Cashel Library is a very tech savvy and is up to date in this modern age of AI and downloadable books. It is also the place where you can find an old fashioned, newly published book. In fact, Cashel Library is the place where the noted ProfessorBernard Goldbach, Digital Transformation Lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon, was to discover that ‘Books are smarter than Artificial Intelligence’.
Ms Maura Barrett, Branch Librarian in Cashel Library has been working with Transition Year Students since last September on a Women’s History Project. Ms Barrett explains ‘Libraries by and large are matriarchies’ Maura explains, ‘and therefore we feel duty bound to record the deeds of women as HER Story as opposed to what is already recorded in HIS story.
Back Row: Kelsey Gayson, Rhys Coppinger, Professor Mr Bernie Goldbach (TUS), Conor Flanagan. Front Row – Ms Maura Barrett (Cashel Librarian), Ruby Maher, Rachel Stockil, Eilis O’Keefe, Cillian Farmer Missing from photo: Jack Dooley.
Mr Seamus Carr, Cashel Community School’s history teacher was wholly supportive, feeling there is an imbalanced and skewed syllabus for Junior and Leaving Certificate. Mr Carr said, ‘Primarily students are studying the great men of the world and women are being sidelined’. he said. He even cited Nurse Kathleen Farrell who was literally airbrushed out of the 1916 Rising, stating ‘everybody knows about Padraig Pearse, very few people have heard of Kathleen Farrell.’ He was delighted that his TY students were able to be exposed to some women’s history in a non-school, self-directed learning sort of way.
In total, 10 students took part, both male and female. Students conducted some primary research on local women with the view to getting them to think in terms of HER Story as opposed to HIS Story. They explored mythical women, Viking women, medieval women, enlightenment era women and women of 1916 and Cuman na MBan; right up to women of the 21st Century.
All women researched had a link to Co. Tipperary. They then moved onto genealogy and the tools available to students, via the library service, but with a difference. They researched the matrilineal line and this led to some interesting and fascinating discoveries about their personal heritages. Then each student settled on three women each, with which they wished to showcase and set about recording about 1,000 words each, per woman researched. After Christmas last, Ms Barrett asked Professor Bernie Goldbach of TUS Digital Arts fraternity, if he could possibly show her, a Generation X person, how to podcast their research so that it could be a transferrable action and create content for Tipperary Studies. Professor Goldbach went one better. He turned up with very high-tech Podcast suites, Ray Ban Meta SMART Glasses and a portable journalist kit, and together with a whole load of free applications (apps), he created alchemy. He was very taken with the students, the level of their research and their overall enthusiasm. Professor Goldbach was to discover that the primary research conducted by the teens was smarter than the AI tools. Having reviewed the original research, (asking CHATGPT and Gemini about some of the research findings, consulting Meta to verify some of the images, whilst viewing them through Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses), they discovered that Artificial Intelligence returned inaccurate research results. So, they decided to stick with the study conducted from the books and manuscripts contained within the library service.
The story doesn’t end there, because students did achieve some interesting results. When using artificial intelligence to create content in other formats, they were able to create audio from handwritten documents for example. Spoken audio clips were able to be generated as video clips and machine learning helped to convert handwriting to digital text. Students recorded short audio summaries of their research, using the Spreaker Studio app.
Digital literacies have become an important skill for everyone who wants to join the fast-moving workspace of today. It is important to know that some tools, like AI, will not be fit for every purpose, but increasingly employers do expect Gen Z’s to be au fait with tools that can increase their productivity.
This research was showcased to parents and students and teachers in Cashel Library and the School Principal, Mr Brian Moran, presented them with certificates of recognition. The 21 Audio clips can be found wherever you find your podcasts by playing ‘Tipperary Heritage and Stories.’
Ms Maura Barrett explains, ‘One of the lovely incidental benefits of this Women’s History Project was the extra skills students gained from Professor Goldbach’s expertise’. Ms Barrett said the students not only went away much more historically informed, they also left with greater confidence and the ability to think independently and approach their research from different perspectives.
Tourists/visitors travelling from Borrisoleigh to Nenagh, via route 498, and arriving in the townland of Cullahill, Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, will observe a crumbling, two storey ruin, or tower house. This ruin is built on the ruins of a castle, latter which clings to a rocky outcrop, known locally as Cullahill castle. Houses built on earlier castle sites usually retain the name of that original castle site.
This building first comes into view on the horizon, easily observed on left-hand-side, as the junction leading to Kilcommon village (L4141) is encounter, just past the bad bends north of Borrisoleigh village.
Drone Footage: Courtesy Pat Corbett (Professional Videographer). Music: Courtesy Chris Haugen.
From what remains of this existing two storey ruin today; we can observe that both storeys had fireplaces and chimney-stacks on their south-west facing and north-east facing walls.
This visible eerie ruin, especially on late winter evenings, dates back to the early 17th century, and is reckoned to be only the second building on this elevated site. As the drone footage above shows, the ruined foundations of the older castle still exist, same estimated to date from as early as the 13th century.
It was one fortress of the Dwyer clan, latter who, over a 200 years period, constantly feuded with the nearby Bourke clan, in matters pertaining to agrarian claims, before finally the two clans eventually made peace.
It is believed that part of the peace negotiations between the Dwyer and Bourke clans was that a sister of the Dwyer clan, residing at Cullahill castle, named Sighle Ní Dhuibhir, would marry Chief of the Burke clan, Walter Burke, latter residing at Borrisoleigh castle, close to Cullahill castle. However, after four years, in 1623, Walter died, leaving all his possessions in the hands of his wife Sheila, the latter who by this time had become an cruel, embittered mistress who immediately abandoned her husband’s castle at Borrisoleigh and moved back to Cullahill castle.
Sheila had gained the reputation of being a local tyrant and history stands her accused of committing horrendous acts of cruelty on both her enemies and those who simply incurred her wrath. It is claimed that, at least on one occasion, she placed an enemy in a barrel containing internal spikes, before rolled him down the steep hill, just metres from south east of her abode. The action was repeated until her enemy died.
Others enemies, legends state, met a torturous death by being tied up and submerged in barrels of boiling water, killing them slowly.
Sheila also stands accused of the cruel murder her sister Cáit (Kathleen). It is said that Cáit had eloped with her stepson Ulick, seen then as a “moral relapse” by Sheila. So displeased was Sheila that she, by means of deception got them to return to the castle, before making them both prisoners. She ordered both of them to be hanged naked from the battlement of Cullahill castle, hung by their ankles, for them to be scalded to death while in that position, using boiling water poured on them from couldrons above.
Other storeys claim that she regularly had one night stands with lovers and like the Australian Redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti), she would then kill her mate the following morning.
Sheila met her own end when she was killed by one of her own soldiers. Again legend states it was her daily habit, on rising from her bed each morning, that she would walk towards the open window and stand surveying her property. It is believed she was killed possibly by accident, when an arrow was shot from a bow by a nearby soldier. It is said that a loud, high-pitched and intense scream reverberated throughout the Castle walls before her lifeless body was later recovered from the ground at the foot of the castle wall. Sighle Ní Dhuibhir was buried in Glenkeen old cemetery, outside Borrisoleigh village.
Eerie tales are often repeated in connected with these same aging ruins. It is said that a sow (female pig) and its bonhams (baby pigs) can be heard screeching in the castle ruins at certain times of the year, while the sound of strange music can be heard on other annual occasions.
Local legend states that gold remains hidden underneath the floor area of the castle. Two young men, legend claims, once set out to locate this hidden treasure. They dug down into the floor of the castle and came upon a large stone slab. They managed to lift the stone slab just slightly and from underneath emerged a huge black bird, who attacked one of the men with its beak, injuring his face, before flying away, never to be seen again. The story goes that this slightly injured young man was suddenly taken seriously ill and died within a few days. To date no treasure has ever been discovered.
Here in Co. Tipperary today, we again remember the two victims of the Dublin bombings; both murdered in the city, 51 years ago this very day, 17th May 1974.
In Dublin city car bombs were detonated without warning during rush hour, resulting in the murder of Miss Breda Turner, Thurles, Co. Tipperary aged 21 years and Mrs Maureen Shields, aged 46 years, originally from the village of Hollyford, west Co. Tipperary.
Mrs Shields, married with one son and two daughters, was murdered in the Talbot Street explosion, while Miss Turner, who was then engaged to be married on the following Easter, was murdered in the Parnell Street explosion.
It is at this time also that we remember Mr George Bradshaw, aged 30 years, a bus conductor from Fethard, Co. Tipperary, who was a victim of the Dublin bombing of December 1st 1972, at Sackville Place, in the city.
Statement by the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan on the 51st Anniversary of Dublin and Monaghan Bombings.
“Today marks the 51st anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, a devastating series of coordinated explosions in Dublin city centre and in Monaghan town. Today, we remember all those that tragically lost their lives and we remember the survivors of the bombings. We think of their families and friends whose loved ones were injured or killed, and who have carried unbearable loss and traumatic memories for over five decades. The Government will not forget our duty to the victims and survivors, and we will persevere in our efforts to seek out the truth behind the tragic events of 17 May 1974 and, hopefully, secure some measure of comfort for those effected by these callous attacks. We have worked consistently to implement the all-party motions which call on the British Government to allow access to all relevant documents relating to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings and I specifically raised this issue with the British Government at the recent meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference at Hillsborough Castle. The investigation into the bombings remains an open case in this jurisdiction. Any new evidence that comes to light will be fully investigated by An Garda Síochána. The Government is committed to working with victims’ groups and our Northern Ireland and British counterparts to develop fit-for-purpose mechanisms to meet the needs and expectations of all those impacted by those dark days, including the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. We will play our full part in legacy processes including addressing the legacy of the conflict in this jurisdiction.”
Former Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Baroness Nuala O’Loan(Member of House of Lords of the United Kingdom), previously found that Special Branch officers gave the killers immunity, thus ensuring that the murderers were never brought to justice.
Residents of New Zealand, Mrs Julie and Mr Tony Thomas made a welcome return visit to Two-Mile-Borris, Thurles yesterday afternoon, (May 9th 2025) to view a memorial plaque, which had been unveiled on Tuesday, October 1st, 2024, to the Right Reverend John Ryan (DD), late Bishop of Limerick. The memorial plaque had been unveiled on the gravesite of his parents, on the southern side of the old section of Two-Mile-Borris cemetery, by the Two-Mile-Borris Old Graveyard Committee; thus generating considerable attraction from Limerick visitors over the past 8 months.
Pictured above L-R:-Mr Enda Bourke(Secretary Two-Mile-Borris Old Graveyard Committee), Mr Gerry Bowe(Chairperson Two-Mile-Borris Old Graveyard Committee), New Zealand residents Mrs Julie & Mr Tony Thomas, Ms Margaret Cormack and Mr Dan Hayes.
Bishop Ryan’s mother Catherine (nee Hickey), was a native of Longfordpass, Grague, Gortnahoe, Co Tipperary. The now identified inscription on his parents headstone reads: “Here lies the body of Patrick Ryan of Borris, [Two-Mile-Borris], who depd this life March 5th 1805, aged 65 years. Also his wife Cathrn [Catherine] Ryan, alias Hickey who depd Novr [November] 1st 1836, aged 92 years. May the Lord have mercy on their souls”.
New Zealand’s welcome visitors, Mrs Julie & Mr Tony Thomas, have researched and written extensively on the Burke Clans nationally and Mrs Thomas has traced her family ancestors (Burke) back to Rathcunikeen, Two-Mile-Borris, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Research undertaken by the Thomas family, combined with graveyard restoration by Mr Gerry Bowe, has led to the confirmation of the final resting place of Bishop Ryan’s parents.
The Newcastle Liam Lynch Memorial Committee have issued an invitation, summoning the public to the 102st Liam Lynch Memorial Mass in Newcastle village, Clashganny, Co. Tipperary on Sunday, 27th April, 2025.
Limerick born Liam Lynch (William Fanaghan Lynch 1892 – 1923) was Chief of Staff of the anti-treaty forces during the Irish Civil War. On April 10th 1923, Lynch was killed whilst trying to escape Free State troops in south Tipperary.
A National Army unit was observed approaching Lynch’s secret headquarters in the Knockmealdown Mountains, located on the border of counties Tipperary and Waterford. Lynch was in possession of important papers that he knew could not fall into enemy hands, so he and six of his comrades attempted to evade the advancing troops. However, Lynch’s retreating group ran into yet another unit of some 50 National Army soldiers approaching from the opposite direction. Shortly afterwards Lynch was observed by troops and struck by rifle fire from the road.
His wounded body was carried on an improvised stretcher manufactured from guns to Nugent’s (formally Walsh’s) pub in Newcastle village, latter situated at the foot of the mountains, before later being brought to Clonmel hospital, where he died that evening at 9:00pm. He was buried two days later at Kilcrumper Cemetery, Lisnasallagh, Co. Cork.
The days schedule will begin at Tigh na nDaoine, the Community House, Newcastle with a ceremonial raising of the Tri-Colour at 1:45pm. A march will take place from the Community House to Newcastle Church, where Mass will be offered at 2:00pm presided over by Canon Brendan Crowley PP.
Following Mass, refreshments will be served in the Community Hall in Newcastle, followed by an Oration delivered by Co. Meath TD Mr. Peadar Tóibín, leader of Aontú since January 2019 and Chairperson Designate of the Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
The organising committee look forward to welcoming all in attendance.
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