The District of Thomondgate

THE DISTRICT OF homondgate takes its name the one after. It was built in 1922 close to from the ancient territory of the site of the little penal church, which Tuath Mhumha (North had been erected in 1774 and which, in Munster), an area still well turn, had replaced the crumbling old defined in the diocese of be the only links to connect us with the mass-house in which the people of Killaloe. Long after the Thomondgate of yesteryear. Almost Thomondgate often worshipped at the county system was introduced by the everything else will have been hazard of their lives and freedom. The Normans, County Clare was known as obliterated. The Quarry Road has old parish church of Killeely was in ruin 'Thomond'. The name 'Clare' was disappeared; the Cross Road has all but at the beginning of the seventeenth intended as a memorial to Richard de lost its two rows of early nineteenth century. Clare, who, in turn, took his name from century cottages, and the High Road is the delightful village of that name in slowly giving way to a modern format. Suffolk. Only the New Road (230 years old at the 'SODACAKES' Before the building of John's Gate in time of writing) retains some of its 1494, Thomond Gate was the most former character: but, like other close- While the people of St. Mary's parish had important portal in the city. It was the knit communities, Thomondgate has some initial difficulties in accepting those gateway to the western part of the retained some, at least, of its historical who settled in the Island Field as bona country and was well protected by the connections and folklore. fide residents of the 'Parish', the people Shannon River and King John's Castle. of Thomondgate made little or no How prophetic the words of Tom objection to admitting the 'settlers' in Glynn's famous anthem, 'Old Thomond- THE Killeely in 1941 as 'Sodacakes'. Up to the gate is nigh well gone from what it used middle of the last century, the people of to be'. If he were alive today, he would Thomondgate were known as 'Munch- surely have more reason for his ins' and thereafter as 'Sodacakes'. Tom lamentation. The face of the old place is St. Munchin's church, a well known Glynn noted this in his anthem, 'Dear undergoing a radical transformation. In a landmark by the river, is likely to stand Old Thomondgate': 'Some people call us few years, some of the road patterns will through the next century, and well into "Munchins", others call us ~odacakes" Old Thomond Bridge and KingJohn's Castle. Of all the stories of the origin of this strange name, I find the following the most plausible. In the old days, the housewives of Thomondgate were very proud of their baking talents and were wont to exhibit their best efforts in their open front windows during summer time, ostensibly to cool the cakes but, at the same time, showing off their skills and their prosperity, especially if there were a number of cakes on display. There was no mistaking the meaning of the names the weavers of Thomondgate" carried for over sixty years after about 1770 - 'Warpers' and 'Winders'. This was the time when home-weaving was the main occuvation of the families of the district - an arduous avocation that brought with it modest prosperity. Besides the weavers, an army of workers was engaged in preparing the raw flax for spinning; this entailed harvesting, washing, scutching and bleaching. The latter treatment was usually carried out on fairly level areas adjoining streams or small rivers and were known as 'bleaches', or bleaching greens. The bleaching area mainly associated with Thomondgate was situated in the townland of Cappantymore, in the 'Dear, old Thomondgate', from a drawing by P. 0 Ceallachain. parish of Meelick, and is still known as the 'Bleach'. This romantic spot was frequented by the people of Thomond- woollen goods exported from Ireland. fishing grounds in the Shannon Estuary, gate for two hundred years as a This was the swan-song of the Irish and Paddy King is the last solitary recreational and picnic area. Flax was trade. The manufacturers, predominantly representative of the Strand fishermen. also bleached along the banks of the Protestant and facing poverty, 'threat- Avondoun River (Captain Kane's Creek), ened to transfer their allegiance if they near the Longpavement. did not obtain protection'. At this, some EARLY The trade was finally wiped out in measure of relief was given, but the trade 1835 as a result of competition from in Thomondgate died out after a short DAYS England. The end was sudden, although time. In the whole country - at that time not altogether unexpected. At that time, with a population of less than one Some years ago, I came across a the Limerick Corporation voted fifty million - Sir Robert Southwell stated that document which described the action of pounds towards the travelling expenses 30,000 weavers were in a state of absolute the people of Thomondgate in assisting a of those who wished to go to England to want, if not of starvation. number of fatherless Protestant families continue working at the trade. A large who had been burned out of their homes number of ~homond~ateweavers in the Meelick area. (The menfolk had availed of this opportunity, as did many probably been murdered). At least one of from Garryowen, where the effects of the these families had been turned away tragedy were felt with equal severity. from Limerick Castle in Mary Street by This loss of the weaving trade was 4 Mayor Dominic Fanning, where the really history repeating itself. Shortly The only other home industry which desperate plight of the mother and after the Williamite occupation sf 1691, flourished in Thomondgate was fishing. children had driven them in the hope of Dutch weavers introduced the art of In the 1850s, six boats fished out of exciting the sympathy of a fellow- weaving to Limerick, especially to Barrack Lane, as many more out of the Christian. This was in 1646, when the Garryowen and Thomondgate. This Brewery, and twenty-five out of the Confederates held the city. It was a trade involved the weaving of woollen Strand. In those days, Barrack Lane was a virtuous act by the people of Thomond- thread into serges and friezes, and was mini-Claddagh, with every cottage gate, at a time when haping Protestants carried on mainly by Protestant families, tenanted by a fisherman and his family. was regarded as treachery. It will be as, under the new Penal Laws, Catholics The lane was a fairly long boreen before recalled that Fanning was hanged by the were not allowed much more than was the New Road cut through it in 1757. Cromwellians five years later. Our school necessary to keep them alive. At that Tom Glynn marked the imaginary histories told us that he was a 'good and time, as the historian Maurice Lenihan liquidation of its feline population in his saintly man'. tells us, the weavers and combers were rousing 'My Dog Brann', a clever piece of There may be still families in the strongest trade guild in Limerick. doggerel which-sets out the story of an ~homond~atewhoare descended from The weaving trade flourished to such errant canine who '. devoured all the 7e~aelicstock who were squeezed out ap extent in Ireland that parliament, cats in auld Barrack Lane'. of the old city after the Norman pressurised by the En~lishweavers, The Wallace family were the last to occupation and who settled on the Clare introduced an act increasing the duty on take a boat from Barrack Lane to the side of the Shannon. Most of the other displaced citizens settled in the southern Head Inn, Cornwallis (now Gerald suburb, which was afterwards known as Griffin) Street, where many of the famous the Irishtown. theatrical celebrities performing at the Before the city was besieged by nearby Heapey's Theatre stayed. This General Ireton, those living in the building was afterwards the home of the suburbs were brought inside the walls poet John Francis O'Donnell; the for their protection. The homes of the reconstructed house is now the home of inhabitants of Garryowen'and Singland the Griffin funeral undertaking family. were demolished to deny shelter to the The journey to Dublin took four days, besiegers - a kind of scorched earth and those who may be inclined to policy that caused great hardship; but the complain about faulty independent protection of the river saved the homes suspensions or sticky shock-absorbers of Thomondgate, and kept them should give a thought to the poor standing for almost 40 years. Then tortured eighteenth century coach- William of Orange besieged the city. passengers. The coach, known as the Fly, Once again, Garryowen and the scattered was heavy and cumbersome, and it was cottages of Park and Singland were razed some time before improvements were to the ground, and, on this occasion, made. A new and much lighter coach - Thomondgate suffered the same fate. We the Balloon - was later introduced, and a are fortunate in having a first-hand much less cumbersome and complicated account of the destruction of Garryowen system of harness lent further refinement and Thomondgate from one of the to the venture. Perhaps one of the best Williamite scribes, John Stephens: improvements in the service resulted from the construction of the road Though the buildings of the suburbs were between Lock Quay and Pennywell Lane not for the most part equal to those (Clare Street), and afterwards in the within the walls, yet all these at our first continuation of this road to Singland Dr.

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