The Tipperary Antiquarian

 

  Bivallate (purple) and Trivallate (Yellow) ring-forts in the North Tipperary area. I've also included the Barony boundaries and it is interesting how the Trivallate ring-forts seems to concentrate in the barony of Upper Ormond. Bivallate (purple) and Trivallate (Yellow) and Multivallate (Red) ring-forts in the South Tipperary area. I've also included the Barony boundaries. I don't think anything jumps out as dramatically in the South except that maybe there are fewer bivallate ringforts. This may be because of agricultural practices or it may just be in how the descriptions of each was recorded (ie North & South Tipperary surveys were carried out at different times when the county was split for administrative purposes). The Southern descriptions may not be as explicit as the North Tipperary ones. Another difference is that the South includes 2 "ringforts" with 4 or more rings (marked red). In theory they should be top of the political / social hierarchy. T...

Linking Nenagh Friary with the Historic Quarter of Nenagh.  The entrance to Nenagh Friary was recently repaired and it got me thinking again about linking it up with the "Historic Quarter" of the town around Nenagh Castle.  One suggestion I had is to use the possible route of the town walls as a way to lead people from Nenagh Castle to the Friary following a kerb or cobble stone that would outline the potential footprint of the town wall of the town.  The route would go south from the Castle to the Friary and then west as per the map below. The below is an idea of how this kerb could look.  From Dun Laoighre Rathdown report - Non-habitable Protected Structures At the Friary there is a green area on which some information boards could be put and I think some kind of "centre-piece" could be installed here as well - perhaps a stone statute like the one below of which something is hinted at in some old records of the Friary. The OS Letters describe - 'three fragment...

  From - The Story of Latteragh - A Souvenir Booklet (1982) "After St. Odhran, the character which figures most in local tradition is Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare who on the 31st Dec. 1602 left Glengariff with 1,000 followers on his ill-fated retreat to the O'Rourke territory in Leitrim. On the 5th Jan having come through Hollyford, Upperchurch & Templederry, O'Sullivan Beare and his retinue arrived in Latteragh. Philip O'Sullivan, a 1st cousin of Donal Cam,who was sent to Spain as a refugee with Donal's young son and educated in Spain, wrote a detailed account of the retreat in "Historiae Catholicea Compendium" publish in 1621. I quoteL  "He halted in the village of Latteragh, and threw his men into a rather small church and it's enclosure. There was in this village a fort from which he was annoyed the whole night with the firing and salliers of the garrison. He withstood the attack from the fort and monentarily awaited with drawn swords p...

  Young describes this (p98) as "the oldest surviving tomb surround in Ireland". It comes from Athassel Abbey and is now located in the Vicars Choral at the Rock of Cashel. It is very interesting as it is made from Dundry oolite and is likely to have been brought from Bristol in England. (Probably in rough stone and carved in Ireland). I'm not sure if it is the oldest surround but seemingly it can be dated by apparent fire damage to the stone which is recorded in ancient records as being either 1319 or 1329. So that is its minimum age. It is suggested that it may have been designed as the tomb surround for Walter de Burgh (d. 1271) and been reused for the Red Earl of Ulster (d. 1326). Additional fragments were found in the 1970s and are now housed in the OPW depot in Kilkenny and Manning wrote about them below. It also features a photo of the main panel in-situ at Athassel. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25503305  

  The Tipperary Vindicator and Limerick Reporter, Friday Evening, July 17, 1868 Reminiscences of a journalist and notes on old events No. CCLXXXVI (186) (Written for the Reporter and Vindicator) A visit to Duharrow ; Being another chapter in the history of Killaloe and the Dal Cais, By Maurice Lenihan, Author of The History of Limerick, Reminiscences of a Journalist, &c., &c., &c. I visited Duharrow, or “the mountainous country,” in the Barony of Owney and Arra,, County of Tipperary, this day (Sunday, July 12 th , 1868). I was accompanied by train to Killaloe by Mr. Tr____y and M____c, and, having written to Mr. Tu____y the night before to procure a care, which he failed in doing, we got a good car, of which we bargained with the owner, Miss, Tu____y, of Ballina to convey us to Duharrow, in order to view the tombs and monuments in the old church-yard of Castletown Arra. The drive was exceedingly beautiful. We passed on, leaving Derry Castle, the residence of W...