This weekend LoughmoreCommunity Hall will stage their annual play, “The Cormack Brothers“, a true and tragic story which occurred during turbulent years in the Ireland of the mid 19th century. The play centres about the murder of a Tipperary Land Agent & the hanging of two innocent boys for a crime they did not commit.
One true story, however, very much associated with this event in history is little known and concerns investigations in and around the murder of John Ellis the land agent in question.
The murder victim Ellis, was a protestant Scotsman, who was land agent to local landlord Mr John Trant of Dovea, (Latters residence is now Dovae AI station.) For 27 years the harshness with which he extracted rents from the impoverished tenants on the Trant estate and especially during the famine years, in no way endeared him to his local community. Such activity had earned for John Ellis a very unpleasant reputation indeed. He had purchased lands in the locality under the Encumbered Estates Actand proceeded to evict the peasant farmers who had holdings rented on these lands. So many enemies had John Ellis gained, that a police barracks had been erected in the townsland of Killahara, across the road from his home, Kilrush House, solely for his protection.
His moral character was also greatly called into question and it was generally believed that one of his victims was Kitty Cormack, sister of Nancy, Willie & Danny Cormack. Willie & Danny Cormack (The Cormack Brothers) were later wrongfully hanged for the murder of Ellis and their grave today can be found at Loughmore parish Church with their coffins on display in an open Morselium.
Mr Gore Jones resided at Cathedral St. Thurles, then known as Main Street, next door to and on the left hand side as you face the premises we now know as Mario’s Restaurant.
The Cormack family had been a plain Roman Catholic peasant people living in one of the many thousands of yellow clay or sod hovels which abounded throughout Ireland at this time. The brothers were uneducated, but had both earned their living labouring for John Ellis.
On Thursday night 22nd October 1857, 17 year old Tommy Burke took a horse and cart to Templemore railway station. His instructions were to collect Mr Ellis on his return from his weekly trip to the markets in Dublin. At 11.00 p.m. on the narrow road leading to Kilrush from the main Thurles road the cart was ambushed and John Ellis fell dead with seven slugs lodged in the area of his heart. Burke galloped the horse and cart, together with the dying occupant, to the police barracks at Killahara, but arrived too late to obtain any medical aid for his passenger.
None of the five policemen appointed to guard Mr Ellis went on patrol to meet him that night because they believed that Ellis, was not returning, as was usual, from Dublin. This information they claimed had come from a patrolman’s daughter, one Lizzie Douglas. Lizzie claimed that she in turn had learned this information while playing with an 11 year old friend Ann Brophy.
Ann Brophy, Killahara, Templemore, Thurles, Co. Tipperary was arrested on the 28th of October 1857, at the tender age of 11 years. Her arrest came just 6 days after the murder of Ellis. She was arrested at the behest of the then resident magistrate in Thurles, Mr John Gore Jones RM. (His wife Leticia Elizabeth Sheridan is buried in St. Mary’s Churchyard, in the grounds of and close to St Mary’s church, Thurles. Co.Tipperary.)
Mr Gore Jones, suspected the Cormack brothers had some connection with this crime. Arresting Ann Brophy, he had hoped to get her to give evidence that she had overheard this information from Willie & Danny Cormack, with whom she was acquainted. Ann denied any such information was known to her and she was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in Thurles gaol, known then as the Bridewell (which then existed where the Confraternity and Premier halls stands to-day. See picture – circa 1900.)
Eight days later she was again interrogated, but still sticking to her story, that she knew nothing, she was returned to her cell for a further eight days with only her jailer for company. When she became ill, a doctor was called and she was sent to Nenagh gaolfor a further seventeen days and again detained in solitary confinement.
At the end of this period she was brought back to the Bridewell (Thurles gaol) where the bed was removed from her cell and she was detained for a further 27 days.
Efforts by her parents to visit her during this sixty day ordeal were denied by John Gore Jones who threatened her parents by stating: quote “you too may hang for this crime“.
When she became hysterical, she was released three days before Christmas on the 22nd December 1857, thrown into the street and left to find her own way home to Killahara.
Anne, through her parents, later took Gore Jones RM to court for unlawful arrest. The jury found in her favour, but Gore Jones council asked that the compensation awarded, to be the smallest coinage then available (one farthing). The jury deliberated for one hour before awarding her the princely sum of six pence in damages.
Warning: The content printed hereunder may be upsettingto some of our readers.
“A man of the name of Leahey died [townsland of Moyny, (Maoiní Láir)] in the parish of Dromdaleague (Co. Cork) about a fortnight ago; his wife and two children remained in the house until the putrescent exhalations from the body drove them from their companionship with the dead; in a day or two after, some persons in passing the man’s cabin, had their attention attracted by a loud snarling, and on entering, found the gnawed and mangled skeleton of Leahey contended for by hungry dogs.” Source: Cork Southern Reporter, of Jan. 26th 1847.
“I started for Ballydehob, (Coastal Village Co. Cork) and learned upon the road that we should come to a hut or cabin in the parish of Aghadown, (Murrahin South, Co. Cork)on the property of Mr Long, where four people had lain dead for six days; and, upon arriving at the hut, the abode of Tim Harrington, we found this to be true; for there lay the four bodies and a fifth was passing to the same bourne. On hearing our voices, the sinking man made an effort to reach the door, and ask for drink or fire; he fell in the doorway; there, in all probability to die; as the living cannot be prevailed to assist in the interments, for fear of taking the fever.” Source: Illustrated London News – Saturday February 13th 1847.
“Deaths here are daily increasing. Dr. Donovan and I are, just this moment, after returning from the village of South Reen, (Co. Cork) where we had to bury a body ourselves that was eleven days dead; and where do you think? In a kitchen garden. We had to dig the ground, or rather the hole, ourselves; no one would come near us, the smell was so intolerable. We are half-dead from the work lately imposed on us.” Source: Illustrated London News – Saturday February 13th 1847.
One hundred and forty have died in the Skibbereen Workhouse in one month; eight have died in one day! And Mr McCarthy Downing states that“They came into the house merely and solely for the purpose of getting a coffin.” Source: The Illustrated London News January 16th 1847.
My Question Was: “Will the planned Thurles inner relief road impinge, in a negative way, on the 1846 Thurles “Double Ditch”, which has been a right of way and a Mass Path for almost 175 years and which is the property of the people of Thurles and a National Monument?”
The map shown above; Cllr. Mr Michaél Lowry (Lowry Team) informed me verbally that the above map was only “drawn up to purchase land”
I am now asking the people of Thurles to look carefully at the map shown above, latter supplied by Tipperary County Council themselves. Find the word “Start” (Pink colour on map above) and travel in a straight direct line to the word “Finish”. Is there something I am missing or are the 3 straight lines representing the “Double Ditch” shown on THEIR map, being dissected by the proposed inner relief road?
Then ask why Co. Council Officials and some County Councillors, elected by you the public, are choosing to NOT reply to questions over an almost eight week period.
Here in the town of Thurles, Co. Tipperary, the situation during the Great Famine 1845 – 1849 was totally different to the source extracts posted above, thanks mainly to the Thurles Relief Committee made up of responsible business people and Clergy of both denominations; all working closely together to defeat a 19th century pandemic of a somewhat different nature than the one being experienced today.
No memorial walls have been built to honour the famine committee, and no streets in Thurles town has been named after any one of them, but here we dare to name men of great integrity and compassion, hereunder:-
Thurles Famine Food Committee 1845 – 1847
Nicholas V. Maher MP, [Member of Parliament and Justice of the Peace, (Chairman)]; Revd. Wm. Barron (P. P., Thurles); Revd. Dr Henry Cotton, [C. of I. Rector, Thurles (Vice Chairman)]; Francis O’Brien Esq. (Justice of the Peace); Revd. Wm. Baker(C. of I. Curate); Revd. Martin Laffan(C.C. Thurles); Revd. D. K. Lanigan(C.C. Thurles); Revd. Thomas O’Connor(President St. Patricks College Thurles); Robert C. Knaggs Esq. [Medical Doctor (Secretary)]; Revd. Patrick Leahy, (Professor, St. Patricks College Thurles); Joshua Lester Esq; John Gore Jones R. M. (Magistrate); John Brachan Esq.; Alfred Gahan Esq. (Civil Engineer), James B Kennedy, (Thurles Board of Guardians Secretary).
Archdeacon Revd. Dr. Henry Cotton, on behalf of the above named Thurles committee sent a final report from Thurles to the then British Authorities in Dublin, following the closure of the committee in 1847, by the British authorities.
In a part of that final report, he writes:- “The committee constituted by the Lieutenant of the County, in March last (1846) pursuant to the directions of the Act 10 Vic. Chap 7 commenced its labours immediately and continued them with a steady perseverance of men who were conscious of the magnitude of the task imposed on them. The greatest harmony prevailed among the members. The same spirit animated both Protestant and Roman Catholic, all appeared to remember that poverty and misery know no distinction of sect and that it was the duty of all to unite in alleviating that calamity which providence had thought fit to send upon our land. Nor can we admit that the amount of relief (though great) was adequate to the overwhelming mass of destruction which covered the land. But at all events we have the happiness of feeling assured that innumerable lives were saved by the prompt and benevolent exertion made; and although many of our poor have fallen under the complicated privations of the last twelve months, we of this district have mercifully been spared those heart rending scenes of death from actual starvation which are said to have occurred in other parts of the country.”
Suffice is to state, the above named committee instigated and funded the building of the “Double Ditch“, granting wages of 8 old pence per day to men and boys, who were then able to put bread into the mouths of their starving Thurles families.
This is the same “Double Ditch” that I believe Tipperary County Council, are anxious to demolish, using taxpayers money.
This evening I received a long overdue email reply from the email address of Ms Janice Gardiner(Tipperary Co. Council); the contents of which have now confirmed my worst fears. But pecularly, while it was sent by Ms Gardiner, it is signed by one, Mr. Eamon Lonergan, latter Acting District Manager, Thurles, Municipal District. (Perhaps a paste and copy error, but nevertheless confusing.) In the interests of “transparency, integrity, conduct andconcern for the public interest,” the details of Ms Gardiner’s email of this evening will be published and dealt with publicly over the coming days.
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” Extract from “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by author J.K. Rowling, OBE, FRSL.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Above quote by American author, Socialist party member, political activist, and lecturer Helen Adams Keller (1880 – 1968); first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Rev. Archdeacon Dr. Henry Cotton, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
At the start of 2020, no one could have predicted that the people of Ireland would be fighting a global pandemic.
Presently, as we battle the spread of Covid-19, it is a must that we endure ongoing social restrictions, isolation and economic fallout.
Thankfully however we are not alone. Amidst all of this turmoil, the Irish people have been guided by great leadership. In time the history books will remember these people for their judicious nature, initiative, honesty, commitment, loyalty, sacrifice and empathy. These leaders will include Dr. Tony Holohan, Taoiseach Mr Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Mr Simon Coveney, Minister for Health Mr Simon Harris and Minister for Finance Mr Paschal Donohoe. Let’s not forget at this time our unsung leaders either, namely our frontline heroes, including doctors, nurses, Gardaí, shop assistants, volunteers, community groups and servants.
The power and potential of great leadership to guide us through times of hardship and calamity is a theme repeatedly evident throughout history.
Great Famine (1845-1849)
The year 2020 marks the 175th year, since the start of one of Ireland’s darkest and most devastating catastrophes – the Great Famine (1845-1849).
Here in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, during this great calamity, eminence leadership in our midst locally, helped our ancestors’ weather what was then, also, the darkest of times.
Among other tasks, this committee sourced and managed food, supplies and much needed paid employment for the poor and starving local inhabitants.
The transcription hereunder, published here for the first time publicly, is a final communication report, written by Rev. Archdeacon Dr. Henry Cotton and his committee, in relation to local efforts championed during the Great Famine. As you read it, you will be struck by the parallels to our present-day pandemic crisis, as well as the many differences.
Remember: Ireland’s Great Famine brought about by the failure of the potato crop, was a calamity that hit Ireland in 1845, causing the deaths of some 1.3 million people and the emigration of up to 2.5 million more, over the course of the following six years.
One lesson from Archdeacon Cotton’s final letter that remains so very true today, is that to get through any crisis we must continue to work together as a community.
Final Report of the Thurles Relief Committee addressed to the Relief Commissioners at their request.
Archdeacon Dr. Henry Cotton writes: –
“The Relief Committee of the Electoral Division of Thurles and Rahealty being about to close their general labours under the Act of 10 Vic. Chap 7, beg to send for the satisfaction of the Relief Commissioners the following summary of their proceedings during a part of the period of the late lamentable distress. The circumstances of the district which has been the field of the Committees operations are these: –
The united parishes and electoral divisions of Thurles and Rahealty contain a population of nearly 14,000 persons, a very large majority of whom depend upon agriculture for support.
The loss of the potato crop fell with peculiar severity upon this district for it not only deprived the poorer classes of their present food, but likewise cut off their chief hope of employment and therefore of subsistence for at least another year.
It was unfortunate for us at such a crisis that the chief proprietors of land within this district are non-resident. It is true that most of these sent us a portion of aid when applied to, but if they had been present with us during the last winter, spring and summer and had personally witnessed the miseries endured by thousands, and endured with wondrous patience, their Christian sympathies would have been called into more active exercise and they might have furthered the benevolent designs of Government by their local influence and have lightened the labours of our committee by their counsel and cooperation.
The committee constituted by the Lieutenant of the County in March last pursuant to the directions of the Act 10 Vic. Chap 7, commenced its labours immediately and continued them with a steady perseverance of men who were conscious of the magnitude of the task imposed on them. The greatest harmony prevailed among the members. The same spirit animated both Protestant and Roman Catholic, all appeared to remember that poverty and misery know no distinction of sect and that it was the duty of all to unite in alleviating that calamity which providence had thought fit to send upon our land.
The good effects of this cordiality were soon evident. The poor felt confidence in us and looked up to us and were guided by us, and although we were never able to do for them all which we desired and often had to cross their wishes and refuse their requests, their patience and forbearance were most exemplary to the last. Nothing in the shape of outbreak of violence has taken place in our district since the opening of the committee although the population is dense, their privations and sufferings most severe and temptations to plunder were many and close at hand.
We endeavoured to conduct all our business in strict conformity with the instructions of the Relief Commissioners and Col. Douglas, an officer deputed by Government to inspect local committees, expressed his satisfaction with the regularity of our proceedings. In any case where we found ourselves unable to comply with the letter of the Commissioners directions, we offered them our reasons for the deviation and detailed the circumstances which had governed our conduct in that matter.
We do not pretend to say that all the applications made to us for relief were strictly agreeable to the truth. Sharp biting poverty will often put moral principal to a very secure trail. But every care was taken to ascertain the real state of applicants, and we are in hope that no very serious errors have been communicated on that score.
Nor can we admit that the amount of relief (though great) was adequate to the overwhelming mass of destruction which covered the land. But at all events we have the happiness of feeling assured that innumerable lives were saved by the prompt and benevolent exertion made; and although many of our poor have fallen under the complicated privations of the last twelve months, we of this district have mercifully been spared those heart rending scenes of death from actual starvation, which are said to have occurred in other parts of the country.
We subjoin a detailed statement showing the account of our estimates forwarded to the Finance Committee and the numbers of destitute poor, relieved by us in each of the ten fortnights during which food rations were issued. By this it will be seen that we distributed in the Thurles Electoral Division 659,162 whole rations at a cost of one penny and four ninths of a penny per ration, and in Rahealty Electoral Division 53,340 rations at a cost of one penny and two thirds of a penny per ration, including all expenses of kitchen, offices, servants etc.
Our expenses have ever been within our estimates sent to the Finance Committee and there now remains a balance in out treasurer’s hands of £6.18.4 for which the proper sic [latter ‘sic’ a Latin word meaning ‘thus’], an acknowledgement has been given to the inspecting officer.
With these details of the past, we cannot help connecting an anxious glance into the future, for we cannot conceal from ourselves the conviction that the present is a most critical time. It has pleased providence in its mercy to remove the famine and to grant us an abundant harvest, and the problem now is, in what way that abundance can be most readily and safely made available for the benefit of the labouring classes. It is beyond all doubt that, for the coming year, they will require not only assistance but the most prudent advice and watchful care.
Let us take courage from the success of the past year as well as warning from its mistakes.
If we feel that the country still contains within it the seeds of a return to a healthy and prosperous activity, let us study how we can best develop all its resources, and as the surest prospect of this appears to lie in the general and continued employment of the people by individuals, let us hope that the early attention of Government may be directed to the encouragement and promotion of this great object; that property of every kind without exception may be declared liable for its due share of the necessary burden of that district in which it lies; and that in any scheme which private benevolence may suggest, we never may lose sight of the principal that it is our duty to elevate the peasantry as well as to feed them; to teach them self-respect and self-reliance; to make them a credit to themselves and useful to the community; to see them become labourers not beggars; earning the wages of honest industry, instead of receiving alms in thankless idleness.
While in the awful events of the past year we visibly trace the hand of providence and humbly bless the almighty for disposing the hearts both of our rulers and our people, that the late severe visitation may be turned into an eventual blessing, our warm thanks are due to the Queen’s Government for its benevolent intentions towards us, and for the seasonable aid afforded to meet a sudden calamity of the most unexampled magnitude. They are also numerous individuals in Great Britain, in Ireland, and in foreign countries for the truly Christian sympathy and most munificent donations. Among those benefactors we particularly desire to recognise the British Association, The Irish Relief Committee in Dublin and the Relief Association of the Society of Friends.
We offer our best acknowledgements to the Relief Commissioners for their readiness in attending to our communications and their liberality in forwarding supplies; and to the inspecting officer of Her Majesties Government Mr Moore Labarte (Barrister), a special vote of thanks has been passed by out committee for his prudent and conciliating conduct towards us.”
Signed: Dr. Henry Cotton, Archdeacon, Chairman, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” Extract from “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by author J.K. Rowling, OBE, FRSL.
“Glory looking day, glory day, glory looking day, And all its glory, told a simple way, behold it if you may.” Lyrics Neil Diamond (Album: Jonathan Livingston Seagull.)
Rural Ireland and in particular Co Tipperary continues to be seen as the ‘Poor Relation,’ or ‘The Lower Order,’ and unworthy of Dublin’s well healed bourgeoisie when it comes to Fáilte Ireland and the fair distribution of taxpayer public funding.
We learn in recent weeks that well over half a million Euro (€620,000 to be precise) is to be spent on developing a number of tourist attractions in our capital city, latter aimed at our discerning International visitors who are only encouraged to stand at the gateway to Ireland. These funded projects are to be part of “Dubline,” a proposed heritage trail which will run across Dublin from East to West along a route roughly selected from College Green to Kilmainham. Proposed tourism projects here in Thurles will once again go unrewarded, not for the first time, with not one single cent of our nations central funding being spent for future tourism promotion.
Amongst these five funded Dublin restoration projects is the repair of a bell, at a cost of almost €18,000, supposedly the first Catholic bell to ring in Dublin in nearly 300 years, breaching the then existing penal laws of the 16th and 17th centuries (same laws were largely ignored in the 18th century) while also providing secure exhibition space for a few miserable artefacts found on the Smock Alley site, latter which will now move from where they are currently housed in the National Museum.
(Note: Despite a meeting in January last, to present date and some nine weeks later, Thurles cannot yet get clarification on the possibility of returning the Derrynaflan Hoard back to its native county, same being required on loan for just two months, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of its finding.)
Here in Thurles, during the years 1804-1862, Archbishop Thomas Bray and later Archbishop Patrick Leahy had no problem ringing the bell at the Big Chapel here in Thurles. The cracked bell at the Smock Alley Theatre, latter which only reopened in 2012, was built originally as a Theatre Royal and now in 2014 lends itself to the myth that Daniel O’Connell rang it to celebrate Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Natives here in Co Tipperary are being now asked to augment this ‘Freedom Bell’ myth, which will be acclaimed as the Dublin equivalent of America’s also cracked ‘Liberty Bell,’ latter that iconic symbol of American Independence, and in the case of the former, therefore worthy of €18,000 of Irish public funding just to remove a few splatters of pigeon poop with a power washer.
Thurles Famine Museum, housed in St Mary’s Church, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, has re-opened.
The one year closure followed, when over €70,000 worth of malicious damage was inflicted on valuable stained glass windows by local vandals in November 2009. This led to some of Ireland’s most historic artifacts, relating to Ireland’s “Great Famine 1845-1849,” which were on show to the public and stored in the building, having to be removed in the interest of their preservation.
The closure of the museum is calculated to have cost Thurles businesses, particularly the food and accommodation sectors, an estimated .5 million euros in lost revenues, last year.
The Museum, which has never received one cent of financial support from government since opening some 10 years ago, is now about to receive a major face lift, having installed 24 hour state of the art concealed video surveillance equipment to protect the graveyard, the museum and it’s contents.
St Mary’s Church, Thurles, which houses the Museum, and the graveyard attached has huge historical importance not just for Thurles Town, but for the island of Ireland. The graveyard was used extensively for burials during the Great Famine 1845-1849 and was closed as a place of burial in 1942 at the request of Dr J.D. Hourihane, then Local Government Inspector, (With some licenced exceptions,) because of gross over crowding.
Although burials were taking place here in the early 13th century, the first recorded grave in the cemetery is 1520, the Norman ‘Archer Tomb,’ possibly better known for it’s supposed healing properties. A Church has existed on this site since early Norman times in 1179.
Other notable persons buried here include:-
Lady Elizabeth Butler, Viscountess of Thurles and mother of James Butler, Duke of Ormond, ancestress direct of Queen Elizabeth II, Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana Spencer, who was interred in the little Chapel of St Mary, Thurles, in 1673.
William Bradshaw, a doctor in charge of the Fever Hospital in Thurles, and who also ran a paupers clinic in The Quarry, Thurles, during the famine years. “The grave of Dr William Bradshaw (Victoria Cross) late Assistant Surgeon 32nd Light Infantry who departed his life 9th March 1861.”
Maurice Leyne, one of the founders of the Young Irelander Movement and joint proprietor / editor of the “Nation” and “Tipperary Leader” newspapers during the famine years. He took part in the Ballingarry uprising of 1848 (Battle of the widow McCormack’s cabbage patch,) and was a grand nephew of Daniel O’Connell (Catholic Emancipation). Leyne died of typhus in 1854. “In this grave are deposited the remains of Maurice Richard Leyne Esq. who died 29th June 1854.”
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