History and Antiquitles
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LIMERICK; ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITLES, ECCLESIASTICAL, CIVIL, AND MILITARY, PROM THE EARLIEST AGES, WITH COPIOUS HISTORICAL, ARCHIEOLOGICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL, AND GENEA- LOGICAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS ; YAPS, PLATES, AND APPENDICES, AND AN ALPHABETICAL INDEX, ETC. Eompileb from the ancient annals, t$e most gutljentic fiS, anb Vrirrteb %ecorb$, %ecent %e$earaes, etc., etc. %+rC r6 ipi cai yvhpt) rai imoplq raih X6yovuai &m.-HERODOTUS,Euterpe, ch. "1 have related what I have seen, what I have thought, and inquiry".-CA~EY's T~SLATION. MAURICE LENIHAN, E THE MERCIER PRESS in Association with Education and History Committee of LIMERICK TREATY 300 and ULSTER BANK 1991 THE MERCIER PRESS LTD., 4 Bridge Street, Cork 24 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1 DEDICATION. 63 The Mercier Press Ltd., 1991 This edition is ~eprintedfrom the 1866 edition and is limited to 500 copies. TO TUE RIGHT HOIOIOURABLE Editor - Cian O'Carroll Associate Editor and Introduction to 1991 Edition - Liam Irwin EDWIN RICHARD WISDHAM WYNDHADI QUIN, Foreword - Ald. Jim Kemmy, TD, Mayor of Limerick TJIIILD EAU OF DUNMEN AND MOUNT-EARL, LORD LIEUTENANT AND CUSTOS ROTULORUM OF THE COUNTY OF THE CITY, Acknowledgements AND OF THE COUNTY OF LIXERICK, ETC , ETC , ETC. The publisher and editor wish especially to thank the following for their help in arrangingfor republication of this important book: MY LORD, The associations of a History of a locality in which your Lord- Ulster Bank - major sponsorship ship must necc.rsarily take a deep interest, from the manifold ties, both Liam Irwin - new introduction ancient and modern, which so intimately connect you with many of the transactions recorded in the following pages, and your Lordship's well- Ald. Jim Kemmy, TD, Mayor of Limerick - new foreword known attainments as a scholar and antiquarian, mould, independently Julitta Clancy - new index of your large possessions and eminent position in the county, remind me of your Lordship as the most appropriate personage to whom such a book Dermot Hurley and John O'Brien - Photography should be dedicated. The History and Education Committee of the 1991 Treaty 300 Programme are very pleased to promote the republication of Lenihan's History of Limerick. I therefore take the liberty of requesting your acceptance of n work Dr George Quigley, Chairman of Ulster bank, was instrumental in providing financial and psychological support for this project. Also, the Educational of no inconsiderable toil, in which I have endeavoured, faithfully and Officer of our Committee, Mr David O'Grady, has done a very effective job in impartially, to record events, the perusal of which, it is to be hoped, may securing the pre-sale of some one hundred copies. The addition of this publication to the many others produced in this Treaty both interest and instruct. 300 year is gratifying to all concerned. Professor Noel Mulcahy I have the honour to be, my Lord, Chairman Limerick Treaty 300 Your Lordship's most obedient servant, History & Education Committee MAURICE LENIHAN. Limerick, February 20,1866. Printed in Ireland by Colour Book Ltd. Foreword to 1991 Edition After a long lifetime's work as a journalist and editor, Maurice Lenihan died in poverty in Limerick in 1895. His major work of 'no inconsiderable toil', Limerick; Its History and Antiquities, was published in 1866 but it was not until after his death that the book began to attract attention. Not all of this attention was uncritical. A writer in The Irish Book Lover called the history 'an accumulation of undigested facts', adding that 'materials for a History of Limerick' would have been a more suitable title 'and saved it more from censure'. One of the attractive features of the work is in searching for an item and the excitement of finding some other unexpected gem. A careful reading of the book will reveal many little known aspects of the history of Limerick, often hidden away in all-embracing footnotes. The Jesuit historian, Francis Finegan, in his 1946-48 Studies articles, has made the most comprehensive study of Maurice Lenihan's life, including his service as a Town Councillor and Mayor of Limerick in 1884. Though he is generous in his praise of Lenihan and his work, he is not uncritical: It would be rash to deny that Lenihan's History of Limerick, taken as a whole, is free from error. Indeed the wonder is that Lenihan did not fall into more errors than he actually did.... Occasionally, in his presentation of some historical episode, Lenihan wanders off to import some personal reminiscence of his own to the reader. Yet, perhaps, this very discursiveness is just one of the qualities that give this book its enduring charm. The outstanding fault of the History consists in its attempt to crowds so much matter into so small a space - though the book, strictly speaking, cannot be called a small book. Francis Finegan is even more critical of Lenihan's judgment in publishing the translation of a lampoon, written by Dr Thomas Arthur, in which Dr John O'Moloney, the seventeenth-century Bishop of Waloe, is castigated for hoarding a sum of £1,400 in sacks of wool. A cool fourteen hundred the bishop had hoarded, And in fleeces or wool sacks ingeniously stored it ... Had the bishop discharged his episcopal duty, My lord had no blame and the robber no booty. Lenihan's book is not enhanced by his ungracious and sometimes in- accurate carping at John Ferrar, the author of the earlier (1787) Histo y of Limerick. Historical studies in Limerick owe much to the ecu- menical Ferrar and his pioneering work. vii . FOREWORD Many readers will have their own stories to relate about their ex- plorations of the book. On one occasion, when researching the build- Introduction to the 1991 Edition ing of New Town Pery, I spent days searching through the footnotes of the book only to find the information I impatiently sought in the body of the book. But the search was not in vain, and the author's Maurice Lenihan's Limerick; Its History and Antiquities, first published prsonal recollection of his 1851 meeting with Captain Creagh vividly in 1866 and reprinted in a limited edition in 1967, is the most compre- links the old and new cities and fixes the scene indelibly in the mine: hensive and authoritative work on the history of the city and county. The New Town, now the finest portion of the city, and the great Its wide ranging account of the political, administrative, social and centre of its trade, was not built for seventy years afterwards (1760). religious developments from earliest times to the 1860s provides an Meadows and carcasses then occupied the grounds down to the invaluable work of reference. While it may not quite live up to water's edge. Captain Creagh, an old and highly respectable gentle- Lenihan's biographer, Francis Finegan's paean of 'containing every- man, who died some years ago in Cashel, informed me in 1851 that he remembered shooting snipe in Patrick-street .. a marsh which the thing worth knowing about Limerick from Adam to 1866', it was, for tide covered... its time, an impressive achievement and it has not been superseded in the century and a quarter since its first appearance. While originally Like its two previous editions, this 1991 reprint of Limerick's best intended for the general reader, its extensive incorporation of rare known and most valuable history is certain to become a collector's source material and the author's personal observations give it an item. Despite its flaws and shortcomings, the book is, by any stan- added importance for modern students and scholars, yet it retains its dard, a monumental work and will continue to be read and quoted fundamentally popular appeal. while the Shannon river flows through the author's adopted city. Maurice Lenihan was born in Waterford in 1811, the eldest child of a woollen draper, James Lenihan, and his wife, Margaret Bourke. Her Jim Kemmy family had originally come from County Limerick, so that his decision 18 September 1991 to settle eventually in the city was, in a sense, a return to his roots. The family appears to have been quite prosperous and, despite having fifteen children, his parents were able to send him to Carlow College, where he studied as a boarder for eight years. He chose a career in journalism and in 1831 started work on his cousin's newspaper, the Tipperary Free Press. After a two-year apprenticeship he moved back to his home town and joined the staff of the Waterford Chronicle. He built up a considerable reputation during his eight years there and in 1841 successfully applied for the vacant position of editor of the Limerick Reporter. The Reporter was a liberal newspaper started in 1829 by James Rutherford Brown. It was a staunch supporter of Daniel O'Connell and the Repeal movement, a position ideally suited to Leni- han's political views. He took up his new post on 11 June 1841 but remained less than two years as editor, being lured away in 1843 by the prospect of an enhanced career on the more widely read and influential Cork Examiner. It would appear that his expectations were not fulfilled as he moved again within the year. He then settled in Nenagh where he set up his own newspaper. He had long held this ambition and the new location may have been due to personal factors. In November 1843 he married a local girl, Elizabeth Spain. The viii . I INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Tipperary Vindicator, as he titled his new venture, gave him the O'Curry, J.P. Prendergast and C.P.