Tipperary Historical Journal 2023 - we owe much to the publishers

The 2003 issue of “Tipperary Historical Journal” is now in circulation. Like all previous annual issues, it contributes to our knowledge of the stories of the lives of the people of the county, the places and circumstances in which they lived, the policies and influences which shaped their lives.
This 2023 issue concentrates, almost exclusively, on the 19th century, and the national, and particularly, the social changes, which were a prelude to the ultimate achievement of independence.
The very poor conditions under which farm labourers lived were challenged by the introduction of legislation on the building of the so-called “labourers cottage,” and the implementation of this legislation throughout the county is explored by Denis G. Marnane in his study under the title “A Forgotten Revolution: Building Labourers’ Cottages in County Tipperary.”
The difficulty in locating sites for these, due to farmers’ reluctance to sell sites of one acre for the construction of a cottage, is the subject of Padraig G. Lane’s “Tipperary Farm Labourers in the 1880s.” Perhaps this reluctance was, in some way, attributable to the fact that farmers themselves had only just achieved ownership of their own land under the quiet but very revolutionary campaign of Michael Davitt and the Land League.
Australia features in two studies: “Orphan Girls from Tipperary Workhouses” by Gay Lowry. During the period of the Famine, workhouses became so overcrowded that the Minister for the Colonies, Earl Grey (yes Earl Grey!) introduced the Orphan Scheme “whereby suitable young orphan girls in crowded Workhouses would be encouraged to travel to the New World” (Australia). This was a voluntary choice by the young women often encouraged by parents. They were well-prepared, literate, well-clothed and over 400 left Tipperary Workhouses under this scheme. They fulfilled two functions, as domestic workers and ultimately as much-needed wives and mothers, in a country where there was a serious imbalance in the population - eight men to one woman.
In “From Ireland to Outback Australia,” David Harris looks at the life of Thurles man, John Long, who emigrated to Australia in the 1860s, and settled in the remote western outback.
Workhouses became a significant feature, in the early decades of the 19th century, of the State’s responsibility in the relief of poverty and homelessness, a function which had been hitherto undertaken largely by religious and charitable institutions. Eight Workhouses were built in Tipperary.
John Keating writes about the “Operation of Clogheen Poor Law Union Workhouse in the Famine.” This was opened in 1842 with a capacity for 500 inmates and which became overcrowded during the Famine, where over 2,000 died between January 1847 and June 1952.
Richard Cashman has also written an allied study on “Dr Thomas Gallogly: Clogheen’s Celebrated Famine Doctor.”
Murders were not uncommon in Tipperary - indeed the county had a national reputation for such crimes, the majority of which were domestically related. Denis Grace includes this information in his paper under the title: “One of the Most Fiendish and Brutal Attacks: The Murders at Finnae, Borrisokane in 1843.”
Clonmel readers will be particularly interested in Neil Sharkey’s research into the conditions under which his father, John, a republican prisoner was held during the Civil War: “Imprisoned in Tintown - Shadowy Glimpses of Everyday.” Older Clonmel citizens will recall Sharkey’s lovely jewellery shop in Gladstone Street. This is one of the very few brief “strays” from the 19th century into the early 20th century, where this 2023 edition of the Journal is located.
Another is Maria Luddy’s review of Lisa McGeeney’s “Nursing and Midwifery in the Poor Law Unions of Borrisokane and Nenagh 1882-1922,” a study of the professionalisation of nursing.
There is also a tribute to Sheila Foley of Mullinahone who died in August 2022, and who was so involved in the annual celebration of Charles Kickham.

ON SALE FROM THE SOURCE
There is not sufficient space in this column to mention the full content of Tipperary Historical Journal 2023, which contains so many excellent studies of Tipperary. The Journal is now available, price €20, from The Source, Thurles.
As citizens of the county we owe much to the publishers of the County Tipperary Historical Society, and especially to the editors, Denis G. Marnane and Mary Guinan Darmody.