History « Thurles Information

Thurles Forgets On Remembrance Sunday.

Extract from the poem “Aftermath” by Siegfried Sassoon.

“Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz.
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench,
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench,
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?
Have you forgotten yet?
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.“

The Irish General Election will take place on November 29th 2024.
This week local people on social media were extremely reticent about the direction in which Thurles town was heading, describing same as “A dead horse town”, and “A sh#t hole with nothing in it”.
Despite 90% of second level students educated in the town, moving on into third level education and following diploma courses, some people saw the idea of a proposed Drive-Thru McDonald’s as “giving huge employment” and putting Thurles “back on the map”.

(This upcoming General Election will now give these same commentators an opportunity to vote. But most likely they will once again vote for the same ineffectual lunatics to take over this picturesque rural Tipperary asylum, for yet another 4 years. Even worse, they will protest, voting for persons who were once members of, or, at the very least, known associates of proscribed organisations.)

But perhaps the social media comment, which I felt had the most ring of truth, read as follows, “There’s nothing left in the town”. (Thurles).

With tomorrow being Remembrance Sunday (Sun November 10th 2024), a day on which we commemorate the anniversary of the end of hostilities in World War I (1918) and commemorate the contribution made by Irish soldiers in that war; allow me to elucidate further.
On April 16th, 2020, we wrote about Thurles born Cpl. John Cunningham VC (Victoria Cross), under the heading “Lest Thurles Forgets Cpl. John Cunningham VC”.
Please First Read the Post in full Here.

**Missing – The Cpl. John Cunningham Plaque**.
*Pic: G. Willoughby*.

Following from that, we were contacted very recently (October 27th, 2024) by a family descendant of Cpl. John; namely Ms Susannah Cunningham, who kindly brought us up to date, as to the whereabouts of his missing Victoria Cross.

Ms Cunningham wrote; “The Victoria Cross medal is now in the Imperial War Museum in London, in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery. Lord Ashcroft collected Victoria and George Crosses and paid for the dedicated museum within a museum. The medal was on loan, but I noticed it had been bought by Lord Ashcroft recently. It is an excellent display and in a place that it will be appreciated, as is his grave in France, which is well attended, but a shame the medal is both out of Ireland and has been sold. I don’t know what happened to John’s service medals or Patrick’s WWI medals.
My father-in-law, Freddie Cunningham, is John’s nephew, via his younger brother Joseph.”

As Thurles residents will be well aware, a plaque commemorating Cpl. John Cunningham VC; positioned at were his family home once existed, [at the junction of Sarsfield Street and Stradavoher (R659)], was erected, at considerable expense, many years ago, by the then existing North Tipperary Council, with the necessary permissions granted by the property owner.
Some 18 months or so ago, it was deliberately demolished by a jack hammer, without, as far as I am aware, any public consultation or debate. Its absence went unnoticed by the powers that be, latter who currently rule over us. (See Photograph above.)
Following enquiries made, I am now promptly informed by Ms Sharon Scully, (Administrator Thurles Municipal District Council) that, quote “I can confirm that Tipperary County Council were not involved in the removal of the Cunningham Plaque”.

This being the accepted case, (which I believe); I would like to know where the removed plaque can be currently located, so that same can be re-erected at an alternative location nearby, which does not cause either interference or disorderliness.

I now also hope, nay, expect, that Thurles Municipal District Council officials and recently elected councillors, will follow up on finding and re-locating same.

I’m The Father Of The Bride.

The great Leitrim native Seamus O’Rourke, writer, director, actor, poet and independent producer (Big Guerilla Productions) takes us back to 1922.

The year 1922 in Ireland marked the beginning of the final phase in Ireland’s revolution. It saw the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty; the establishment of the Irish Free State; the outbreak of the civil war; and the consolidation of partition as Northern Ireland opted out of the Free State settlement.

Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) Celebrates Its 140th Birthday Today.

Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) will mark its 140th birthday in Thurles today, Friday, 1st November, 2024.

The GAA was founded on November 1st 1884 at a meeting in Hayes Hotel, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, by a group of spirited Irishmen, latter who had the foresight to realise the importance of establishing a national organisation to make athletics more accessible to the masses and to revive and nurture traditional, indigenous sports and pastimes.

**Michael Cusack 1847- 1906.** *[GAA’s first President elect.]*

Irish teacher and founder Michael Cusack, latter born in 1847, (during the Great Irish Famine 1846-1849), a native of the parish of Carron on the eastern fringe of the Burren, in Co. Clare, would become its first President.

(Sad that our councillors and Tipperary Co. Council officials set about destroying our Great Famine Double Ditch, 10 2022, thus removing a great tourist attraction which linked both the GAA and Michael Cusack).

To mark today’s birthday, the GAA’s History Committee will attend at Hayes’ Hotel for a meeting at 12:00 noon, to make a presentation to the hotel. They are expected to be joined by Munster GAA President and GAA Vice President Mr Ger Ryan (Tipperary), as well as other Tipp GAA officials including Mr Patrick McKay, great grandson of John McKay, the former who was elected first secretary in 1884. To mark the event a meeting will be held in the same room where the Association was initially founded.

All are welcome to attend this event in Hayes Hotel.

Halloween Lecture – Relics & Reliquaries – Cashel Library.

Halloween Lecture – Relics & Reliquaries – Thursday evening, October 31st Next at 7:00pm.

Librarian Ms Maura Barrett will continue her tradition of presenting a Halloween Lecture in Cashel Library.

This year Ms Barrett will looks at relics and their reliquaries in the Irish context, and discusses the enduring belief in their miraculous powers.

You can locate the Cashel Library building, situated on Friar Street, Lady’s Well, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, HERE. (G487+RX)

Please do remember: Booking is essential by return email or to Tel: 062 63825.
In booking, also keep in mind that the Library closes at 5:00pm this evening (Friday October 25th), and will not reopen again until Tuesday morning, October 29th at 9:30pm sharp.

“Oíche Shamhna faoi mhaise”. (Irish – Happy Halloween).

Thirteenth Century Head-Slab Located At Two-Mile-Borris Cemetery, Thurles.

Readers will remember we spoke, some weeks ago, of the remarkable restoration work being undertaken in the old section of Two-Mile-Borris Cemetery, by the T.M.B. Old Cemetery Committee. Their work last year led to the identification of the burial place of the parents of a former Bishop of Limerick, Right Reverend John Ryan D.D. (1828-1864), enabling a memorial plaque to be unveiled at the grave site, on Tuesday October 1st, 2024 last. [View HERE].

Visitors visiting this memorial plaque within the old cemetery may have their attention drawn to a most unusual upright and indeed rare, head-slab located a short distance away also within the old Two-Mile-Borris cemetery section, south of the burial ground’s main central crucifix. The head-slab can be immediately and easily identified because of its pointed top.

**Mr Gerry Bowe** *(Chairperson of the Two-Mile-Borris Old Cemetery Committee)***, pictured here explaining the little known folklore, behind the long forgotten, pointed top, head-slab, latter located within** **Two-Mile-Borris Cemetery**, **Thurles, Co. Tipperary**.

While the back of the west facing side of this limestone, flagstone (headstone) remains blank and undecorated; a most elegant, ornate Floriated Cross* cross and human head can be found; both hand-hewn in relief, on the front east facing side.

* A Floriated Cross is a cross with arms terminating in representations of flower petals. Same represent faith, wisdom and chivalry when used in heraldry, and the Trinity when used as a Christian symbol.

This tombstone follows in the classic head-slab style of such existing grave slabs, erected during the period between the thirteenth and fourteenth century.
The number of medieval slabs which feature a pointed top is very limited here in Ireland, with only 3 identified as having survived. A second example can be located at St. Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny City, Co. Kilkenny, while we learn that a third instance exists in the Cathedral at Newtown, Trim, Co. Meath.
In the United Kingdom, yet another example can be located on the site of St. Peter’s churchyard in Lewes, East Sussex, UK.

The pointed top of the Two-Mile-Borris slab is a unique feature amongst the body of Irish head-slabs, however, it does occur on other medieval sepulchral (stone room) monuments, though again not extensively.

While little information is known about the history of this head-slab’s initial raising in this thirteenth and fourteenth century period; local folklore related by Mr Bowe, suggests that this pointed top, thirteenth/fourteenth century slab, identifies the last resting place of an unknown Bishop, who it is said died, having fallen from a frightened horse, upon entering Two-Mile-Borris village, as he travelled westward towards Thurles Town, in Co. Tipperary.

One fact, however, which may contradict this folklore is that the face of this slab looks eastward. The practise of burying the dead so that their faces would reflect the rising sun, originally began with the Greeks and ancient Egyptians, latter who worshipped a sun god. Their dead would therefore face the sun each morning, permitting them to greet each new day.

The practice of east-facing tombstones within Christian communities is of course traced back to the Bible. New Testament scripture which records the second coming of Christ, states; “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (St Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 24 : V. 27).
However, a notable and usual exception to this east facing rule, is that Church clergy, are buried facing west, (as indeed are often also senior army officers); based on the belief that, in the case of clergy at least, they too will rise, to face their congregation, and thus are positioned ready to lead same, yet again.

On the other hand, as Mr Bowe points out, local folklore may indeed be correct, as from antiquity Floriated Crosses has been identified as a symbol of purity by the Church. The design at the ends of the arms of Fleury Crosses often represent lily bloom; lilies representing the Blessed Virgin Mary and/or the Resurrection.