt. Ether, which was not subject to the tax, was distilled in London and shipped to Draperstown and other places in Northern Ireland by the ton. Ether was preferred in some ways, and especially among the poor, to the now-expensive whiskey. The drink was quick and cheap, and could be achieved several times a day without hangover. If arrested for drunkenness, the offender would be sober by the time the police station was reached."

A surgeon visiting Draperstown in 1878 remarked "The main street smelled like his surgery, where ether was used as an anesthetic. Old ether topers, he added, could finish off a three-ounce wineglassful at a single swig, without even water for a chaser. Everyone who discussed this particular phenomenon admitted that there appeared to be less chronic damage than with alcohol. But hazards were also noted: chronic gastritis, deaths from overdosage, and fatal burns from smoking while drinking–– for ether is extremely flammable."