So far we have looked at the 1821 and 1901 censuses for Castle Street, Birr together with traders in the street in the nineteenth century (see previous articles by going to the blog section on http://www.offalyhistory.com.) There were a lot of new families in Castle Street in 1911 when compared with 1901 based on the surname of the occupiers – not always a reliable guide. Families where there was continuity included that of John Wall, James Sammon, Patrick Connors, Laurence Kennedy, Owen Gaffney and Elizabeth Watterson.
In my previous article (Part 4) on the history of the Ballyduff quarries I looked in more detail at one of the Wrafter families involved in stonecutting at far back as at least 1807. In this article I will relate the story of two other Wrafter families of stonecutters. Members of these families are still active in the cutting, carving and sculpting of stone.
Wrafter family #2
This Wrafter family were also from Ballyduff and were heavily involved in the stonecutting trade at least from the 1850’s onwards. Between 1850 and the 1950’s at least 12 men from three generations of this family were stonecutters and most of them had at one time or another lived in Ballyduff and learned their trade at the nearby quarries. The lack of older records makes it impossible for me at present to say to what extent this family, and indeed even the other Wrafter branches, were involved in stoneworking before 1800.
Belonging to the earliest generation of stonecutters were Thomas (b. 1835, d. before 1882) and Patrick (b. ab. 1842, d. 1889). Five sons of Patrick Wrafter and his wife Katherine (nee Walsh) became stonecutters (John, Patrick, Jim, Joseph and Alec). After learning their trade in Tullamore Jim, Joseph and Alec practised their trade for extended periods in Cork and Dublin.
John worked a quarry of his own in Ballyduff in the late 19th – early 20th century. Patrick worked a quarry together with some employees in the neighbouring townland of Arden until at least 1928. Alec returned to Tullamore and also worked part of the Ballyduff quarries up to the 1950’s.
Stonecutters from this Wrafter family worked on the building of the new Catholic Church in Tullamore circa 1906. In 1908, they carved the stone tracery for a new stained-glass window for St Catherine’s Church (Church of Ireland) in Tullamore. Several of the Celtic cross grave monuments at Clonminch cemetery in Tullamore bear the names of John and Patrick Wrafter, and can arguably be considered works of art.
Clonminch, Tullamore 2
Fig. 1. Celtic cross headstones sculpted by John Wrafter (1866-1941). Erected in or around 1910 in Clonminch cemetery, Tullamore. The monument in the photo on the right (2) was made by John for his own family; three of his children and his wife are named on the headstone.
Four of the Wrafter brothers (John, Jim, Alec and Joseph) were active in the Stonecutters’ Union of Ireland, a trade union for stonecutters. The photo below is of representatives of various branches of the Stonecutters’ Union of Ireland, as well as of the union’s central organisation. The picture was taken about 1905. Two of the brothers feature in the photo:
John Wrafter (b 1864), representative for Tullamore and Alec Wrafter (b 1879), representative for Dublin.
Fig 2. Photo of members of the Stonecutters Union of Ireland (obtained from Barry Wrafter). Alec Wrafter (Dublin) back row, 2nd from the left. John Wrafter (Tullamore) back row, 2nd from the right.
James (Jim) Wrafter (b 1872) was Treasurer of the Union (perhaps the Dublin Branch) about 1909.
Joseph Wrafter (b 1882) was elected Annual Auditor of the Stonecutters’ Union of Ireland in 1907. Joseph was not living in Dublin at the time so involvement in the union would have meant regular trips by train to Dublin to attend meetings in Capel St. Several years later Joseph moved to Dublin and by 1932 he had been elected the General Secretary of the Stonecutters’ Union of Ireland. He died in Dublin in 1936.
Among the members of the Tullamore Company of the Irish Volunteers in 1916 were several stonecutters and masons from the Bracken, Wrafter and Molloy families. Joseph Wrafter was an active member and played a big part in the events of 20 March 1916, which became known as the “Tullamore incident”. In a skirmish, shots were fired and a bullet from the gun of Peader Bracken (another stonecutter) hit police sergeant Ahern. Joseph and his fellow volunteers were tried by a military court and ultimately released without conviction. Joseph was the father of the late Sister Oliver, who was a Presentation nun in Rahan and a keen local historian.
Recurring issues at the Union meetings reported by the press were demands for the use of Irish limestone in construction and the employment of Irish stonecutters in quarrying and dressing stone. Another demand was that available jobs should go to trade union stonecutters.
In 1896 stonecutters of the Stonecutter’s Union at the Ballyduff quarries went on strike over demands for higher wages and a half-day on Saturdays. The strike was short-lived as a settlement was promptly reached. Three decades later in 1922, there was another dispute over wages. This time the settlement resulted in a reduction of wages of stonecutters by 5 shillings to £3-10s, and of quarrymen by 2 shillings to £3. This may have reflected a decrease in the demand for quarried stone. In the early years of the 20th century concrete blocks began to replace stone for construction purposes, a development that was much criticized by the Stonecutter’s Union.
Several of the next generation of the Wrafter family entered the stonecutting trade. I will mention just two of them here. Patrick Joseph, born c. 1899, son of James, emigrated to America. He states his occupation as stone carver on his wedding certificate of 1922 in Albany, New York State.
John born 1891, son of John (b 1864), became a stonecutter/sculptor in Tullamore. By the 1930s he had left the stone trade and became a grocer and publican, with premises on Harbour Street (Wrafter’s Harbour Bar).
The latter half of the 20th century saw the continuing decline of the stonecutting trade. The carving of headstones was one of the few activities that survived for the employment of stonecutters. Among the Wrafters of Tullamore the trade died out. Four or five decades passed without a Wrafter putting his signature to a piece of stonework. Then in the late 1990s the Wrafter name appeared once again in connection with stonework. Barry Wrafter, the great-grandson of stonecutter John Wrafter, born 1864, and grandson of John Wrafter of the Harbour Bar, revived the family tradition, and has made a name for himself as a sculptor and stone carver.
Growing up in Ennis, Co Clare, Barry returned to the trade of his forefathers as an outlet for his creative talent. He became interested in stone carving and sculpting after learning about the history of stonecutting in his family. Barry is one of only a few stone carvers using traditional methods and skills operating at the current time in Ireland. Since 1999 he has been commissioned to produce several public works throughout Ireland. His most ambitious work to date is undoubtedly the hurling sculpture in Kilkenny city (Fig 2), which he worked on in 2016-17. Closer to the home of his ancestors is “The Turf Cutter” from 2007, which is to be seen at the entrance to Belvedere House Garden and Park, near Mullingar (Fig 3).
Fig 3. Barry’s major work, the Kilkenny Hurling sculpture in Irish limestone completed in 2017. (Photo: http://www.barrywrafterart.com)
Fig 4. The Turf cutter sculpture at the entrance to Belvedere House and Gardens. (Photo: http://www.mckeonstone.ie)
More recently (in 2022), Barry was employed in the restoration of the Primark store (also called The Bank Buildings) in Belfast. The building, made of red sandstone from Scotland and completed in 1900, was ravaged by a fire in 2018. Some of his work can be seen in the photos below.
Fig 5. Pieces of carved sandstone ready for mounting into place in the Primark department store in Belfast. (Photo: Barry Wrafter)
Fig 6. Part of the facade of the Primark department store in Belfast during restoration. (Photo: Barry Wrafter)
Wrafter family #3
The third Wrafter branch involved in stonecutting may have started with Timothy Wrafter, born about 1804. Timothy, who lived in Aharney (a townland about 6 km northwest of Tullamore), was a stonecutter and farmer. He married Bridget Houghran in 1839 and had a large family; they had at least 11 children between 1840 and 1861.
At least two of the sons became stonecutters. John, born 1840, had settled in Chicago by 1880. He was married to Mary Molloy. He died in Chicago in 1904, age 65, occupation “Stone cutter”.
Another son, Timothy, born in 1849, married Anne Somers in 1877 and emigrated with his wife and two young children to Australia in 1883. They settled in the Brisbane area, where Tim continued his trade as a stonemason. Before leaving Ireland he probably worked for John Molloy at the Ballyduff quarries.
Timothy’s nephew, also called Tim, was a stonecutter according to the 1911 census. He was living with his parents in Ballykillmurray, close to Tullamore and the quarries, according to the same census. A couple of years later, in 1913, Tim made the same journey as his uncle had done 30 years earlier. He arrived in Brisbane, Queensland on 19 December 1913 on the ship Perthshire. Working with his uncle Timothy, the younger Tim learned the ropes of the trade.
Timothy eventually procured the business from his uncle and together with his two sons, Denis and Joseph, who were apprenticed as stonemasons, they founded the firm, T. Wrafter & Sons in Brisbane. It is still owned and run by the Wrafter family. They are the fifth or sixth generation of this Wrafter family involved in stonecutting. The company produces monuments, memorials, public works, and carries out church work, stone artworks and heritage restorations.
One of their most recent works is a 5-meter-tall Celtic cross standing on the grounds of Nudgee College in Brisbane. The monument, erected in August 2021 to mark 130th anniversary of the college, celebrates the school’s Irish Catholic heritage. Peter Wrafter, Company Director and a qualified stonemason, is a former pupil of the school. The material sought after for the cross was one that would exhibit good weathering properties and would have a colour resembling crosses in Ireland. Australian black granite was chosen and after a sandblast finish resembles the colour of Irish limestone. This beautiful work of art is a testament to the legacy of the Ballyduff stonecutters.
Fig 7. A recently erected Celtic cross on the grounds of Nudgee College in Brisbane made by T Wrafter and Sons, Stonemasons. (Photo: https://twstone.com.au)
Fig 8. An example of one of many public works in stone designed and produced by T Wrafter and Sons, Stonemasons., Brisbane. (Photo: https://twstone.com.au)
Given the prevalence of the name Timothy in this family there may be a link with another Timothy Wrafter who died in 1815 and whose headstone can be found in the graveyard of the old Church of St Carthage in Rahan. The tombstone is ornately carved as can be seen below.
Fig 9. The gravestone of Timothy Rafter who died in 1815, aged 33, in the graveyard of the old Church of St. Cartage in Rahan. (Photo: Paul Stafford. From booklet Offaly Tombstone Inscriptions. 1. Rahan Graveyards)
Thomas Wrafter is another Wrafter stonecutter that emigrated to Australia in the 19th century. Thomas ran a quarrying business on the outskirts of Adelaide in South Australia in 1880. He employed several stonecutters. He may be the same Thomas Wrafter that emigrated from Ireland and arrived in Brisbane in 1866. I have not been able to link him to any specific branch of the Wrafters.
Conclusion
In my research into the quarries and stonecutters of Ballyduff and Tullamore a picture has emerged that shows that the limestone quarries of Ballyduff produced some of the finest building and monument stone in Ireland. Moreover, the stonecutters that originated in Tullamore were widely recognized as some of the best in the country, and those that left Ireland (mainly to Australia) found that their skills were highly valued in their new homelands.
Many thanks to John Wrafter for these articles. Great research and we look forward to a printed publication in due course, Ed.
Father Grogan was born on June 14th, 1873, in Brocca, Screggan County in Offaly. His parents were Joseph Grogan and Mary Molloy. He received his early education at Mucklagh National School, Saint Columbus School, Tullamore and Saint Finian’s College Navan. At the solicitation of his uncle, the Reverend, Anthony J. Molloy of the New York Archdiocese, came to the United States and was admitted to Saint Joseph Seminary then located in Troy, New York. He continued his studies there and at the new St. John’s Seminary in Dunwoody, where he was ordained on May 27th, 1899. He celebrated his first mass at Saint Peter’s church in Yonkers, NY, where his uncle was the Past
His first assignment was to Rosendale, NY for one year. He was transferred to the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary, where he remained uninterruptedly serving as assistant until 1922.
Rathrobin House, Mountbolus was the most modern and one of the finest of the ‘Big Houses’ burnt by the anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War of 1922-3. Its loss was a tragedy for the district and for its owner and builder Lt Col Middleton Biddulph. Today the house is a ruin and the intended tomb of the old colonel in Blacklion churchyard remains empty. Biddulph was a generous man of independent means and was not dependent on exacting high rents from his tenants and employees with whom he was on the best of terms. Much has been written of the trauma experienced by participants in the Civil War, of the needless killings and the executions (81). It was a shocking time for the two sides and many innocent people suffered also. Perhaps some of the post-Civil War trauma and the silence can be attributed to the consideration that the war may have been an unfortunate and costly mistake. It may have seemed so to some of the participants following the success of the Free State and Fianna Fáil governments in rolling back on the oath, dominion status and the ports in the 1930–38 period. Thus confirming the ‘stepping stone’ thesis. As with the Spanish Civil War (much more violent) there is, even now, a kind of Pact of Forgetting (Pacto del Olvido) with people wanting to move on and forget about something that should not have happened. Yet, it is important to record the events of that period and what brought about the shocking atrocities especially in Kerry. County Offaly had its share in these tragedies.
Nestled in the foothills of the majestic Slieve Bloom Mountains, Ballyboy or Baile Buí, meaning the town of the Yellow Ford, is a picturesque village of rich historical significance. Like many villages in Ireland, the modest present-day facade of Ballyboy belies a history that has seen the rise and subsequent fall of an early Christian monastery, a site visited by many historical figures in the early years, including Hugh O’Neill, the Normans and even Oliver Cromwell.
St. Brigid’s Convent & St. Mary’s Church
St. Brigid founded a convent in our village in or around the year 500 A.D. The people of the village maintain that it was the very first convent she built in Ireland. The Convent was situated on the mound still known as Abbey Rath (later becoming the site of the Norman Motte and Bailey) The convent continued until 1539. Around the same time as St. Brigid built her convent, it is said that the first church in the village, St. Mary’s Church was also built. Mass would have been celebrated in Saint Brigid’s Convent or at St Mary’s church.
From 1650, when Cromwell’s army marched to the village from Cadamstown and destroyed St. Mary’s Church, until 1704, there was no church in the parish. The old church had a round tower that came almost to the centre of the present-day road. There was also a tunnel from the church to the fort at Abbey Rath. The tunnel was 400 metres long.
During Cromwell’s attack, the precious Pieta was bravely hidden by two McRedmond women from Knockhill. When they saw Cromwell and his men approaching from Cadamstown, they rushed to the church, took the Pieta from its place just inside the door and hid it outside in a heap of rubbish. Everybody fled to the woods and caves before Cromwell and his men reached the village, in case they would be killed. In the dead of night, for Cromwell’s army was still in Ballyboy, a party of men took the statue and carried it a short way across the Silver River and over the fields to Ballybracken, also known as Ridgemount. Here they buried it 6 feet deep in the bog below Derryhoy, where it lay hidden for over 60 years. Ridgemount is the area where the Faithful Fields are now situated. These men promised not to tell anyone where the Pieta was buried. Just before the last of the men died, he told people where it was located. When it was found, the Pieta was brought to the Church of the Nativity BVM in Kilcormac, where it still remains today.
The Pieta as it presently stands inthe Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Kilcormac.
During Penal Times Catholics were forbidden to practise their religion and resorted to celebrating mass in secluded places. There is still a corner field in Ballinacarrig called ‘The Mass Pit’. According to Rev. A Cogan’s “The Diocese of Meath, Ancient and Modern”, a priest was arrested in his vestments for saying mass near the Motte in Ballyboy.
St. Mary’s Church Ballyboy
St Mary’s Church, Ballyboy by Aran Kelly
St. Mary’s Church Ballyboy
Saint Mary’s Catholic Church was taken over by the Church of Ireland between the dates 1709 and 1715 when there was renewed persecution of Catholics. The present church was built in 1815 with a loan of £900. Several years later, it was repaired with a grant of £279. In 1874, a very bad thunderstorm hit Ballyboy and the tower of the church was struck by lightning. It is said that the flash ripped a body that had been buried a few days before out of its grave. Two years after Griffith’s Valuation, the women of Ballyboy got together and subscribed a sum of money to purchase a chalice for the Church. This chalice is still in use in Kilcormac and on its base is inscribed ‘Pray for the Matrons of Ballyboy, 1856’.
Written by
Seán Lambe, Aran Kelly, Andrea Feighery, Kyle Jennings, Harry Bracken, Rory Grennan
The Normans in Ballyboy
In 1175, the Normans arrived in Ballyboy and built a Motte and Bailey in the village on Abbey Rath, on the banks of the Silver River. The Castle was initially built as a secure garrison for the Anglo-Norman army as they advanced through this region using the routeways in Fir Cheall. Once the region of Fir Cheall had been secured by the Anglo-Normans, the castle acted as a focus for settlement which grew up around and under the protection of the earth and timber castle. At the base of the mound are the remains of old walls, said by some to be the ruins of St. Brigid’s Convent.
Towards the end of the 14th century, the O’Malley’s took possession of the Anglo-Norman castle. The lands and castle of Ballyboy remained in the hands of the O’Malley’s until the Irish War of 1641-53. After this war the lands and castle of Ballyboy were confiscated by the Commonwealth government and granted to Sir William Petty. During the Williamite Wars in Ireland of 1688-91, the village and castle of Ballyboy became a garrison for Williamite soldiers. In 1690 the Jacobite forces attacked and burnt the town and the Williamite forces took refuge in the castle located on the ‘Mount’ in the centre of the village.
The earth and timber Norman Castle in Ballyboy by Grace Guinan
The Bailey part of the Motte and Bailey By Luke Guinan
The Norman Castle in Ballyboy by Anna Doolan
The archaeological remains of the earth and timber castle consist of a large D-shaped bailey that lies to the southwest of the low motte and survives today as a well-defined curving field boundary. The poorly preserved remains of a wall belonging to a stone structure can be seen standing on the summit of the motte. This wall may belong to the stone castle depicted standing on the summit of the motte on the 1654 Down Survey map.
In the post-medieval period, the castle was in ruins and the stone from it was probably reused in the construction of the present houses in the village. During this time, a stone wall was constructed along the base of the motte on the southern side. The church and castle with its associated settlement can be seen depicted on the 1654 Down Survey map of Ballyboy Barony. The Church of Ireland ruins are located on the site of the medieval church.
This photograph shows the motte or mound of the Anglo-Norman earth and timber castle. A later post-medieval wall cuts across the base of the motte which is visible on the left side of the photo. The footings of the stone structure can be seen on the top of the motte.
Written by
Grace Guinan, Luke Guinan, Anna Doolan, Aaron Coady
Scoil Bhríde Ballyboy
Our school, Scoil Bhríde Ballyboy is named after St. Brigid.The site of our present-day school was originally a hat and glove factory. During Penal Times, it was against the law for Catholic children to be educated, so a hedge school was set up to secretly educate local children. For a short period during the early 1700’s, the ruins of the old church in Ballyboy was used as a hedge school also.
The site of the Hedge School in Ballyboy
When Penal Laws ended in 1782 it was no longer illegal to have hedge schools so there was a school built in the village. There is little known about the school other than it had a thatched roof.
In 1820 a new school with a thatched roof was built by Lord Lansdowne’s wife. It is said that the school was also aided by an annual donation of £6 from the Marquess of Lansdowne. This school had a Protestant Schoolmaster and provided Catholic and Protestant children with an education. In 1832, the school was taken over by the Board of Education. The roof was slated and a Catholic Schoolmaster appointed. Griffith’s Valuation tells us that there was a dwelling house where the master would have lived. There was no piped water and the ditch was used as a toilet.
The Schoolhouse in Ballyboy, built by Lord Lansdowne’s wife
Ballyboy Schoolhouse 1820-1962 by MJ Hynes
The school was originally very close to the road but in 1960 it was knocked and a new one, seen below, built further back. This new school design was typical of the time being a large one storey building with tall windows. All the children were taught in two rooms. There was a small solid fuel stove in each classroom for heat, and the children would fetch turf from the shed which is now our boiler house.
Ballyboy School in the late 1960’s with the central chimney used to heat both classrooms. This central chimney is no longer present in our current school.
The school has been extended twice since it was built, in 1996 and in 2004. We now have a big playing pitch outside where we can play. We have a safe environment, and we are building a set down area so our parents can drop us off safely to school. For a such a small village we have a lot of history.
The First extension in 1996
Scoil Bhríde Ballyboy September 2022
Back in Time….the steps in our school wall that once led to the Hatter’s Factory
The old water pump outside our school. This pump would have been used as a source of water on the night of the fire in the hall.
Written by
Daniel Lambe, MJ Hynes, Theo Kilmartin, Sean Russell, Bryan Feighery, Aaron Grimes McDermott
Dan and Molly’s
Dan and Molly’s pub was built in the 1800’s. It has been a pub for over 150 years. Originally the Redmond’s owned the pub, then the Molloy’s, the Petits, the Lynch’s and then the Ryan’s. The Ryan’s moved into the building in 1863 and Jack Ryan passed it down to his daughter Molly, who married Dan Boland. The pub then became known as Dan and Molly’s. Dan and Molly’s daughter Catriona now runs the pub alongside her husband Fergal. Dan and Molly’s still has the thatched roof because there was a preservation order put on the building in the 1970’s which does not allow it to be removed. Dan and Molly’s is the only straw thatched pub left in Offaly. The pub is used for music sessions, set dancing, card games, music lessons and general community events. The lessons are run by Ballyboy CCÉ. The family have a keen interest in the arts as the music has been passed down through four generations – namely Jack Ryan, his daughter Molly, grand-daughters Catriona and Stella and now the great grand-children John, Anna, Daniel, Séan and Katie. On April 12th, 2011, the pub went on fire, when a spark from the chimney ignited the straw on the thatched roof. This was a devastating evening for the family and for the community. It took many units of the fire brigade to bring the fire under control. Luckily the roof was restored to its original condition soon after.
Dan & Molly’s Ballyboy by Anna McDonald
Written by
Anna McDonald, Fiadhna Leamy, AJ Bracken, Daniel Heffernan, Cára Guinan, Mark Dolan
Ballyboy Hall
Ballyboy Hall was built in 1954 by the Young Farmers Association. It was built by voluntary labour mostly in the evenings, after the work of the day was done. In 1690, more than 250 years before this, King William of Orange had spent a night in the hotel which had stood on this very site. (The new hall was built on the site of the old hotel.) In 1967, there was a fire in the hall during a Whist Drive. The calamity happened because an oil heater caught fire. Local people who were there, said that it was an awful tragedy and many people got very badly burnt. On the night, water was pumped from the village pump, located outside the school to treat the injured. Luckily nobody died in the fire. The hall has remained derelict for many years until recently, when several locals came together and formed a group called Ballyboy Community Development Group. The group are fundraising to build a new community hall on the same site as the old one. They plan to develop a green space and recreational area in the village including landscaped area with seating, lighting and amenity car parking area.
Ballyboy Hall by Cian Brunswick
Written by
Cian Brunswick, Adam Coady, Lochlann Fletcher, Alice Molloy, Sophie McGarry, Michael Clavin
Great work from the children of 5th and 6th class at Ballyboy School. This is our first blog from a school. Many of our blogs are used by schools and we look forward to more contributions from your area. Congratulations to Ballyboy, all the children who wrote and illustrated. A special thanks to the staff and in particular to their teacher Ms Michelle Egan, and also to Ms G. Clendennen.
Offaly History welcomes contributions by way of articles on all aspects of the history of County Offaly
Fr Colm Gaynor was a Catholic curate in Birr in the years 1922–37. Originally from Tyone, Nenagh his valuable memoir was published in 2003 and included with that of Sean Gaynor and Eamonn Gaynor. The book was published by Geography Publications as Memoirs of a Tipperary family: the Gaynors of Tyone, 1887–2000. It is available from Offaly History Centre to buy or to read at Bury Quay, Tullamore.
The three young Tullamore men were William Conroy (20), Patrick Cunningham (22) and Colm Kelly (18) and they were executed by the Free State military in the grounds of Birr Castle on 26 January 1923. They were from poor families in the town and had no one of influence to speak for them. It is said that a fourth young man was allowed to go free.
Writing later to the Military Service Pensions Board about the execution of three men, Sean McGuinness, brigade O/C and on the Republican side said :
The three had been expelled from their IRA active service unit for some minor misdemeanours. McGuinness wrote that the men returned to Tullamore, where they “remained unemployed and I presume penniless and without a smoke”. He claimed they were executed by the Free State for a “few minor robberies”, though the court records show they were summarily executed for armed robbery. McGuinness suggested that “their crime was nothing compared with that of the great betrayal of the Republic by the authority responsible for the killing of these three youths”.
Such was the legacy of bitterness understandably arising from the Civil War.[1]
Cormac Street is somewhat unique in the story of Tullamore street development with its forty houses, two major institutional buildings and a town park. Rarely is a street preserved without blemish with so many elements over a two-hundred-year period. Cormac Street was also the home of the town’s major property developer and rentier Thomas Acres (d. 1836) who built his Acres Hall in 1786 (now the home of Tullamore Municipal Council). To the earl of Charleville and Thomas Acres is due most of the credit for the transformation of a green field site with Kilcruttin Hill and cemetery to the west and the Windmill Hill to the east. Acres could thank the war with France, 1793–1815, for the boost to the local economy that provided him with tenants for the terrace of houses on the east side. The expansion of Tullamore after 1798 due to the Grand Canal connection with Dublin and the Shannon provided the impetus to secure a new county jail (1826–30), county town status in 1832 and to take effect in 1835 with the completion of the county courthouse. War, politics and pride of place all contributed to the mix. The Bury contribution was rounded off when Alfred (later the fifth earl) secured a new railway station at Kilcruttin in place of that at Clonminch in about 1865.
Cormac Street has had the benefit of careful planning in its first hundred years and has managed to survive the excesses of the post 1960 and post 1997 periods of rapid development. The saving of Acres Hall in the 1980s was a significant achievement. What are these elements that contribute to the street and how did it all come about? Here are set out twenty points and probably more could be added.
It was a casual comment at the recent excellent Heritage Day event at Seir Kieran, Discovering Seir Kieran Monastic Site, a local mentioned that there had been a visit in recent months from a group from Cornwall, visiting the birth place of St. Piran/St. Ciarán. Cornwall had been mentioned as a place associated with St. Ciarán by one of the speakers on the day. It was time again to have a look at this St. Piran. Piran is by far the most famous of all the saints to have gone to Cornwall from Ireland.
St. Ciarán was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland along with Brendan of Birr. Charles Plummer’s translation of the Life of Ciarán has him arriving to Ireland before St. Patrick. He also had the title of the ‘first born of the Saints of Ireland’. He is supposed to have been born at Cape Clear in Cork where there is a church, a beach and a standing stone as memorials to him.
Those not overly familiar with military history will be still aware of famous battles, probably none more than Waterloo, where Napoleon was defeated by Wellington and his allies in 1815. As today is the 207th anniversary of this decisive battle, we will look at some of the men who were present at this battle who now lie buried in Birr. There are at least four men buried in the town who were present at the battle with many more who fought during the Peninsular Wars, which is a topic for another post. A sad observation is that other than the officers, the other brave men mentioned below are all buried in unmarked graves.
The 12th of June 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the disbandment of the historic Southern Irish infantry regiments of the British Army at Windsor Castle. Disbandment was brought about by economic cuts to the British Army after World War One (Army Order No. 78 dated 11 March 1922 “reduction of establishment”) and in part due to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the establishment of the Irish Free State. The Royal Irish Regiment, Connaught Rangers, Leinster Regiment, Royal Munster Fusiliers, Royal Dublin Fusiliers (and South Irish Horse) were all earmarked for disbandment and would surrender their colours to King George V.
The various detachments of the six regiments made their way to Windsor Castle via the 9:55 am train from Paddington Station, London. The historic ceremony took place at 11:30 am in St. George’s Hall in Windsor Castle with each battalion of the various regiments consisting of a colour party of three officers and three other ranks, with the respective colonel of each regiment also present.
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