Egan (1977) writing almost 30 years ago states that the name New Antrim Street was still ‘not yet accepted by the people of the town’. After the decline of the woollen trade in the seventeenth century and the rise of the linen trade in the 18th century in Castlebar, skilled labour was sourced from Ulster. Many of these people are thought to have come from Antrim. During the 1790s sectarian aggression between Protestants and Catholics increased, leading the governor of Armagh to describe the events that were unfolding as nothing short of a ‘persecution'. By the end of 1795, 800 Northern Catholic families had moved to Mayo and many to Castlebar. The refugees were given refuge and employment in the linen trade and housed in what is now known as New Antrim Street as the locals referred to the new arrivals collectively as the ‘new Antrims’. A row of houses was built at ‘Shruffan’ a name still locally used for New Antrim Street. In more recent times a new housing estate in the general area was named ‘Shruffan’.
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