Guidebook lists delights of Tipperary, home of Charles Kickham and Euthymol toothpaste

And I wouldn't care much for Sierra Leone, If I hadn't seen Killenaule

And I wouldn't care much for Sierra Leone, If I hadn't seen Killenaule. And the man that was never in Mullinahone shouldn't say he had travelled at all.

These lines from C.J. Boland's The Two Travellers are as good a write-up for Co Tipperary as you could get, but a more comprehensive version of the delights of the State's largest inland county was published this week as an inter-agency initiative.

The authors of Tipperary - A Touring Guidebook, Donal and Nancy Murphy, a husband-and-wife team from Nenagh, have seen every corner of their native county.

Mullinahone, for those who have never travelled, is listed as one of the 127 entries in the index, and is the birth and burial place of Charles Kickham, the Fenian and author of the Tipperary anthem, Slievenamon.

READ MORE

Further north is the birthplace of Euthymol toothpaste, "a scientific dental preparation" invented by the Moynan brothers in the chemical plant founded outside Nenagh in 1924. The formula is now owned by Warner-Lambert.

Nancy Murphy and her husband, both local historians, were originally commissioned by the late Dr Tom Barrington to write the Bord Failte Guide to Tipperary in the 1980s. It fell again to them to research and write the new guide over a fourmonth period for the north and south Tipperary tourism bodies, Shannon Development and the South East Regional Tourism Authority.

"We were both very familiar with the county. This particular time we went to the four corners," said Ms Murphy.

Newly-discovered secrets, they say, are the new church sanctuary in Newport, the sculpture park in Ahenny, the former county jail in Nenagh - now a heritage centre - and the Swiss Cottage, a thatched chalet, in Cahir.

"Because of the shape of the county and the length of it, people in the north do not know nearly enough about the south, and vice versa," said Mr Murphy.

Clogheen, which has gained a certain notoriety in recent weeks, merits a mention for once being the repository of "the long, long portrait of St Thomas More by Holbein. . . and whence wended its way to the Frick Gallery in New York".

Tipperary - A Touring Guidebook is available in tourist offices for £2.