An exciting village initiative, hosting a wealth of skills, talents and creativity from our community and surrounding areas, in Holycross Village Centre, across from the Abbey Church.
In the past Irish social history has shown that villages have sprung up around existing monastic sites, holding markets and fairs that gave that area an economic base for its very existence.
Markets have ancient origins in Ireland, reaching back to the Irish word Margadh (market) or Markadr (market) latter word borrowed from the Old Norse language spoken by the Vikings.
It is not surprising therefore that Holycross Village Bi-Weekly Market should set up within yards of the historic Holycross Abbey, near Thurles, Co. Tipperary; with the organisers working closely with a very select, talented and growing group of vendors.
Chatting to the organisers today, we learn that Holycross Village Bi-Weekly Market now has some 30 open air stalls, thus making this street market more appealing and engaging for all age groups. On Saturday next, June 12th, there will be Face Painting for little people and for those not so little, Hair Braiding.
With no hair left and wearing a grey beard to hide my ugly mug, personally I will forego the hair braiding and face painting; settling instead for a loaf or two of CrossoguePorridge Bread. (Trust me it’s delicious, try it.)
Anyone who is familiar with the town of Thurles, in Co. Tipperary, is most certainly acquainted with the historic Cathedral of the Assumption, latter modelled on the Cathedral at Pisa in Northern Italy.
The building was commenced by Dr. Patrick Leahy who was then Archbishop of Cashel & Emly, and who decided to replace the existing “Big Chapel” with a Cathedral, and ever since this landmark building has played a central role in the faith life of our Thurles parish community.
The foundation stone was laid in 1865, it was roofed by 1870 and consecrated by Thomas William Croke D.D. Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, on 22nd June 1879, (142 years ago). Maintenance is constant in old buildings with repair needed on an ongoing basis. The 1970’s saw the roof re-slated, but now the time has come to replace the roofing and return it to its original Bangor slate form.
As stated, this majestic building as it stands today, has been at the very heart of our Thurles Community for some 142 years. Built in an Italianate Romanesque style, the Cathedral has always been admired for the sheer beauty of its architecture. Every inch of this structure is steeped in a rich history that reveals fascinating national and global connections.
For those of us living locally, the Cathedral holds an even more personal and profound place of importance in our hearts and minds. For many of us it is where we have celebrated some of the best of times. It is also the place that has supported us through some of the worst of times.
It is a site of worship and a venue where the community comes together daily through prayer, song, empathy and friendship. Indeed, it would be difficult to find someone from Thurles who hasn’t drawn comfort at least once from its surroundings or taken part in a celebration within its hallowed walls.
Now, in 2021, a building that has served and supported so many of us down through the years, badly needs our help with the roof of this Cathedral now in need of urgent restoration.
To this end, the Cathedral Reroofing Project Group are delighted to announce the launch of the Thurles Cathedral “Raise The Roof” Lotto, a fundraising initiative that is hoped will be of great benefit, as part of efforts to fund the much needed re-roofing of the Cathedral of the Assumption. It is hoped that the weekly option of €2 per line, will allow everybody to take part and support.
Please pass the word on and invite friends and family to support.
The last major renovation of the Cathedral took place 20 years ago. In the intervening years, repair works were completed on the Bell Tower and the statues surrounding the roof perimeter. A new roof will complete this total refurbishment in the modern era and ensure that the Cathedral will remain a centre of celebration, consolation and worship for the parish and the Archdiocese.
Readers of Thurles.Info, both at home and abroad, can VISIT HERE for further information on how they can assist in this most important restoration project.
If you can contribute 3 lines for €5, the same would be hugely appreciated.
Here in Co. Tipperary, we remember two victims of the Dublin bombings; both murdered in the city, forty seven years ago today.
In Dublin city three car bombs were detonated without warning, during rush hour on the 17th of May 1974.
The first victim, Miss Breda Turner, then aged just 21, was working in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners; the primary State Body responsible for the assessment and collection of taxes and other duties, here in the Republic of Ireland. Originally from Thurles, in Co. Tipperary, she had moved to Dublin and was engaged to be married on the following Easter.
Ms Turner sadly was murdered in the Parnell Street explosion. (See second picture above).
The second victim was Mrs Maureen Shields, aged 46, originally from the village of Hollyford, Co. Tipperary. Mrs Shields had moved to Dublin, where she worked in the Civil Service, until her marriage to husband Leo in 1953. The couple had one son and two daughters.
Mrs Shields, sadly, was murdered in the Talbot Street explosion. (See first picture above).
While the Dublin bombings, in 1974, were the biggest mass murder in the history of the Irish State, no one person has ever been charged with these crimes.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group from Northern Ireland, claimed responsibility for the bombings in 1993.
Former Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Baroness Nuala O’Loan(Member of House of Lords of the United Kingdom), found that Special Branch officers gave the killers immunity and ensured that the murderers were never brought to justice.
It is at this time that we also remember MrGeorge Bradshaw, a Tipperary victim of the Dublin bombing of the 1st of December 1972.
Mr Bradshaw, aged just 30 years, was a bus conductor from Fethard, in Co. Tipperary; one of two male victims who died when a car bomb exploded at Sackville Place, Dublin at approximately 8.15pm on that fateful day. Both victims were bus drivers with CIE and brutally murdered, having just left the nearby CIE Workers’ Club.
Mr Bradshaw had only moved to Dublin less than two years previously. Married to wife Kathleen, a nurse from Belfast; both then parents to two young children, Lynn and Rory.
In a statement today, the Government said is was fully committed to seeking out the truth behind those events and, hopefully, to secure some measure of comfort for the victim’s families and the survivors.
They further stated they would continue to develop and establish effective ways to address the legacy of the troubles, including implementation of measures agreed in the Stormont House Agreement, so as to meet the legitimate needs and expectations of all victims and survivors.
With the country wisely making staycation holiday plans this year, the government has given hard-pressed families an uplift, by waving the cost of admission charges at all OPW sites for the rest of 2021.
Traditionally, except for the first Wednesday of each month, families had to shell out for an annual OPW heritage ticket to avail of free access to our best-loved castles, gardens and ancient sites, latter costing some €90 for a family pass.
In announcing this decision, Minister of State Mr Patrick O’Donovan stated that with a growing list of open heritage sites and the easing of travel restrictions, we have a renewed opportunity to explore the treasures which the OPW has in trust for the nation.
While the news is no doubt a limited blessing for holidaying families here in Tipperary, currently as yet only some OPW sites in the county are open and those that are, namely Cahir Castle, Ormond Castle and the Rock of Cashel, are only offering admission to their outside areas.
The Library Service of Tipperary County Council is undertaking an exciting and important project that will see library staff digitise a wealth of historical documents currently held by the service.
These documents include Poor Law Union Minute Books, Rate Books, and Workhouse Registers. Since January 2021, staff have focused on digitising the 90 or so books in its collection that relate to the pre-famine and Great Famine era beginning in1846.
These books provide a fascinating and detailed insight into the harrowing life and workhouse conditions faced by our ancestors across the six Poor Law Unions of Thurles, Borrisokane, Cashel, Clogheen, Clonmel, Nenagh, Roscrea and Tipperary.
Once digitised, the records will be made available to view in full and for free via the Tipperary Studies digital website tippstudiesdigitsl.ie.
The scope and significance of the project, the bulk of which will be undertaken in Thurles Library, deserves much praise and recognition. By digitising these records and making them freely accessible, people across Ireland and the world will be gifted with details and descriptions that will further enrich our understanding of the Great Famine era. The digitised records will also enable individuals, no matter where they are in the world, to research their ancestry. For more information on this welcomed and praiseworthy initiative visit tippstudiesdigital.ie.
Double Ditch, Mass Path, Right of way
Another artifact from the Great Famine era of significant historical importance to the town of Thurles is the Double Ditch Mass path. Built by our starving Thurles ancestors during the Great Famine, this historical walkway now faces destruction as part of a planned development by the same Tipperary County Council.
Thus it would appear that as one branch of Tipperary County Council dedicates its efforts to the preservation of history from the Great Famine era, another branch seems determined to demolish it. It is difficult to understand this contradiction in practice, between Tipperary County Council departments, led by Chief Executive Mr Joe MacGrath. The admirable actions of the Library Service are regrettably inconsistent with the actions of other services. One service sets out to preserve history, as another sets out to destroy it.
Although the future of the Double Ditch remains uncertain for the moment, its fascinating history and related primary sources have been documented on Thurles.info, together with aerial video and photography of the walkway as can be viewed today.
Maybe the digital records shown on Thurles.info will be all that remains of the Double Ditch for future generations, particularly if local TD’s, councillors and council officials get their way?
Let’s hope other historical treasures don’t succumb to the same fate and find that their only record is a digital one.
For more information on the Thurles Double Ditch click HERE and HERE.
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