Glenmore Walking Tour 2025

Thirty people took a chance on the weather and took the Eigse Slieverue’s Glenmore walking tour this morning. Special thanks to Katherine Grant and the Eigshe Slieverue Committee, and to Glenmore Tidy Towns (Orla Dowling, Trish Bradfield and Pat Dowling) for providing high vis vests, stewardship and the lovely tea afterwards in the Glenmore Community Centre. Of course no meaningful walk would have been possible without the seminal historical work done by Danny Dowling (1927-2021).

Brief Outline of Walk

We met at the Glenmore Community Centre and started with a discussion of the National School. It was opened in 1835 as a co-ed school. It had 17 desks for students which seated 10 students. The first year 200 students were enrolled. In 1840 the second school was built and the boys and girls were separated. The “new school” was opened in 1958 and was again co-ed. The land for the school was donated by the 4th Lord Bessborough (John Wm. Ponsby (1781-1847)). [John Vereker, of Carriganura, noted that the desks were still being used in his time.]

Stop 1

St. James was completed in 1813. One acre of land in 1803 was given by the 3rd Lord Bessborough (Frederick Ponsonby (1758-1844)) for the building of a Catholic church. This was just 5 years after the 1798 Rebellion. The cemetery was established in 1805. The first person buried in it was a woman named Reilly who was homeless. She is buried in the stanger’s corner.

Various graves were highlighted and the fact that the churchyard was utilized for important meetings. The Parish Priest in 1836 held an Anti-Tithe meeting here imploring the parishioners to resist the tax to support the Church of Ireland. In 1880 the then Parish Priest called the parishioners of Glenmore and Slieverue to form local Land League chapters. St. James was renovated extensively in 1910, and 3 Missions were held in 5 years to raise funds. In 1907 the chapel bell split in half when it was vigorously being rung for a Mission. In 1885, it also rang out with other local parish bells to call people to resist evictions that were to take place in Ballyfacey, Glenmore.

Stop 2

Consisted of the Glenmore Creamery, the site of the original St. James, and Bridie Doolan’s shop that operated from 1930-1948. The Creamy was established as a co-op in 1905. It underwent extensive rebuilding in 1958. Across the road in Hanrahan’s field, the original St. James was built c. 1711. Because it was during Penal Times, it was hidden. It looked like a barn and Mass goers carried straw to kneel on as it had no furniture. The stones of this church were removed and used in the wall of the current St. James. [Dick Claridge stated that when his mother attended Glenmore National School students were sent down the steep path behind the school to the Creamery to get wood for the fire.]

Stop 3

We stopped at Hanrahan’s (across fro the Church) the fourth and last Glenmore Post Office. In 1902 at a meeting of the Poor Law Guardians John Ennett of Cappagh made a motion to extend the gullet up past the church gates. John Hanrahan at the meeting stated that his house was often being flooded, and during the last heavy rain bones were being washed downhill from the churchyard into the gullet.

We highlighted the work of two of the Hanrahan brothers who were officers in the Glenmore company of the old IRA during the War of Independence. [At this point our luck ran out and it began to rain.]

Stop 4

Forristal’s house where Martin Forristal was carried home on a door by his workmates after being killed in the Creamery in 1931. All his clothes were torn from his body except his boots and socks. He left a widow and 8 children who were aged from 15 to 11 months. In 1901 during the planning and building of the Creamery the first manager Donovan boarded with the Forristal family. Directly across the road was where the first Glenmore Post office stood. It was established c. 1870 by William Powell.

Stop 5

The dispensary (on the Barrick hill) was built in the late 1940’s and was not used much after 1974. It was closed and sold about 2000 and converted into a house. The original dispensary was established around 1850 adjoining Gaffney’s shop. The doctor came once or twice a week from Mullinavat. In 1857, he arrived to find that it was turned into a pub. [Catherine Grant recalled as a girl attending Ringville School cycling to the Glenmore dispensary on the hill around 1959 for a vaccine injection.]

Stop 6

The Barracks was built by Lord Bessborough. The RIC was esablished in 1836, but it is not known when Glenmore received a Barracks. The first was in a field behind the Glen Bar. At Easter 1920 the Glenmore Company of the Old IRA burned the empty barracks. With the establishment of the Free State a Barracks for the Guardians of the Peace was established in Weatherstown. In 1925 the State bought the Barracks from Lord Bessborough and re-built it.

Stop 7

Gaffney’s Mill stood behind the current mural. It is not known when it was built, but it was operating in 1798 when William Gaffney, the head of the local United Irishmen was captured and hanged from the New Ross bridge. William Gaffney’s widow remarried and had at least 3 more children by her second husband, Richard Young. The Mill suffered two fires. The White Feet set it alight in 1833 and it also caught fire in 1923. The newspapers did not report the cause of the 1923 fire. There were Gaffney’s in Glenmore until about 1905. The property was later a shop, and a hall was built by Lizzie J.K. Walsh née Heffernan.

Danny’s house was where he was born in 1927 and he lived there until he was about 10. The family moved to Jamestown and Danny returned when he married. This house was where the local Land League met in the 1880’s. Sometimes the windows were opened to allow people who were unable to get into the Land League meeting to hear it.

Stop 8

Fluskey’s was established c. 1880 by Robert Fluskey. The upstairs was where the Grand Jury (today the County Council) met. The gable end was damaged by a run away circus wagon in 1941.

Across the road the row of houses were built by the landlord of Cappagh and Graiguenakill, Dr. Mackessy, of Lady Lane, Waterford, in 1855. In total he built 13 houses for his tenants. The second house from the corner was the third Glenmore post office and the post slot is still visible in the front wall of the house. The Glen Bar was opened in 1963. Glenmore Village had not had a pub since 1870.

Stop 9

We crossed the bridge into the townland of Cappagh. Our last two points of interest were Mackessy’s coach house and Heffernan’s shop.

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When I was first asked to do the walk I was concerned I couldn’t find enough to fill half an hour. The walking tour took approximately 2 hours (apologies) with a lot more details than are provided here.

Thank you to all the attendees today and all the additional information provided. Further information is available on all the places visited today and people mentioned. Please use the search function on the right hand side of the page.

Special thanks to Trish for taking the photos and sharing them.

Please send any corrections, additional information or photos to glenmore.history@gmail.com .

Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh