placenamesMackan
Macan
Government correspondence preserves contested accounts of the fatal Macken confrontation and the prisoners’ appeals that followed.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Macan · Irish · main form · validated name
- Mackan · English · main form
Place & story
The prisoners’ petition
The National Archives catalogue describes a March 1830 petition from Francis McBryan and ten other prisoners at Enniskillen Gaol, accused of killing Edward Scarlet, Robert Mealie and George Price at Macken during the previous July’s riot. They denied guilt and alleged that the Orange party had pursued and attacked the Catholics. These were the prisoners’ claims, rather than an agreed account of the confrontation. [2]
An appeal over the jury
The petition also challenged the impartiality of jury selection and complained about inflammatory newspaper coverage. According to the catalogue, Henry Joy’s accompanying reply agreed with the request for impartial freeholders and said he had written to the crown solicitor. The correspondence records concerns about the proceedings without establishing the outcome of every prisoner’s case. [2]
Tracing suspects through the post
An earlier letter, dated 1 November 1829, reported that three suspects had gone to County Meath to pick potatoes. Official Bartholomew Warburton asked permission to intercept correspondence addressed through an Enniskillen cooper. The catalogue records Chief Secretary Francis Leveson Gower’s approval, showing how the investigation extended beyond Fermanagh. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Mackan. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- CSO/RP/1830/360: prisoners’ petition concerning the Macken killings · National Archives of Ireland, Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers catalogue
- CSO/RP/OR/1829/865: correspondence concerning Macken suspects · National Archives of Ireland, Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers catalogue
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2010-04-19. How this page was prepared.