Michael James Whitty

Sited in the old Barony of Bargy between the strong points of Rathangan (Rath Daingean- strong circular fort) and Duncormick (Dun Cormaic- Cormac's fortified mound). The place has witnessed the comings and goings of the ages. The name Nicharee was featured in Petrie's Sixteenth century, Down Survey map where it was spelled Neghery. It was most probably an English attempt at Cnoic an Ri, pronounced "k nik a ree". From Rathangan direction it is approached by a gradual uphill climb through Robinstown and Horesloan and from Duncormick via the Booley Way through Commons and Glebe. These names adjacent to Dun Cormaic suggest a past manorial village structure. Commons being commonage, the Glebe being church lands and Booleying being the old practice of moving animals from the village to their Summer grazing lands. The next rising ground being the King's Hill- Nicharee, seems plausible, though whether the king in question was Cormac or an other, I do not know.

Part of the Devereaux and then Loftus estates, the farm found fame in the early Nineteenth century in the writings of Michael James Whitty who recounted his memories of growing up on the farm. Whitty was a significant figure in the public life of Victorian Britain. As a journalist he founded and owned the Liverpool Post, Britains first penny daily newspaper. He also founded the Liverpool police and fire brigade as Liverpool's first chief  constable. He was a friend of Daniel O'Connell and personally brought a group of English MPs over to show them the ravages of the Great Famine. Whether his descriptions of his fathers ship owning and the lavish entertainments in the "low thatched farmhouse at Nicharee" are embellished or not, I cant say. in the more recent centuries the farm has been occupied in turn by the Coady, Roche, White and Cadogan families and since 1959 by the present writers family, the Considines.