- RANDOM NOTES
- by P.MacSuibhne. 1972.
The Chapel and the Church.
The chapel field at *Clonmore, now McDonald's, is
opposite Mrs. Reams' house. There is an iron fence at the
roadside. It was a mud-wall chapel;' no ruins were left.
Sammy Waters had that field for years and did not plough it.
Holy Cross Church was re-constructed in 1896 in Fr. Dan
Byrne's time. It was re-roofed and a new floor put in. The
old floor may have been of flags. The present bell, at that
time new, was erected. Cooper, the landlord, gave the site
and £270 also. He tried to make Ballickmoyler a second
North. He brought 273 Presbyterians and Church of Ireland
members there. The Taylors, Shirley's and Killse's are from
that time.
Old Schools.
The old school shown on the cover was built in 1825. The
preceding school was at Clonmore. The "schoolhouse gate" was
right beside John McDonald, Jim's house on the same side.
Another school was at the house in Springhill now owned by
McAughs. St Comgan's school was blessed and opened Killeshin
Sunday 8 May 1949. The Maher Memorial School in
Graiguecullen
for boys and girls was opened in 1875. It was on the corner
of Fr. Maher Street and the Numbers. About twenty yards from
it was an older school. Old people recall that bare feet and
hunger were common enough in the old schools. Fr. H Cullen
got a special room built at the school where he supplied
cocoa and bread from Rafferty's near the Steps.
Somerton Sacred Heart Hall.
(opposite Barrow Mills on the Leighlin Road , Graiguecullen)
Fr. Dan Byrne was the first P.P. to live in Somerton. The
Wallaces lived there before that. The Sacred Heart Hall was
there in 1798. Thomas Ham came there from Cornwall to manage
the brewery which gave 65,000 gals, of whiskey per year. The
two Miss Wallaces brought Elizabeth Ham up the town to see
the sights; the first sight was Sir Edward Crosbie's head
over the jail. The brewery closed down about 1900. The
Doyles were in the Sacred Heart Hall till 1924. The Numbers,
Chapel Street and Granby Row were the first houses built by
local authority.
Four Fairs
were held each year, 6 January, 18
February, 1 April, 6 October opposite the Steps where Fr.
James Maher P.P. lived and died, now Flemings.
How the Mall got its name:
The O'Rourkes, Fenders and Dowlings sheltered the priest
in penal times. These excellent families are there still. In
the middle of the last century the Mall was an alehouse
owned by Hickeys and the O'Rourkes who lived near the place
used to gather there in the evening time. A social evening
often ended in a lively discussion which sometimes was
carried to the open space in front of the house. On one
occasion a wicked person, probably from outside the parish
exaggerated what was merely a wordy argument and called it a
fight saying that Malakoff was nothing to it. The name Mall
in this way stuck to the house.
*Note: Clonmore is located about a mile
South East of Killeshin
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