In a recent post entitled, “Ní neart go cur le chéile. – No strength without unity”, (View Here), we shared a directory of links to local businesses who promote an online presence.
Today we place ‘the spotlight’ firmly on one such successful Thurles business that has cared for Thurles and Co. Tipperary customers, for 3 generations.
Frank Roche & Sons Since its establishment in 1960, Frank Roche & Sons has evolved and expanded to sell a diverse and comprehensive range of products including wallpapers, paints and decorative accessories, housewares, china, glass, giftware, domestic appliances and so much more.
Do check out the video hereunder, which showcases just some of the brands and products, available to purchase for loved ones this Christmas.
If you can’t decide what exactly to purchase for that ‘someone special’, do contact Frank Roche & Sons to arrange a Voucher, allowing for your loved one to easily find a gift to treasure always.
Early History of the Building Housing the Premises Operating as Frank Roche & Sons, No 57, Liberty Square, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
In 1846 the building at No 57, Main Street Thurles (Now Liberty Square, Thurles) was a Warehouse owned by Thomas Moloney, the rear of which was easily accessed by Cooke’s Lane [Latter situated immediately to the right, as you stand facing the current attractive shop front] The lane was named after Archibald Cook, himself in 1846 trading next door as a Sadlier and Grocer and now occupied today by a Turkish Barbers Shop. Cooke’s Lane also gave access to a pawn shop and a forge at the rear of the featured premises.
In 1846 Mr C. Duan resided to the left of Roche’s and same premises traded as a Bakery and Toy Store. This latter premises would later become Thurles Post Office occupied by An Post until September 2019, before moving to Thurles Shopping Centre, some 500 metre south of Liberty Square.
Former occupiers prior to Frank Roche& Sons.
The building would next be acquired by Meagher Brothers who sold clothing from the premises.
Frank Roche Snr. fulfilled a long held ambition, when he opened his own business, having previously worked in Molloy’s hardware shop, (Just a few doors further up the street, currently today occupied by AIB Bank), for over 35 years. Himself a native of Skibbereen, Co. Cork, Frank Snr. had served his apprenticeship in Kelleher’s Hardware in Skibbereen, before moving to Thurles in 1925. He had been chief buyer for Molloy’s for many years, when his eldest son Allen joined him as a staff member and served his own apprenticeship there.
Frank Roche Snr. had met his wife Maisie Mullaney from Cathedral Street Thurles, before getting married in 1936. They raised a family of six children, with Allen, Frank Jr. and Mary continuing to work in the business.
From small beginnings the company grew under the careful stewardship of Frank Snr. who set about securing agencies for iconic brands such as Waterford Glass, Belleek China, Wedgewood, Royal Doulton, Ladro and Hummel, making them available to the people of Thurles and its hinterland. Home decorating became a key part of their business with brands such as Crown, Colortrend, Sadolin and Farrow & Ball.
Members of the third generation of the Roche family now work in the company, ensuring continuity of the business in providing their iconic brand products to not just the people of Thurles and Co. Tipperary, but also to any address within the islands of Great Britain and Ireland.
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. Extract from a poem ‘To Autumn’ by Poet John Keats
Autumn officially began here in Ireland this year on Tuesday, September 22nd 2020 (Astronomer’s calender) and will end on Monday, December 21st when nature takes on its winter sleep until once again to be awoken by spring in March 2021. [Note: September 1st to November 30th per traditional Meteorological calendar.]
As each year passes, we are wont to discuss our seasons metaphorically with regards to human living; someone is described as “being in the autumn of their years”, or someone is “no spring chicken”, or someone is “in the winter of their time” and “Summer is a time for the tasting of new melodies”.
This season, synonymous with ripened apples, multicoloured Fountain Grasses, Michaelmas and Black Eyed Susie Daisies, is most often referred to as “the fall of the year” since it coincides with the time when leaves fall from our abundance of trees, both native and foreign born.
In the past, as a boy, autumn always appeared to close that curtain, as it were, on our stage presentation of summer. While it was regrettably ‘back to school time’, for me back in the mid-20th century, it still remains my favourite season.
There were hazel nuts to collect. There were horse chestnuts (conkers) to be gathered, hardened (by soaking in vinegar), then the drilling/piercing and cording of same, in preparation for that anticipated conker fight. There were orchards to be raided and with Halloween on the horizon, there were turnips to be carved (few pumkins back then for such pleasures) and of course buttered barmbrack to be eaten.
The leaves on the trees in each late September begin to turn different colours, some to sepia tone brown; others to red, to gold, as the branches holding them, waving in our prevailing south-westerly breezes, took on a more skeleton look once more. Year after year these leaves pirouette downward to form mother nature’s rich colourful collage on our green grassy earth or on our cement coloured pavements below.
Ms Brigid Sinnott (Resuscitation Manager, Irish Heart Foundation) reports this morning: –
“Dear George, Today is Restart a Heart Day – a day each year when across the globe we raise awareness of CPR and how important it is for us all to know how we can save a life using just our hands. This year, however, it’s a little different due to the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this year we had to cancel our public CPR training programmes and we don’t know when we’ll be able to run them again.“
Why is it important that we all know how to perform CPR?
Every year in Ireland thousands of people die from a cardiac arrest. Around 70% of these deaths happen at home, in front of a loved one. Which means that if someone you love suffers a cardiac arrest, you could be their best chance of survival.
“To counter this, we’ve developed a new awareness campaign, (kindly supported by Abbott and ESB Networks), which shows just how straightforward it is to perform CPR.
“We’re launching the campaign today on Restart a Heart Day with a great new video featuring “Manny Quinn”, our familiar CPR training manikin! It’s less than a minute long – please, please take a minute to check it out and remind yourself of the key steps of CPR.
It’s so important that as many people as possible see this video and know the hard and fast rule of CPR. If we each spread the word – even just to a few people – its impact will multiply across the country (and beyond!).
George , will you share this video with five of your family or friends on social media and help us spread this important message? “
I came across this little video gem during the week, written by children’s Poet Laureate, Kenn Nesbitt.
Mr Nesbitt introduces his poem by stating, “For those of you who are looking forward to Halloween at the end of the month, I decided to release a brand new video, along with my newest poem, ‘My Creepy Costume.’ I hope you enjoy”.
So, was Mr Nesbitt really writing for just children in this case I ask myself or had he those more senior in mind? You decide.
Kenn Nesbitt is an American children’s poet. On June 11th, 2013, he was named Children’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation.
The Unanswered Question: “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 Double Ditch Exists
My articles over the last number of weeks have tried to erase any doubt as to the actual existence of a ‘Double Ditch’, at Mill Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary; thus correcting the nonsense statement by Ms Janice Gardiner (Acting District Manager, Thurles, Municipal District) that, quote, “Tipperary County Council has reviewed all documentation relating to the planning aspects of the Thurles Inner Relief Road Project and can find no reference to the existence of the feature/path/monument you describe.”
It is my firm belief that no review ever took place and this reply, in combination with the ongoing silence from elected Councillors, elected Tipperary Politicians and Council Officials on the matter, has done little to reassure myself and others who care about our town that the “Double Ditch” is safe from destruction. Surely it is reasonable to assume that if the answer to the question asked is not NO, then it must be YES?
Furthermore, same previous articles published were and continue to be aimed solely at sounding alarm bells, ensuring that a piece of our rich Thurles heritage is not placed under serious threat; brought about through either genuine ignorance; wanton deliberate destruction; conplacency or greed, by TD’s we elected to protect our interests, namely Mr Jackie Cahill and Mr Michael Lowry.
The maps, aerial and ground videos, together with primary sources, which I have published and shared, following detailed research regarding this famine period, prove beyond doubt, the very existence of this “Double Ditch”, together with its origins and its massive historical significance.
To this end it must now be developed as an attraction, for what it is currently and for what it can be into the future; to the benefit of the local business community, through correctly marketed tourism and job creation.
New Tourism Office: We now have a second new tourism office in Slievenamon Road, Thurles. We also have a new Thurles logo, “Halt Awhile”.
But, is this new Tourist Office in Thurles to be used to send our visitors to excellent attractions like Kilkenny castle; Trinity College Dublin; The Guinness Store House, Dublin; the Titanic Centre, Cobh, Co Cork etc. or are we going to try to develop already existing historical attractions within our own town and county?
Currently, all that exists in Thurles is what I call “Hobby Tourism“, with limited attractions unable to open on Saturdays or Sundays, or closed because a relative is “expecting a baby in July”. Indeed I led a walking tour group last year to a visitor centre here in the Thurles area, manned by a reluctant female guide who declared to the visiting group, “I hope ye won’t be long now, my mother is minding my baby”.
But enough of that; time to examine MAP-B shown above and contained in the Archaeological Impact Study on the inner relief road, undertaken by Mr Frank Coyne(BA MIAI, director of Aegis Archaeology), for client Mr Michael Devery, Road Design, (North Tipperary County Council, Civic Offices, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.)
In MAP-B our interests are entirely focused on F1, F2, and F3(Shown above) described in the Archaeological Impact Study as quote: – “The subject site is a series of fields. For ease of reporting they were numbered in the direction in which they were walked, from east to west, and numbered F1 to F9.
Field 1 is a small field, covered in short grass and grazed by horses. Field 2 is a large open grassy field, covered in short grass and grazed by horses. Field 3 is a large open grassy field, covered in short grass and grazed by horses. It is very wet underfoot.
Spear Head & Sacrificial Axe Head. The afore mentioned Field 3, which is known as the “Well Field”, was where in 1996 the Monakeeba Bronze socketed spearhead was found, as stated in this same Impact Study.
The Monakeeba Bronze socketed spearhead together with the Monakeeba Stone Age Sacrificial Axe Head, latter found earlier, were both handed over to the National Museum by George Willoughby in 1996. [The Monakeeba Bronze socketed spearhead gets a mention in the Archaeological Impact Study, but for some reason the Stone Age Sacrificial Axe Head found on the Double Ditch was left out].
Please examine the fields again on the above map.
Field (1) bordering the south side of the Famine Double Ditch is small, containing a mere .745 acres. No photograph is taken to provide south to north landscape features, which incorporates the raised Double Ditch. Field (2) bordering the north side of the Famine Double Ditch contains 4.478 acres. No photograph identifies the raised Double Ditch. Field (3) Which contains 3.319 acres, “The Well field”; again no photograph taken to provided south to north landscape, which would incorporate the physical feature of this raised Double Ditch.
All photographs contained in the study were taken from an east to west prospective, so how did the road entrance to the ‘Double Ditch’ shown hereunder, sandwiched between field 1 and field 2 go unnoticed by Mr Coyne and remain unseen, even on road photographs provided in this same Archaeological Impact Study.
The Mill Road, Thurles looking west on the roadside entrance to the Double Ditch. Question; how despite being only 5ft (1.5 metres across) did this entrance, sandwiched between field 1 and field 2, get mysteriously ignored by Aegis Archaeology
Now go back to MAP-A above, again used in the survey and note the cartographers Ref. ‘F.P.Double Ditch‘. Then understand that the same Archaeological Impact Study contains an ‘Aerial View Image’ of that site, showing clearly the ‘Double Ditch’ using the website https://www.bing.com/
Again, as with MAP-A, while the ‘Double Ditch’ is clearly visible (both on the map and the ‘Aerial view Image’), its existence on the landscape has been totally disregarded by the ArchaeologicalImpact Study. Mr Coyne should now be recalled to re-examine his Impact Study.
Silence from Councillors, Politicians and Council Officials.
One thing has been learned from all of this; none of our elected representatives, sad to say, have any interest in promoting Mid-Tipperary tourism, except in the glossy brochures produced every 5 years, one month prior to General Elections or indeed Local Elections.
The now long forgotten Tipperary half promoted marketing ploywhich yielded nothing! Pictured some years ago: (Left)Siobhan Ambrose[Former Council Chairperson FF]; (Centre)FormerEnterpriseMinisterMary Mitchell O’Connor (FG) and (Right)Mr Joe MacGrath[Current CE, Tipperary Co. Co.]
When I set out initially to explore what, if any, new impact developments in our town of Thurles could have upon aspects of our rich history, it was never my intention to anger any individual.
My aim was to ask three questions to reassure both myself and others that valuable aspects of our town’s heritage where not placed in danger of being lost or destroyed.
Two of my three questions were eventually and reluctantly answered. My third question, which related to the possible destruction of the ‘Double Ditch’, was not answered, despite repeated enquiries.
The closest thing to an answer came in the form of an official communication (aforementioned) that clearly skirted around the issue, by essentially stating that there was no record of the “Double Ditch” that I referred to in my question. The implication being that if there was no record, then there was no issue.
This reply, in combination with the ongoing silence from Councillors, politicians and officials on the matter, has done little to reassure myself and the Thurles electorate, that the Double Ditch will remain safe from total destruction.
Finally, it is my strong belief that Tipperary County Council, still intend to totally destroy this piece of valuable history, without the consent of the people of Thurles, thus depriving them of their heritage and a major future tourist attraction.
To be continued.
Part 3 of “Tipperary Co. Co. Intent On Destroying Thurles Heritage” will be published in the coming days.
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