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 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, was known as obliterated. The Quarry Road has old parish church of Killeely was in ruin ''. 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 . 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 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. Sylvester O'Halloran. coming, except that small part about St. Cross. These improvements cut out the Francis Abbey in the Island, were laid great roundabout route to Nenagh, level with the ground for the better through Broad Street, John Street, Mary distillery was being managed by defence of the place, and all the gardens Street, Nicholas Street, Old Thomond- Walker's partner, W.B. Langwill, and that and orchards utterly destroyed. gate, New Road, Monabraher, , Lefroy was no longer in the company's Killaloe and on to Nenagh. employment - a nice way of announcing Thomondgate was restored again after These changes cut the journey to two that he had been fired. Walker died at his the ~reatyand, in due course, was to days, and finally a one day trip was home in Crown Terrace, Downhill, have a constant remainder of that fateful achieved; but the passengers had to be Glasgow, in 1880. event set up on a pedestal beside on the road with the lark and were not in Production at the distillery was Thomond Bridge. ideal shape as they staggered onto a maintained unintermpted until into the Originally, Thomondgate had one Dublin street around midnight, cramped twentieth century, except for a short great street - the High Road - and two and bleary-eyed. period after the big fire which damaged smaller roads running from that to the the premises in 1880. In 1904, the budget river. The nearest thoroughfare to the duties on whiskey were increased. With bridge was named the Cross Road, after ever-increasing difficulty, the business the New Road was laid out in 1757. The was carried on until the years of the First other was known as the Quarry Road, World War, when the excessive duties after the limestone quarry at the New nullified any hope of a revival of the Road end. The quarry at Altamira Perhaps the most important event in the opened afterwards. This yielded a special history of Thomondgate was the t$pe of stone, which- was much in establishment of the distillery towards demand for burnishing and sharpening the end of the eighteenth century. The metal. Up to 1847, all the stone quarried buildings covered six acres, and the there was exported to England. enterprise gave employment to 75 workers for more than a century, and produced 300,000 gallons of the best 'Pot- Still Real Irish Whiskey' annually. Inspectors visitjng the distillery in 1887

described it as l... probably the finest undertaking of its kind in the four Of the few eighteenth century houses in kingdoms'. They remarked upon the Thomondgate, perhaps the most notable excellence of the malting and barley lofts, is the 5 bay, 3 storey, gable-ended house the malting floors, kilns (4), mash house built of rough cut stone close to and mill, with its six pairs of stones, and Thomond Bridge. This fine old building the 30 horse-power steamengine which is reputed to have been the home of John provided the power. They also described Buchanan, the first to organise a regular the cooperage and the shops of the coach service between Limerick and carpenters, engineers, coppersmiths and Dublin. This was the first service of its brass-fitters. kind anywhere in Ireland, and was set In the 1860s, the complex came into up as a commercial enterprise that the part-ownership of Archibald Walker, survived all the difficulties that such a a Scottish entrepreneur who also owned revolutionary undertaking entailed, not the Adelphi ist tiller^ in Glasgow and- the least 'of which was the danger of the Vauxhall Distillery in Liverpool. The encountering highwaymen on the long, Limerick manager was H.M. Lefroy. We dark road. find a notice in the local papers, a few An early picture of Michael Hogan, Buchanan's headquarters were at the years afterwards, announcing that : the the Bard of Thomond. trade. The distillery went out of Killeely churchyard. Also interred here Despite many protests, his house in production shortly afterwards and finally are his wife (Mary O'Casey), who died in Templederry was demolished in 1988 to closed in the early 1920s. In 1929, the 1782, his eldest son, Michael, who died as make way for a new 'development'. buildings reverted to the ground a result of a fall from a horse, his only landlord, the Earl of Limerick. Thus, daughter, Catherine, who died at an Thomondgate lost an industry which had early age, and his baby son, Thomas. The given good employment to its people for tomb was refurbished more than a more than a century. The excessive duties decade ago by St. Senan's Historical that brought about its demise would not Society, and the following epitaph have really mattered if the Limerick inscribed thereon: One could hardly write an article on whiskey had found a market at home; Thomondgate without referring /to but the 'patriotic' Irish allowed it to go Sylvester O'Halloran Michael Hogan, the self-styled Bard the same road that Halpin's Tea was later 1728 1807 Thomond. He was a popular hero wi%o to go. had many admirers, but few benefactors. It is not generally known that the Patriot Historian His witty epigrams were on everyone's well-known saying 'Happy as Larry' Surgeon Antiquary lips and were recited in pubs all over the may have had its origin in Thomondgate. city. To the people of Thomondgate, Larry, wholived in the High Road, was a His country's honour and good name Hogan was the greatest litterateur ever to cooper employed at the distillery. He was ever found in him a ready come out of the city. More polished such a happy and jovial character, always and unflinching champion. performers, like Gerald Griffin and John smiling and saluting everyone he met on Francis O'Donnell, were unknown to his way to and from work, that his name most of them, but Hogan, the became a byword. His surname is FR. JOHN rumbustuous versifier, who came from unknown. the teeming working classes, was their hero. This was their poet who had emerged from the floury turmoil of the DR. SYWESTER Another noted patriot was John Kenyon, Lock Mills to watch-and-chain respectab- who was born at No. 5, Old Thomond- ility in a few years. Even if he sometimes gate in 1812. His father, Patrick Kenyon, pretended not to know some of his was a stonecutter, and supervised the former workmates, he might be excused: One of the most illustrious sons of the ornamental stonework during the perhaps he thought it would not go parish of Killeely was Sylvester construction of Sarsfield Bridge. down too well for a poet, whose patrons O'Halloran. The great man was born on John was ordained in 1836 for the included Lord Adare and the the New Year's Eve of 1728, and became diocese of Killaloe - it is not known why Marchioness of Queensberry, to be seen an outstanding opthalmologist and he was not ordained for his own diocese, to be making 'too much free' with the hoi surgeon. He was a noted antiquarian and but the late Monsignor Michael Moloney polloi. historian, being the author of a suggested that it may have been over Though there is some doubt about the monumental History of Ireland. He is some family affiliations. His undying date and place of the Bard's birth, it is credited with creating the germ of the fame rests on his courage and sincerity as generally accepted that he was born at idea of a College of Surgeons, and, when one of the leaders of the Young the New Road in Thomondgate on 1 that great institution was founded, Irelanders. With John Mitchell and John November, 1832. This is the time and Sylvester was elected one of its first Martin, he made up the historic alliance place given by the Bard himself, but members. of 'the Three Johns'. His denunciation of other authorities have expressed their With a colleague, Giles Vandeleur, he the law that condemned a million of his doubts about this date. In the course of a founded Limerick's first hospital in St. fellow-countrymen to death by disease lecture at the Limerick Technical Institute Francis Abbey, where he made and starvation, and his avowed in 1935, the well known authority on revolutionary advances in the study of leadership of the Young Irelanders in Hogan, A.J. Eakins, stated that the Bard head injuries. In this work, he has armed rebellion, caused his suspension was born in Thomondgate on 31 March, greatly assisted by the numerous faction by his bishop, Dr. Kennedy. This was to 1828. fighters, who guaranteed him a constant be the turning point in his career, a The late A.J. O'Halloran failed to find supply of broken craniums! choice of leading the Young Irelanders a record of his baptism in any of the city Sylvester O'Halloran died at his into battle or following his clerical churches for either of these dates and, residence in Merchant's Quay on 11 vocation. He choose the latter, and no thinking that the poet's parents may have August, 1807, and the following death one will ever know how difficult this been residing in one of the Co. Clare notice appeared in The Dublin Journal, on decision was for him - the proud priest parishes adjoining Thomondgate, he Saturday, 15 August, of that year. who was never known to flinch in the unsuccessfully searched the registers at face of danger. Ht? was to intimate that if Cratloe and Parteen. However, it was not Died - On Tuesday night at Merchant's a rebellion took place, he would be found uncommon to have such omissions in Quay, Limerick, in the 80th. year of his in the ranks with his old friends. parish registers at that time, as babies age, Sylvester O'Halloran, Esq. M.R.I.A. Fr. Kenyon died in 1858 while making were often bavtised at home. and the and Member of the Royal College of a retreat in the Christian Brothers house keeping of proper registers was Surgeons in Ireland. A gentleman of in Ennistymon. He left his father's sometimes slipshod. great eminence, not only as an author in houses in Thomondgate to the Christian The poet's father, Arthur Hogan, was his professional line, but in politics and Brothers, who recei;ed the rents of this a struggling wheelwright and general history. Dr. O'Halloran's fame has spread property until 1937, when it was carpenter, and his mother, according to

itself all over the Continent in demolished to make way for the the Bard himself, was l... descended from consequence of his surgical works, and his O'Dwyer Villas housing estate. His only the Cromwellian settlers of Co. Clare, name has been mentioned by the memorials are a simple slab over his and was like them, ill-tempered, professions with the greatest respect. At grave in the church in Templederry, an tyrannical, hardhearted, spiteful, home he was a most cheerful and pleasing avenue called after him in Killeely and a covetous. treacherous and fond of companion and will be long held in street in Nenagh; but the old warrior, dckbiting her husband and his remembrance by those who have enjoyed Charles Kickham, did not forget 'Father relatives'. Unfortunately, we never got his society and intimacy. John', in his writings. Recently, the the mother's side of the story. We only k Limerick Civic Trust erected a plaque to have her son's continual condemnation He was buried in the family vault in his memory in old Thomondgate. of her, and even his wife, did not escape a long-lasting and uncalled for public lambasting. Even if he did not disclose, in his autobiography, his hatred of almost everyone he ever met, his work reveals, here and there, his inherent bitterness and animosity towards those who had more of the world's goods than himself.

He was a born voet.1 but his work was trammelled both by a cantankerous temperament and a stunted elementary education: but judging by the strength and range of his vocabulary, his educationbegan - and continued -- long after he left school. Considering the monumental results he achieved with such poor preparation for a literacy life, it is aspity that his potentialities were never fully realised. The story of his life - too long to be set out here - is a sad succession of frustrations, disillusionments and disappointments. He found poetry a simple commodity to produce, but very difficult to sell, and many of the citizens who gloried in his clever lampoons and 'Long before the stone was raised on its pedestal, it rested on the footpath epigrams were too poor to buy anything. at the corner of old Thomondgate, beside Murty Egan's tavern'. The happiest years of his life were spent in thegarden of Thomond Cottage (now Whelan's public house). He was in However, because of its scurrility and they were imprisoned, despite the occupation there for nine years, from invective, the poetry became sheer closeness of the police barrack, which 1870 until he was turfed out on foot of doggerel. was right across the road from the hall. pressure from his creditors - all due, The most endearing aspect of the In the meantime, Keane sought the according to the Bard, to the fiddling of Bard's character was his extraordinary assistance of a magistrate, John Delmege, his 'trusted' barman, 'Whopper' O'Brien. ability to rise above the sea of bitterness of Castle Park, who immediately His trip to America in 1886 was that enveloped him so completely to harnessed the help of Captain Eager of intended to arrest his flagging fortunes produce works of a singular degree of the 31st. Regiment, who, with twenty or and establish his financial independence elegance and grace, and with great depth thirty soldiers, accompanied Keane to the for good. Again, he was doomed to of emotion and sincerity. While the woes Temperance Hall, where a great crowd disappointment: he learned that nothing of his domestic life are vividly reflected had- gathered. But, as they were short of live leprechauns was marketable in much of his work, verses of the preparing to force an entrance, the door in New York. He also found the Yanks far sweetest beauty show up like tulips in a was opened from the inside and the more insensible to the charms of his garden of weeds. freeholders walked out. The whole party over-embellished war poems than the In reality, Hogan had only one enemy then left for the hard slog over the Windy 'rascally Irish'. - himself. He tells us that he lived the Gap to Sixmilebridge. The seat for Clare Writing from New York, he described years of his life in solitude in the midst of was won by Sir John Fitzgerald, the best the Irish as a crowd. He was to join a far greater of a bad lot where the common people crowd in 1899, from the cellar in Rutland were concerned. The other candidate ... the meanest pack of dogs in America. Street where he spent the last years of his who contested the election with They deceive and betray each other more life. Fitzgerald and Crofton Vandeleur was than they do at home. Every nationality Cornelius O'Brien. here, Dutch, Jews, Germans, Danes and A sad climax to this affair was the Italians, stand loyally to each other but THE TEMPERANCE murder of five people in Sixmilebridge the rascally Insh. They are the only black on the following day. The same John C. spot on the human page, and such of Delmege gave an order to his troops to them that have anything of the world's fire into the assembled peaceful crowd in goods above another to boast of, their The old Tem$erance Hall on the High the square. Although Delmege denied he staggering insolence is something Road, long-time meeting place for the gave the order to fire, the following abominable. men and boys of Thomondgate, figured verdict was recorded by the coroner at in a dramatic incident at the time of the the inquest into the deaths of the five Ironically, it was a 'rascally Irish' family Clare elections of 1852. This was the time persons killed: that maintained him in indolence and of open voting, when those few entitled ease for most of his three years in New to vote were bullied and intimidated by We are satisfied that John C. Delmege, York, and it was some compassionate their landlords and their agents, and J.P., James Postings, John Gleeson, Limerick citizen who provided for his made to vote, on some occasions, on pain William Barrens, John Thompson, John passage home. of eviction. Eighteen freeholders who Dwyer, James Shorten, Thomas Larkin With his ever-increasing dis- had agreed to vote for Colonel Vandeleur and John Carter, soldiers of the 31st. appointments, and surrounded by were assembled in Meelick by Henry Regiment, are guilty of the murder of 'enemies' 6n all sides (everyone was his Keane, brother of the notorious Marcus Jeremiah Frawley. enemy), he embraced every provocation Keane, in the home of a bailiff named and incentive to anger, and released the Collins. A number of Liberal supporte- They were later charged, but, of course, venom, long engendered, in his satires. from the city raided the house and -5cquitted. In these works he assuaged at least some brought the freeholders to the Temper- The name Delmege was known and of his frustrations byrlampooning those ance Hall in Thomondgate, where it was spoken of with disgust and odium long on higher perches than himself. said by the Vandeleur supporters that before this incident and long after it. There were no tears shed by the people Even the Celtic gift of improvisation of Thomondgate at the passing of the last would hardly account for the use of a of the breed from Castle Park, but the large stone to complete a document on Limerick Corporation's Street Naming which the destiny of a nation depended. Committee, in their blissful ignorance, Then there is the story of Miss saw fit to have the family commem- Dobbin, of Cork, who was said to have orated in an estate in ! had in her possession the table on which the treaty was signed. This lady died in 1914, and the table was auctioned off in a WRITERS AND clearance sale on her property, and,has not been heard of since. Some dell- SPORTSMEN known local antiquarians, including,&e late Dermot Gleeson, were afterwar'ds Thomondgate has produced many impressed by the claims for this table. notable writers, sportsmen and charact- Long before the stone was raised on ers too numerous to document them all its pedestal, it rested on the footpath at here: suffice to say that the cultural, the corner of old Thomondgate, beside social, poritical and commercial life of the Murty Egan's tavern, 'The Black Bull'. It city has had many able representatives was used as a mounting-block - a device from 'across the bridge'. In the field of in common use throughout the country sport, Treaty Sarsfields and Thomond by those travelling on horseback. One have shown themselves to be forces to be illustration shows the stone as it was in

reckoned with down the vears., , while in August, 1836. This is an important the earlier part of the century, the name picture because it gives the size of the of the Irish champion handballer, J.J. stone in relation to an old man and a Bowles, was known in every town and child, and also shows a weaver's shop village in the country. alongside. It will be noted that the ~homond~atecan be proud, too, of shape of the stone bears only a the late Dick Naughton, who will be little resemblance to its former shape; in remembered for his valuable contrib- fact, it is little more than half its original ution to our study and understanding of size - the missing parts having been local history while serving as a journalist dispersed as souvenirs all over the with the Limerick Chronicle. His splendid United States and other countries in tiny articles were much appreciated by his chips. many admirers, and his 'Memory of the The Treaty Stone was placed on a Past' selections are now treasures in pedestal beside Thomond Bridge in 1865, many a scrapbook. during the mayoralty of John Rickard We must not neglect the beautiful Tinsley. Because of damage to the poetry of T.J. Dunbar. His long out of pedestal from passing traffic, the print book, A Garland of Verse, is now a - I monument was dismantled in October collector's item. Tom Glynn, the Fr. John Kenyon. last year and has now been re-erected on gentleman, poet and folklorist who loved a more secure site, a short distance Thomondgate so well, has left us some of further along Clancy's Strand. his gentle poetic musings, including the famous monument - the Treaty Stone. Whatever may be said about its role, evergreen anthem 'Dear Old Thomond- Was the really signed the stone has assumed an importance all gate'. The man and his work will never on the great, big stone on the pedestal in of its own; whether it had any connection be forgotten in his native place. Thomondgate? The answer is still the with the signing of the treaty or not is same - we have no definite evidence. now of little concern: the monument has From the beginning, it was said that come to symbolise the broken treaty and THE TREATY the historic document was signed at a century and a half of persecution by the Redgate, not far from . English. With the historic and pictur- STONE Wherever the signing took place, it is esque backdrop of Thomond Bridge and highly unlikely that the leaders of two King John's Castle, the Treaty Stone still A big question mark hangs over opposing armies would be in want of a presents a scene to gladden the hearts of Thomondgate's and Limerick's most table on such an important occasion. Limerick folk at home and abroad.

The High Road, Thomondgate, in the 1960s.