A Little History of Walshs

Formerly known as ‘The Inn of Maghera’ Walsh's Hotel has a long and chequered history.

It is traditionally believed that Jack O’Neill, of Ballygawley, Co. Tyrone built the first hostelry in.... This was made possible through him finding a crock of silver on a hill outside Maghera and it was from this discovery the hill got its name 'Silver Hill'.

In the stirring days of 1798, a romantic incident occurred at the Inn. One day, a pretty maid, daughter of the proprietor, Jack O’Neill, was watching the approach of a troop of cavalry from an upstairs window overlooking the Main Street, when she was espied by a handsome Captain Lamont, riding beside his Colonel at the head of the Yeows. In a flash, he announced to his superior officer, “That girl is going to be my wife,” which words proved prophetic. Another instance of the ‘Beloved Enemy’.

A second daughter of the O’Neill’s married Alexander Falls. A son of theirs, John O’Neill Falls became one of the first catholic attorneys in Ireland after emancipation. He served his apprenticeship in a Belfast office, in Donegal Street along with the great John Rea and Sir Charles Russell, who afterwards became the leader of the English Bar.

The Hotel as left by the Falls family to a son-in-law, Surgeon Peter Henry, who served in the British Navy in the Battleships, Trident, Lion, Abercrombie, Bellisle and Northumberland, from whose commander a rear Admiral, he was given the following testimonial; “A most correct, good officer and a perfect gentleman.” Surgeon Peter Henry attended Napoleon on St. Helena. In recognition, the little Corsican rewarded him with a ring that passed into the heirlooms of the Henry’s in Australia along with the original and only known portrait of Own Roe O’Neill.

Peter in turn, left the hotel to his daughter Alicia, who subsequently sold it to her cousin Louis Walsh. The Marquess family eventually purchased the hotel until 1993, when the present owners bought it.