“Bricks through the window now, Thieves in the night. When they rang on her bell, There was nobody there. Fresh graffiti sprayed on her door, Shit wrapped in a newspaper posted onto the floor.”
Extract from that wonderful poem “History”, by Carol Ann Duffy, DBE FRSL HonFBA HonFRSE.
A current decision by Dublin City Council planners to grant permission for a proposed demolition of yet another part of Moore Street’s 1916 battlefield site; latter to make way for another office block, has been described as “deplorable”. If relatives of the Signatories to the 1916 Proclamation and the Moore Street Preservation Trust expect help from Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Mr Malcolm Noonan, then forget it and for God’s sake don’t communicate, as we did, by email. We base this assertion on the Ministers assistance in preventing the total destruction of the Great Famine Double Ditch, once situated at Mill Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Over the past few weeks we have continued to watch as officials of Tipperary County Council and Thurles Municipal District Council combined to further continue to wipe out Thurles History.
Watch the video hereunder and sigh.
You can see from the video, that despite threats of “COVER CCTV” detecting “ENVIRONMENTAL OFFENCES”; the most of these offences I might add, were done by Tipperary County Council and Thurles Municipal District Council, whose combined destruction of this area has continued unabated.
The old 1846/47 stone walls built by starving, emaciated men, have now been totally destroyed in favour of modern wire fencing. This same fencing has removed legal access to the lands on the southern side, of the now destroyed ditch area, formerly identified as Bohereen Keagh [translated from Irish to English ‘Blind Road’]
The old stile entrance appears to has been temporally replaced, with the worst effort at stone masonry that I and many others have ever witnessed. [Compare same with left section of stile built in 1846]. Sadly, none of the original faced stone work was retained. Dog walkers are now beginning to use the stile entrance as an area to dump dog faeces bags.
Thankfully, the perennial Common Spotted Orchid, despite every possible attempt to destroy it, has survived the cement post holes. Alas, other wild flowers have since been replaced by tarmac.
The promise by Councillor Seamus Hanafin in Press and Radio Statements of February 20th, 2022, to the more gullible of his electorate, has, as we suspected, never materialized. His quote, lest our readers forget, “This coming week contractors will begin site preparation works on the pathway running from Monakeeba to the Mill Road through the double ditches. Some vegetation will be removed and illegal dumping cleaned up“.
Five months later, this filth and unsightly dumped rubbish remains in its entirety; some 3.5 years, after we first highlighted its existence, and today remains currently hidden, courtesy of Mother Nature’s green cloak, until next autumn.
Quite a few of the newly built houses, situated north of the destroyed Great Famine Double Ditch, are now occupied. To demonstrate their ‘gratitude’, a few of these newly housed persons have already begun to rip numerous vast breaches in the new green chain link fencing, in their efforts to gain access to lands to the south side of the now destroyed Famine Ditch.
With council officials unable to fill a pothole in Thurles streets; same are unlikely to be able to control continued acts of local vandalism to the satisfaction of Thurles taxpayers.
If you’re out and about visiting Thurles in the coming days; enjoying our summer spell of warm sunshine, please do be sure and take a walk down to the rear of Thurles Shopping Centre. There you’ll find a ‘must see’ wildflower garden, reminiscent of a showcase exhibit at “Bloom” in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Congratulations to the Management of Thurles Shopping Centre for not just supporting this wonderful example of biodiversity and urban beauty, but also in providing a new seating area, together with an appropriately sized Litter Bin to handle recycling waste.
“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay”
Extract from the poem “The Deserted Village”, by Irish born novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774).
In Goldsmith’s poem, “The Deserted Village”, latter published as a poem but also as a political broadside, in 1770; the poet laments the total decline of rural life and the depopulation of the countryside. Same decline had been brought about as a result of commonage land enclosure, by greedy, wealthy individuals then in power; eventually leading to the destruction of the livelihoods of peasants and subsistence farmers.
“Those fence-less fields the sons of wealth divide And ev’n the bare-worn common* is denied”.
[* ‘bare-worn common’ – land that was ownedby more than one person.]
This poem remains as up to date today, as it did in 1770, when first dedicated to the 18th century English artist Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 – 1792). However, today, the then 18th century land grabs by the wealthy and power hungry, have changed name and are known as ‘Local Property Tax’, (LPT), latter introduced in 2013 to provide we were told “a stable funding base for local authorities” and to supposedly deliver “significant structural reform”.
“Thus fares the land, by luxury betrayed: In nature’s simplest charms at first arrayed; But verging to decline, its splendours rise, Its vistas strike, its palaces surprise; While, scourged by famine from the smiling land, The mournful peasant leads his humble band; And while he sinks, without one arm to save, The country blooms — a garden, and a grave.”
Currently, we reside in a town where elected representatives and highly paid Municipal District Council officials are no longer embarrassed by their abject failure to administrate.
Same was evidenced today when a Government Minister visited the town to officially opened an upgraded Liberty Square and the public were not invited to attend, despite same being invited 4 years ago to contribute their vision for the future of this same town centre area.
Hearty with the ale and the hell of it, And punch drunk on Dylan, the poet of Wales, The excitable Scot and myself, Mad Paddy, Surged barefoot through the nocturnal summer rain, By a railway embankment in Raynes Park, London South West Twenty. For we were twenty too. And oh we forged our dreams Of high almighty art, And I would pen the world’s soul, And he would paint the eternal condition of man. We sat with a tramp by the railway and envied him, And bottles of Guinness in hand, We toasted the thunder And celebrated the living storm, And feared not a whit the world, For we were twenty in South West Twenty All of many years And many dreams ago. END
Extract from the poem ‘The Irish Pike‘. by poet John C. Colgan, first published in 1873.
A pike is the best of all weapons, the pride of my dear native land, If I were a soldier to-morrow, I’d have a good pike in my hand; When Cain had a row with his brother, and gave him the finishing stroke, A pike was the weapon he used, for believe me, a pike is no joke.
Chorus: A fig for the bayonet and sabres, imported from Britain and France, A fig for the thing called the rifle—our own Irish pike is the lance.
Special thanks to Rev. Fr. George Bourke AP, (Moycarkey, Littleton & Two-Mile-Borris), Thurles and Mr Gerry Bowe, Two-Mile-Borris, Thurles, for their assistance with research undertaken.
The Rev. Fr. Edmund Ryan, who succeeded Rev. Fr. John Cashin as parish priest of Moycarkey, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, was born in the year 1754 in the parish of Galboola, Littleton, Co. Tipperary.
Image shown can be viewed on left entrance peer as you enter Moycarkey Old Graveyard.
The following incident is said to be connected with his death at the early age of just 48 years.
There lived at Lacken, Littleton, Co. Tipperary, (Laken Cross situated between Littleton and the Turnpike on secondary route R639), a blacksmith named Devlin who had become involved in the manufacture of pikes* for the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (Irish: Éirí Amach 1798); latter a major uprising against British rule in Ireland.
*Pikes: Long two-handed spears, (see above) wielded by foot soldiers. Each pike was fitted with a heavy wooden shaft 3 to 7.5 metres long (10 to 25 feet) and weighing approximately 2.5–6 kg (5.5–13.2 lb), and tipped by various types of leaf-shaped steel spearheads.
The then English authorities, who had been informed of Devlin’s activities, sent troops from Kilkenny city to arrest Devlin. Devlin taken unawares and terrified by the fact that the soldiers had discovered his concealed pikes, said that they had been made to order, for Fr. Edmund Ryan.
On acquiring this false information, the soldiers proceeded to Fr. Ryan’s residence at Turtulla, Thurles, but in passing through the townland of Archerstown, Thurles, one of the soldiers confided in a man of his acquaintance along the way, details of the true object of their journey into Co. Tipperary.
This man then ran across the fields by a shortcut to give warning to Fr. Ryan, who received the news while standing in front of his residence. Fr. Ryan had a sudden collapse and was immediately conveyed for safety to the house of Mr William Nicholson, (today’s (2022) Thurles Golf Club).
The latter having attended to Fr. Ryan, went in all haste to Fr. Ryan’s residence, where he found the house surrounded by soldiers. He reasoned with the commander, latter who realised that he had been misinformed by the blacksmith, gave his men the order to withdraw and so the matter was concluded.
Fr. Ryan however, did not recover from the shock and though he lingered on for some years, those years were saddened by the troubles of 1798 and it’s immediate consequences.
Today, the broken headstone of Fr. Edmund Ryan can be located, outside the North Wall behind the old church across the road from the present Church of St. Peter. The inscription on his tomb reads as follows:-
Here lies the body of the Rev’d Edmund Ryan, Parish priest of Moycarkey and Borres. During the past fourteen years, who by word and example, instructed his flock. Who sensible of their loss, by his much lamented death, have erected this monument as a public mark of their grateful respect for his pastoral visits. He died on the 7th day of December 1802* in the 48th year of his age. May he rest in peace. Amen.
[* The ‘Clonmel Herald’ newspaper reported a totally unrelated story that same year (1802): ” Dreadful fire at Thurles; 30 or 40 houses burned; fire started by boys throwing squibs. Appeal for help for the sufferers by William Nicholson(aforementioned)of Turtulla, (Thurles, Co. Tipperary).]
You are cordially invited to the “Waterfall of Intentions” poetry collection launch, in Cashel Library, Friar Street, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, on Tuesday evening next, May 17th, 2022, from 6:00pm till 7:30 pm.
Poetry Readings. Music by Marie and Jane with Tea & Cake.
I do hope you are free to attend. – Theresa Jones.
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