Bangor (civil parish)

According to the Annals of Ulster, a monastery was founded in 555 or 559 by Saint Comgall. Saint Columbanus who was a pupil of St Comgall was also associated with the monastery. It flourished in the 7th and 8th centuries, after which its coastal position made it vulnerable to Vikings raids, such as in 810, which saw St. Comgall's shrine despoiled and many of the monastery's clergy slain. Despite further decline by the 10th century, in the early 12th century, St. Malachy helped restore it. In 1571 an indenture between Queen Elizabeth I and Thomas Smith, and his son Thomas, meant that the Smith's were to conquer as much land in the Ards peninsula and northern County Down as possible. Thomas Smith junior however was killed in 1573 by Irishmen in his own service, with Thomas Smith senior dying four years later, leaving the patent unfulfilled and thus expiring. As the 17th century started, Conn O'Neill was the largest land-owner in north Down. After a series of deals between Conn O'Neill and Scotsmen Hugh Montgomery and James Hamilton, Conn's lands were divided up between them, with Conn retaining the third that lay in the barony of Castlereagh Lower. Hamilton's third centred on the north of Ards Lower, with King James I in 1605 granting him the land of Bangor monastery along with its associated townlands. Petty's Census c1659 records 595 people of a certain wealth liable to pay tax in the parish of Bangor, 417 of which are stated as being either English or Scottish. The Irish language appears to have died out in the area by the 19th century when John O'Donovan was working on the Ordnance Survey memoirs in the neighbouring parishes of Donaghadee and Holywood 1834. O'Donovan was unable to find any Irish speakers, and complained that the locals were ignorant of the place-names, and that their pronunciation of them was so corrupt, they were of no help in finding out the original Irish forms. In Bangor parish O'Donovan's informants were all English speakers. ==Settlements==