Local HistoryRichard Roche delves into the stories of Moyne-Templetouhy and Newcastle West and takes a grand tour of Cork
As a general rule, quality is rarely associated with quantity but, in the case of Moyne-Templetouhy - A Life of its Own: The Story of a Tipperary Parish, one must defer and concede the exception. This massive work of local history is arguably the most comprehensive history of a parish yet published in this country. It is huge by any standards, running to a total of more than 1,600 pages, in three volumes, bound in hard covers with colourful jackets and illustrated with a profusion of photographs (in colour and in monochrome), maps, diagrams and sketches. All this about a rural parish once described, at the beginning of the 20th Century by the parish priest, as containing "nothing to excite the curiosity or repay the interest of the antiquarian or the traveller". Yet, what a wealth of history lay within its boundaries, a wealth now gathered in this unique production. Even the enthusiastic Parish History Group which worked on it may have originally thought that there was material for just two volumes (as the title page of volume one announces), which would have been remarkable in itself, as the research, originated by George Cunningham, progressed and as the quantity of the material grew, it became obvious that a third volume was necessary. All three have been expertly edited by Willie Hayes, who was fortunate to have available the findings of Lisheen Mine's environmental and archaeological project carried out by Margaret Gowan and Co. The skills and knowledge of numerous other contributors and artists make this a wonderful example of community enterprise and effort. I am told that there may be a few sets still available from the original 1,100 print run.
The difficulties experienced by local history groups in procuring suitable material and publishing regular journals is clearly illustrated in the editorial of Journal of the Newcastle West Historical Society, No.3, this most recent publication by the society named in the title. The journal has had an interrupted record since the society was formed in 1977. Three successive numbers of their Annual Observer appeared in 1979-81, three more in the period 1983-87. There was a title change in 1990, then two issues of the journal were published over six years and now the third in this series has appeared. In addition, the editors (John Cussen, Frank Bouchier-Hayes, Sean Kelly and Patrick J. O'Connor) point out that material for publication has been slow to come their way. All the more credit, then, that this attractive journal has appeared, with its "eclectic mix", focusing particularly on local issues of the period 1913-1922. This is a worthy successor to the previous publications by this Co Limerick group.
The Grand Tour series, published by Cailleach Books, which has already featured Galway, Kerry, and Beara, now takes in Cork in this illustrated compilation which covers 500 years of descriptive writing about Co Cork and its people. Some of the commentators came as conquerors and settlers, others as tourists, preachers or curious visitors. In all, some 67 of them left written observations which have been collected in this one volume, ranging from Edmund Campion (now a saint, though not because he visited Cork in the 16th Century) to Eric Newby, travel writer, who reported on the moving statues at Ballinspittle in 1986. In the years between, such unusual visitors as Walter Raleigh, William Penn, John Wesley, William Wordsworth, William Makepeace Thackeray, Queen Victoria, Virginia Woolf and Carson McCullers came and saw and commented. Their remarks vary from the brief and horrifying ("Out of every corner of the woods and glens they came creeping upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them" - Edmund Spenser writing about the Irish in 1586) to Peter Sommerville-Large's more sympathetic piece written in 1972 about his walk from Bantry to Leitrim. All the accounts are introduced with a short biography of the author and the whole is packed with portraits, sketches and maps relevant to the text. This, like its predecessors in the series, is a delightful and entertaining publication. There should be such a record for every county in Ireland.
The Taghmon in the title, Taghmon Historical Society Journal, No.5, is in Co Wexford (there is another in Co Westmeath). It is the site of a 6th-century monastery founded by St Munna and was also an ancient corporation and returned two members to the Irish Parliament down to the time of the Union. It is a place redolent of the past and has, since 1994, had its own historical society and, since 1997, its own historical journal. The current edition has gone outside Taghmon parish for its material and includes articles on Wexford Union Workhouse, 'Law and disorder in Taghmon 1822-1922', the local Quaker community and General John Devereux, a Taghmon man reputed to have aided Simon Bolivar in the struggle for freedom in South America (he may never have lifted a sword but he was most successful at recruitment). There is one cautionary tale of a local cattle dealer and Casanova who was reported to have drunk eleven bottles of brandy one day in 1841, walked out into his back garden and "literally exploded". "Some parts of him" writes Des Waters, "were never found. A case of going out with a bang, not a whimper". Of such are local myths created. Great value here for only €10.
Richard Roche is an author, local historian and critic
Moyne-Templetouhy - A Life of its Own: The Story of a Tipperary Parish Moyne-Templetouhy History Group. Three volumes. €130
The Grand Tour of Cork Compiled by Cornelius Kelly Cailleach Books, Beara, Co Cork. €12.95
Journal of the Newcastle West Historical Society, No.3
Newcastle West Historical Society €10