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CUSHINSTOWN

CO. MEATH · IE

Cushinstown
Baile Chuisín, Co. Meath

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 05 / 05

Baile Chuisín · Co. Meath

A scattered Meath crossroads off the N2 with one good country pub, a ruined church in a field, and a national school that turned out two All-Ireland footballers and a future Taoiseach.

Cushinstown is not really a village in the church-pub-shop sense. It is a townland and a civil parish, a crossroads of about a hundred acres in the rolling country south of Slane, with a scattered farming community around it. The Cusack family, landowners here from the fifteenth century, gave it the name - the Annals of the Four Masters record it as Baile Cúisin in 1552. For most of its history the place ran entirely on agriculture, and largely still does.

Its quirk is administrative. Cushinstown, together with Roadmain and Curraghtown, belongs to the parish of Duleek - but it is not physically attached to the main parish at any point. It is an offshore island of Duleek territory dropped into the barony of Skreen, out near Kilmoon Cross and Garristown, closer to Ashbourne than to Duleek itself. You reach it on secondary roads from Ardcath, Curraha, Garristown, Duleek and Slane, with the dead-straight N2 Dublin-Slane road running past the eastern edge.

There is one pub, The Becks on the R152, long known as Dowlings, and it is the sort of country bar people drive out for. There is a ruined church in a field, Crossmacoole at Roadmain, the old parish church of Cushinstown, sitting in a graveyard whose oldest stones go back to the 1780s. And there is the school - Scoil Naomh Cianáin, teaching since 1841 - which is the reason most people have ever heard the name.

Because for a place this small, the school has an extraordinary roll of past pupils. The footballers Peter McDermott and, two generations later, John McDermott both came out of this parish. So, briefly, did a future Taoiseach: Charles Haughey was a pupil here in 1932 and 1933, when his family lived at Greenpark. Come for the pint and the quiet. Do not come expecting a town.

Population

Townland of about 98 acres; a scattered rural community, not a counted village

Founded

Named for the Cusack family, landowners here from the 15th century (Annals form "Baile Cúisin", 1552)

Coords

53.5878° N, 6.4775° W

01 / 05

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The school

A two-teacher country school with a long memory.

Registered as Cushenstown School in 1841 and still teaching as Scoil Naomh Cianáin. Among its past pupils: footballers Peter and John McDermott, and a young Charles Haughey, who attended in 1932 and 1933 while his family lived nearby at Greenpark.

Stories & lore → 02 The pub

The Becks - one pub, and a good one.

On the R152 at the village. Long known as Dowlings, an old country bar with a reputation locals will defend for the pint of Guinness. If you want a stop in Cushinstown, this is the stop.

Pubs → 03 The geography

An offshore island of Duleek parish.

Cushinstown, with Roadmain and Curraghtown, belongs to Duleek parish but is not joined to it - it sits in the barony of Skreen near Kilmoon Cross, an administrative island reached by roads from Ardcath, Curraha, Garristown and Slane.

Getting there →

02 / 05

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Becks

Old-fashioned country bar

Country pub, on the R152 at the village

The one pub in Cushinstown, long known as Dowlings and still called that by some. A proper old country bar at the crossroads on the R152 near Kilmoon, the sort of place people drive out from Ashbourne and Garristown for. Locals will tell you, without much prompting, that it pours one of the best pints of Guinness in Meath. If you are stopping in Cushinstown at all, you are stopping here.

03 / 05

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Two All-Ireland footballers, two generations

The McDermotts of Cushinstown

Peter McDermott - "the man in the cap" - was Meath's first great footballer, left corner-forward on the 1949 All-Ireland winning side and captain of the 1954 winners, and a top referee who took charge of the All-Ireland finals of 1953 and 1956. Two generations later, John McDermott came out of the same parish, attended Cushinstown school from 1975 to 1982, played his club football with Skryne, and won All-Irelands with Meath in 1996 and 1999, taking an All-Star in 1996. For a townland of a hundred acres to produce two footballers of that order, decades apart, is not ordinary. The parish has never been shy about saying so.

Charles Haughey, pupil, 1932-1933

The Taoiseach in the two-room school

Before he was a minister, a Taoiseach and the most divisive figure in modern Irish politics, Charles Haughey was a small boy at Cushinstown national school. He attended in 1932 and 1933, when the Haughey family was living nearby at Greenpark, before the move to Dublin that shaped the rest of his life. It is a footnote, but a good one: a future head of government and a two-time All-Ireland captain sat in the same modest country schoolhouse within a few years of each other.

Ruined parish church at Roadmain

Crossmacoole, the church in the field

At the western end of Roadmain, about 250 metres past The Becks pub on the R152, a pedestrian swing gate leads into an old graveyard with a ruined single-cell church known as Crossmacoole. It was the parish church of Cushinstown. Its origins are uncertain - a 1656 survey does not mention it, the 1837 Ordnance Survey simply marks it "church", and by 1836 it was already ruinous - so it likely went up sometime between the two, though it wears a more medieval look than that. Ivy has taken the walls, the north and south sides have partly collapsed, and a tall opening survives in the west gable. The oldest headstones around it date to the 1780s. It is the kind of small, overgrown ruin you find all over Meath and almost nobody stops for.

04 / 05

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The Becks to Crossmacoole church ruin From the pub on the R152, walk roughly 250 metres west to the swing gate into the old Roadmain graveyard and the ruined church of Crossmacoole. Boots in winter - it is a field, and the ivy-clad ruin and 1780s headstones are the whole of it. Quiet, and you will likely have it to yourself.

About 500 m returndistance

20 minutestime

Getting there.

By car

Cushinstown sits near Kilmoon Cross off the N2 Dublin-Slane road, the famously straight stretch north of Ashbourne. From Ashbourne it is about 10 minutes north; turn onto the R152 toward Garristown and Drogheda. From Dublin it is roughly 45 minutes via the N2. The village is also reached on secondary roads from Ardcath, Curraha, Garristown, Duleek and Slane. There is no public transport into the village itself.

By bus

No direct service to Cushinstown. Bus Éireann and Local Link routes serve Ashbourne and Slane on the N2; from there it is a short drive or taxi. Treat a car as essential.