1. R.C. Church of the Immaculate Conception

The Church of the Immaculate Conception is the work of John Hurley, architect, and John O Callaghan, builder. Its foundation stone was laid in 1860 and it was dedicated on 20^th October 1867 by Paul Cardinal Cullen in the presence of many of the Irish hierarchy and a host of Munster clergy.

The church is built on elevated ground and measures approximately 160 ft. by 70 ft. It consists of nave and lateral aisles and is conspicuous for its detached campanile and high-pitched roof which is supported by columns of polished marble.

The church avenue is entered by a handsome gateway formed of pillars of hewn limestone, surmounted by richly crocketed pinnacles, a feature transferred from the old church (no. 25). According to one source, these highly ornamented gate-pillars – a primitive interpretation of medieval gothic – were carved by Charles O Connell. However, local lore attributes this work to Tobias Vanston, Mill Road, possibly under the direction of the former.

This Gothic-revival building was erected during the incumbency of the Very Rev. Archdeacon P.D. O Regan and renovated extensively by Canons O’Connell and Terry in 1912 and 2007 respectively.

2. Courthouse and Bridewell

The Earl of Egmont gave the ground for a Sessions House and Bridewell in 1824 and the building is dated from 1827. The architect was George Richard Pain and the design is similar to other such buildings throughout the county. It too, is built on a prominence and is approached by walled-in stone steps. Its rather austere façade is relieved by attractive stone pediments and a picturesque Venetian window.

The courthouse was the scene of some lively ‘sessions’, especially in the turbulent times of the Land League, and the Bridewell was in frequent use.

The Bridewell and Bridewell-keeper’s residence lay behind the Courthouse, within a large walled enclosure. Lewis said, in his Topographical Directory (1837): “The Sessions House and bridewell are substantial and commodious buildings”. The bridewell, he said, consisted of several wards and separate day rooms and yards “adapted for the proper classification of male and female prisoners”.  

3. Dalua Footbridge

This pedestrian crossing of the River Dalua connects Church Street and Egmont Place. It was designed to replace a wooden structure of about 1815 vintage which lay a little downstream. This very attractive four-arch cut-stone bridge was part of Sir Edward Tierney’s programme of urban renewal. He built it at his own expense in 1848 when he was a proprietor of the former Egmont Estate.

It is known locally as the ‘Metal Bridge’ due, perhaps, to the handsome cast-iron railings which are an added feature and on which are embossed, in the form of shields, the Tierney coat-of-arms, proof positive of the social advance made by one of humble origin.

The bridge was severely damage by a 1926 flood as a result of which its timber superstructure was replaced with concrete. The removal of the bridge was part of proposed flood prevention works following severe flooding in the town in 1980, but local objections saved the structure.

The bridge now serves as a distinctive entrance to Kanturk’s highly-acclaimed Town Park.

4. Shradeen / Barry’s Mill Site

For at least two centuries the middle-town between the two rivers was known as Shradeen (Gaelic: the little street) and this gave its name to an extensive five-storey construction on the water’s edge.

Built by Dan and Michael Callaghan for Rev. Matt Purcell in partnership with Michael Callaghan, work commenced in 1805. Business thrived for a short period during the Napoleonic wars and a brewery and distillery were added. Post-war decline in demand saw management transferred from the Callaghans to William Barry in the 1820s, the last member of whose family was Dr. Edward Sheehy-Barry. Reduced operation continued until after the second World War when the building, in a state of terminal disintegration, had to be demolished.

Now it’s only remaining relics are a dried-up mill race and miller’s residence.

5. Mill House and Birthplace of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington

Hanna Sheehy was born in 1877 in the Mill House, her father David being mill-manager, later to serve as Nationalist M.P. for two constituencies. He spent three years in Kanturk before transferring to a similar occupation in Templemore.

Hanna was educated at UCD where she met the pacifist Francis Skeffington, her future husband. He publicly opposed recruitment to the British army for which he was jailed. Hanna became a widowed mother when her husband was brutally murdered by a British Army officer in 1916 – he was arrested while on the streets in an attempt to stop looting. Hanna supported the Rebellion and opposed the 1922 Treaty. For her suffragette activities she followed father and husband to jail and like the latter she also suffered hunger strike.

She was elected a Sinn Féin member of Dublin Corporation in 1920 and was on the Fianna Fáil executive in 1926.

It was women’s rights, however, that dominated Hanna’s political philosophy. Resulting from this, she fell foul of the Catholic Church as well as the Cosgrave and DeValera governments. She contested the general election of 1943 on behalf of the Women’s Social and Progressive League but failed to be elected. She died in 1946 leaving one son, Owen Sheehy Skeffington, who continued the family tradition of radicalism.

[Click here for an informative article on the political career of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington by Margaret Ward - PDF, 289KB]

6. Auxiliary Workhouse / Bourke’s Mill Site

This site, which is marked on the original O.S. map, was reputedly developed as an auxiliary workhouse during the Great Famine, one of four similarly-defined buildings within the town area.

This three-storey building later served as the coach building premises of John Archdeacon before its conversion to a mill by Messrs. John Bourke, who purchased the premises from a member of the Leader family.

7. Egmont Arms Hotel

In May 1824 the Earl of Egmont instructed his agent, Edward Tierney, to build a hotel in Kanturk. This large structure of two storeys stands over a very high basement and is entered by an unusually long flight of steps. From these steps local nationalists were addressed by all the major politicians of the 1880s, including Charles Stuart Parnell.

Egmont’s name was attached to it from the time of its erection but, on gaining controversial ownership of the estate, Tierney inserted his own name instead of ‘Egmont’. Later it was known locally as Johnson’s Hotel after the proprietor P. F. Johnson, whose family lived there for a considerable time. Johnson was a prominent political activist in the broader context of Duhallow.

A ballroom was attached to the hotel and, in the 1870s, this became a community hall for the town under the auspices of the C.Y.M.S. and remained as such until the mid-1950s. The building later became a private residence.

On a humorous note, the hotel gained the somewhat unusual reputation of association with ‘lost objects’. Mr. Parnell, for example, lost his reading glasses in the premises, which provided refuge also for two important personages: Prince Henry of Prussia, ‘lost’ during British army manoeuvres in the district and Guglielmo Marconi, ‘lost’ on his way to Valentia.

Egmont Place, stretching beyond the Egmont Arms Hotel, has a distinctive Georgian character. In A Survey of the Kanturk Estates (1832), the following reference is made to this part of Kanturk: “The Parts of Sradeen whereon houses have been built and the parts to be let for building is now called or known by the name of Egmont Place”. Both Egmont Place (31 houses from the Hotel to Greenane Bridge) and Earl St. (2 houses) are on the Primary Valuation Map of 1852.

It can be reliably asserted, therefore, that this distinctive area of Kanturk bears the hallmarks of Edward Tierney’s vision and planning. Tierney, who was meticulous about all buildings, has left a strong imprint on Kanturk’s urban landscape (see also 3 and 32).

8. Constabulary Barrack

The building at the corner of Egmont Place and Earl Street was the residence and coaching establishment of Robert MacCartie in 1843. From here, the Mail Car left for Buttevant every morning at 8.30 as well as two cars for Cork at 6.00 and 6.30 am. The closed-in arch off Earl Street still carries the irons from which the gates to the coach yard once hung.

The County Constabulary was established in 1822 in which year the Kanturk barrack was located at the back of today’s O’Brien St. However, by March 1830, the police had moved to Chapel Lane (Church St., no. 15). The sale of this building was advertised in January 1866 and it is assumed that at this juncture the Irish Constabulary (as they were then named) transferred to Egmont Place. This remained the barrack of the Royal Irish Constabulary and their successors, An Garda Síochána, until 1981.

9. St. Peter’s Church

St. Peter’s Church was built by the Anglican Community in 1858 and was in use by 1860. It is simple in construction and said to be early-English gothic in style. Entrance is by means of a porch in the south wall which also incorporates four narrow lancet-windows. The interior is enlivened by three chancel windows of stained glass representing ‘Faith’, ‘Hope’ and ‘Charity’. These replaced the old stained glass windows presented by Sir Lionel Darell.

This church, entered by an avenue of beech trees, replaced a former chapel-at-ease in Bluepool. The church itself was deconsecrated in 1977 and became a baronial museum for a while. It is now in private ownership.

The Anglican Community was never strong around Kanturk and Protestants had to wait until 1792 for a church. In the eighteenth century there were many complaints, mainly from Richard Purcell, junior, of Kanturk House (no. 22), of mixed marriages and conversions to Catholicism.  By 1860 the population of the Protestant parish of Kanturk (the townlands from Gooseberry Hill to Kanturk) was just 69.

10. Greenane (Allow) Stone Bridge

The building of this bridge in 1745 became necessary because the wooden predecessor was carried away during heavy flooding two years previously.

The Latin inscription on the southern parapet informs us that it was built by Joseph Clohessy, stonemason for the supervisors Boyle Aldworth, Newmarket, Francis Gore of Assolas, Richard Purcell, Kanturk and Arthur Bastable, Castlemagner, on behalf of the County Grand Jury.

The remarkably thin piers of the bridge have been commented on, as also the soffits of the arches which are all on one level despite a fairly steep incline in the road superstructure.

11. Greenane House and Mills Sites

This house was built in 1847 in eighteenth century style and faces Greenane Street Lower on the road to Mallow. It is a two-storey edifice but has a considerable substructure. It has attractive cast-iron gates and railing.

The first occupant was probably Hugh Keller, a solicitor. It was later occupied by Dr. O’Leary whose family bred Workman, winner of the Grand National in 1939. It is now a commercial office.

The yard to the rear is at a much lower level, stretching along the river bank.  The Griffith Valuation recorded that there were two mills on this site – an oat meal corn mill and a carding or tuck mill. These were of the thatched variety and the corn mill was in production at least as far back as 1742.

12. Elbow Lane

This was a pre-Famine cul-de-sac, located at the entrance of St. Teresa’s Place. It contained a double row of cabins for poor people who succumbed to the horrors of the 1845-’50 famine. These dwellings were removed completely and replaced shortly afterwards by a neat row of well-built stone dwellings called Darell Cottages, after the previously-mentioned reverend gentleman (no. 9).

13. Birthplace of Edel Quinn

Edel Quinn was born in Breen’s farmhouse in the townland of Bluepool, September 14^th, 1907. Her father was a bank clerk who was transferred to Clonmel when she was but a few months old. Her family eventually settled in Dublin in 1924.

Edel’s ambition to join a contemplative order of nuns was quashed by ill-health. She joined the Legion of Mary in 1927 and in 1936 she became a lay missionary when, as Legion Envoy, she was given the huge task of organizing the Legion in East Africa. This she did with phenomenal success before dying in Nairobi, May 12^th 1944, exhausted by her labours at the early age of 37. Her life is the subject of a biography by Cardinal Suenen.  The promotion of the cause of her beatification is well advanced.

14. Early Nineteenth Century Inn

The block of houses in O’Brien Square, between the two bridges, once included an inn of uncertain vintage. However, it is mentioned by Lloyd in his 1821-‘22 survey of Shradeen. It now consists of those houses from Medical Hall to Finn’s. There are substantial cellars beneath this two-storey block, as the street level is much higher than the passage and outhouses to the rear.

The inn was frequented mostly by carmen who stayed overnight in transit to Cork city from north Kerry and west Limerick.  The front entrance faced the lane leading to the rear. The inn was built at the expense of Lord Egmont and was in very poor condition in 1822 and became redundant to requirements once the Egmont Arms Hotel (no. 7) became operational. The inn – once know as Glynn’s Hotel – was subsequently sub-divided into four residences / shops.

15. Constabulary Barrack and Curate’s Residence

Cornelius Ryan built this house prior to 1830 and held under lease for lives from that year. The premises were sub-let to the Irish constabulary who were tenants on a yearly basis from 1843. Notice of sale ordered by the Landed Estate Court is dated January 1866.

We cannot say for certain when R.C. clergy took up residence – the parochial house was not built until 1879. According to the 1901 census, Fr. William Lillis, C.C. 1900-03, was in residence here.

16. House of John Christmas Deady

John Deady (1849-1884) – also called John Christmas Deady – was known as ‘The Poet of Duhallow’. He was educated in Mount Mellary and his best known work is ‘The Praises of Kanturk’, in which he creates a picture of the town around 1870. He was also an auctioneer and for a time acted as secretary to the Duhallow Farmers’ Club.

His house, situated in the Market Square, was a public house in Deady’s time and for some time afterwards. It is now a butcher’s shop. Deady is buried in Clonmeen.

17. Birthplace of An tAthair Donnchadh Ó Floinn

Donnchadh Ó Floinn (1902-1968), the noted Irish scholar, was born in this house in Main Street at the foot of the bridge. His father Geoffrey, a leather merchant, came from Ardaprior, east of Ballygraddy.

Donnchadh was educated in Kanturk, the North Monastery in Cork and St. Colman’s College, Fermoy. He took his BA degree at Maynooth College where he was ordained in 1927. He served in turn as chaplain and diocesan examiner in Dublin archdiocese. He was later appointed Professor of English and Logic at All Hallows College, Dublin.

However, it was in the field of Irish studies that an tAthair Ó Floinn gained national distinction. He assisted Fr. Dineen with the revised edition of the latter’s seminal Irish-English Dictionary. He made a particular study of the Irish of Clear Island, Co. Cork, and wrote a prayer-book in Irish for children. He inspired the movement known as An Réalt within the Legion of Mary. He was appointed professor of Irish in Maynooth college in 1940 and served the last four years of his life as Parish Priest in Bray, where he died in 1968.

18. Market House

Now the Credit Union building, the Market House is the jewel in the crown of Strand Street – a street which is richly endowed with many pleasing architectural features.

The ‘Clockhouse’ – as it is known locally for generations – is a most impressive building in the classical style. It has pleasing proportions and symmetrical design and its coigns of dressed limestone contrast harmoniously with the rubble sandstone, thus affording great visual satisfaction.

The building presents a five-bay façade of two storeys while its three-bay breakfront accommodates the entrance, framed by segmental arch and side windows, surmounted by Venetian windows and tympanum now bearing the Credit Union motif.

Two former doorcases, now converted to windowcases, act as flankers for the front door and resemble those in the Courthouse (no. 2), perhaps suggesting that this building might also be the creation of the Pain brothers. It is further embellished with a louvred hexagonal bellcote and weather vane.

It was originally built in 1838 as a two-storey market house and was later used as a school and for other purposes (the clock face is dated 1838). It was acquired by Kanturk Credit Union in the 1980s and the necessary extensive renovations were carried out with much sympathy for its architectural integrity, even though the original rendering on the façade was removed during these works.  

19. Kanturk Castle

It needs to be said at the outset that this is not the original castle of Kanturk which was taken by Gerald Earl of Kildare in 1510 and visited by the Chief Justice Sir William Pelham seventy years later. Rather, it is the manor house of Dermot McDonagh McCarthy, Lord of Duhallow. It is in the townland of Paal East.

Natives of Kanturk call this building the ‘Old Court’, for what reason conjecture may only answer, as it must for many facets of this interesting ruin, one of a group of six stylistically similar structures in Ireland. It is a mixture of native tower-house and Tudor manor house, marking a transition in building styles influenced by more settled times. Nevertheless, it clearly had a strong security purpose, evidenced by a number of gunholes.

Its period of construction remains uncertain, though Maurice Craig dates its renaissance west door to pre-1609. The size, shape and variety of its doors, windows and fireplaces, its limestone string courses, mullions and corbels, all whet the appetite of anybody interested in architecture.

We may speculate what Kanturk Castle might be like if finished, but it is the general opinion that the Old Court was never completed or inhabited. The vacuum in our historic knowledge about the structure has been filled by much lore and romantic legend.

20. Trades Union Hall

Kanturk was to the forefront of the evolution of the labour movement in Ireland. Kanturk Labourer’s Club was founded in 1869, to be renamed the Irish Agricultural Labourers’ Union in 1873, which was followed by a Trades Council (1881), Labour League (1886) and the Duhallow Trades and Labour Association (1889).

It was in this hall, in Lower Bluepool, that the Trades Council was established in 1881, commemorated in the wall plaque. It was also the bandroom of the Kanturk Brass Band and much later of the Kanturk Fife and Drum Band, For many years the building’s activities were supervised by the O’Shea family, a name with strong and long association with the trade union movement in Kanturk.

In recent times it was secured by Kanturk and District Community Council which has overseen its total refurbishment for community activities.

21. Ball Alley

In 1850 this property is described in the primary valuation of Richard Griffith as ‘House, office, Ballcourt and garden’. In the closing decades of the century tenancy belonged to the Twohill family which produced one of handball’s leading protagonists. Tim was Irish champion and challenged Mick Egan for the world championship. Other stars of the semi-professional era – O’Herlihy and Drew (Cork City), Fitzgerald and Lawlor (Tralee), J.J. Bowles, Limerick, etc, - all played at this venue. The alley was demolished in 1986.

22. Site of Kanturk House

The Purcells were Kanturk’s most influential family for much of the eighteenth century as its members retained the land-agency of the Egmont estate for close on a century and were tenants for a huge swathe of land around Kanturk. The most important member was Richard, junior, son of John Purcell (he leased Pulleen from Gethin in 1681 but under Percival he is mentioned for grazing only in 1685).

John Purcell built a strong two-storey stone slate-roofed house, probably during the last decade of the seventeenth century. Known as Kanturk House, it was demolished in 1853 and its site most likely coincides with the retail buildings on the northern edge of the County Council car park off Watergate St. In the view of George Bolster – writing in 1908 – the adjacent stone walls may be the only remaining relics of Kanturk House, which included a walled-in garden.

23. Tolls House

The first house on the south side of Percival St, off the Market Square, was the tolls house in 1850. Tolls represented a levy on all goods sold in the market place, payable to the baron of the fair. It was probably the house of the toll-collector. To the rear of this house there was a pound, while diagonally across the Square stood the town’s market house (no. 24) for close to two centuries. All these were part of the old manorial system.

24. Site of the Market House

According to the royal grant to Dermot MacOwen MacCarthy, June 6^th 1615, the Lord of Duhallow was empowered to hold a weekly market (Saturday) and a two-day fair in June.

The first reference to a market house is May 1657 when John Galway was tenant for two rooms in what was quite likely a two storey building. It is also likely that it perished in 1690 when Jacobite forces burned the villages of Charleville, Churchtown and Kanturk in a sequel to the Battle of the Boyne. More of the same happened the following year and the re-building of Kanturk took a long time.

The second market house was therefore not built until 1728. This was a thatched, single storey construction of 40ft x 16ft x 10 ft on the site of Galway’s house. It was cheaply built with inferior materials in inclement weather conditions and less than twenty years later it was declared to be unworthy of repair, standing as it did “in the middle of a square which is spoiled by it”.

A local contractor, Daniel Egan, built the town’s third market-house on the same site in 1747, ever after identified as the Market House Plot. This was a two-storey, slated, stone-walled building – 40ft x 20ft – with walls 2ft thick made of stone and mortar. Three arches of cut stone with limestone pillars, enclosing palisade gates, and four sashed windows formed the Market Square façade, while another window and arch occupied the east gable. A wooden oak stairs gave access to the first floor, the use of which, along with the attic, was reserved for Egan.

This was a multi-purpose building as it was simultaneously used as court house – for the manor of Kanturk – and as a place of divine worship for Anglicans, in the absence of any church nearer than Newmarket.

During the periodic Whiteboy uprisings (1762-1822) a company of military was stationed in the market house. It became redundant in its original usage once the imposing fourth market house was erected in Strand St. (no. 18).

25. Site of Pre-1867 Catholic Church

This church, which is marked on the Primary Valuation map of the town (1852), occupied that site on which the Convent Primary School was later built, It was cruciform in shape 56ft. long, 28ft. wide and 18ft. high, with two almost identical returns of 27x13x18 ft. and several others, in what appears to have been an elaborate structure of centre nave and two lateral aisles.

Lewis described it (1837) as remarkably neat with its chapel yard tastefully planted and entered by a handsome gateway, formed of pillars of hewn stone, surmounted by richly crocketted pinnacles, the work of a native artist who also executed a beautiful baptismal font.

This was the first parish church of the newly-formed (1821) Catholic parish of Kanturk. It is estimated that it was in use from about 1800 when the chapel in Small Chapel Lane (no. 30) no longer sufficed for a growing population. With the opening of the Church of the Immaculate Conception (no. 1) and the arrival of the Mercy nuns in 1868, the old church was transformed into a two-storey primary school which bears little resemblance to today’s reconstructed lay-out of 1936.

26. St. Mary’s Lodge

The Mercy order of nuns arrived in Kanturk in 1868 to a convent provided for them in the building of the new church, to which it was attached. Bad summers and poor harvests from 1877 culminated in a serious potato famine in 1879 and the poor of the town were in great distress. The nuns administered a soup kitchen in a shed in their boundary wall for the relief of the poor, who approached by means of a laneway off Percival St. The importance of this relief may be gauged when it is realised that in February 1880 the Union Workhouse (no. 28) was filled close to its capacity of 800 paupers.

Later converted to a tool shed for the convent, this building still stands but the laneway no longer exists – it ran through the plot of the distinctive house formerly owned by Dr. O’Toole-Hogan.

27. Railway Station

The Banteer-Newmarket railway line was finally opened in April 1889 after a good deal of support – and opposition – had been engendered. The lay-out of the intermediary Kanturk station was considerable, occupying in excess of five acres between the southern end of Upper Bluepool and the western limits of Percival Street, both guarded by level-crossing gates.

Also included were the station house, signal cabin, store, water tower, station-master’s residence and pedestrian bridge in Percival St.

The branch-line, initially run by a limited company, was later taken over by the Great Southern and Western Railway (GSWR). It was never in profit, was closed during World War II and reopened in 1956 following local pressure, by way of experiment with diesel locomotive. It closed finally in 1963 with the removal of all railway stock.

The site of the station came under the ownership of a local community group, and later became a bakery. Some of the original station structures still remain.

27a. Railway Crossing

Some of the original railway gate-pillars and gates remain at the site of the level crossing in Percival Street. An imposing pedestrian bridge crossed the line at this site (below right).

28. Site of Union Workhouse

Kanturk Poor-Law Union was declared in December 1839 and a workhouse, to accommodate 800 persons, was contracted for £8,200 inclusive of fittings, to be completed by October 1841. It served the area between Millstreet and Milford, a population of 85,561.

In the usual manner, this complex included hospital, chapel, schools, workrooms, dormitories, mortuary, etc, and a boardroom where the Guardians held monthly meetings.

The Union Workhouse was located at the western extremity of Kanturk townland on the site now occupied by Kanturk Community Hospital, the former-medical officer’s residence, dispensary and the town’s first major local government housing development, St. Patrick’s Place.

Entrance to the workhouse was at the St. Patrick’s Place end which had two gate-lodges on opposite sides of the entrance gates. The boardroom was also located at the eastern end while the space between road and workhouse wall was under trees.

Kanturk Union opened its gates and doors in 1844. The new Kanturk Hospital was built in 1927.

29. Brogeen Mill

This, strangely enough, is the oldest mill-site in the district despite its remoteness from the town’s nerve-centre. It is not mentioned in the 1657 rent-roll but forms part of the glowing assessment of the townland by Sir Philip Percival in 1677.

The mill stream was made close to the present Monevara bridge and the mill-wheel itself was of the undershot variety.

The mill had a chequered career, suffering from poor management at times, market fluctuations, and trade opposition from the more conveniently-located Greenane mill which faced the tillage lands of eastern Duhallow. It was in ruins in 1842 but revived under the management of Daniel C. Daly in 1868.

Competition soon came from Barry’s Mill (no. 4) which led to the innovative introduction of creamery and cheese manufacture in 1892. This was the first creamery per se in Kanturk. The mill underwent yet another transformation in its manufacture of feeding compound under Tim G. and Eugene Daly. It is now a timber processing establishment.  

30. Site of R.C. Chapel in Small Chapel Lane

Small Chapel Lane is now no more, swallowed up in urban re-development in Church Street and the Market Square, which evolved slowly in post-Famine times. However, its details are intriguing as it is possibly the first recorded church in Kanturk even though there are no diocesan records of its existence (a masshouse, sited on the river side of Greenfield Road, is recorded under 1739).

It was located between the southern section of Percival Street and the Market House plot. There are references to it in John Purcell’s 1791 town survey and in Henry Bride’s map and survey of the Chapel Lot 1847. In the latter document, No. 5, Small Chapel Lane is listed as “Quinlan’s House or former entrance to Old Chapel”.

Apart from the possibility of its inclusion in the four nameless chapels mentioned in Bishop McKenna’s visitation of Clonfert parish in 1785, there is no other parochial or diocesan reference to this place of worship – decidedly odd.

It is estimated that it was in service from c.1751 to c.1801. The old people of an earlier generation referred to this place as the Church of Saint Mark because, during building operations around 1900, stone slabs were discovered in its vicinity, some bearing inscriptions of a lion, the symbol of St. Mark. Whatever about appellations, there is proof positive of its existence despite clerical reservations.

31. Dalua Bridge and Quay Walls

The present bridge over the Dalua dates from 1760, but the site seems to have been an important crossing-point of the river from earliest times. Various phases of bridge construction here, along with the development of the quay walls which regulated the course of the Dalua through Kanturk, must have been influential in the town’s present layout.

This stone bridge, thought to have been the brainchild of the second Earl of Egmont who probably paid for its construction, has drawn comment for a number of features. Its overall aspect is considered attractive and enhanced by minimal pier thickness. It incorporated both a male and female public toilet within its structure, along with a black hole – or ‘strong prison’ – for incarcerating miscreants. Only one of the toilets is now visible, in the eastern arch adjoining O’Brien St.

Another distinctive feature is the six inscribed stones set into the northern parapet, containing poetic lines in eighteenth-century rhyming couplets. These were initially contained in recesses on the northern parapet and were later moved to their present locations.

The southern parapet has a plaque which compares the cost of the bridge construction to that of Westminster Bridge in London and Essex Bridge in Dublin, and ends with a quote from Virgil. This plaque was partially concreted over when a new footpath was laid in 2007.

The bridge has seven arches but one is now almost completely enclosed by subsequent developments on Main St. and Strand St.

Historical evidence suggests that, up to the seventeenth century, the course of both rivers was unstable. Flowing through an unconfined marshy area, flooding caused fluctuations in the currents and channels, especially that of the Dalua.

Early documented evidence of a bridge on this site goes back to 1682 when the town of Youghal was charged by the County Grand Jury with carrying out various works including the building, finishing and repairing of bridges. Part of this charge was 3d. (old pence) per plowland for repairing Clanturke (Kanturk) bridge (1). John Percival’s surveyor advised the rebuilding of that bridge in 1704.

In March 1711, the County Grand Jury empowered William Freeman, Kilbarry (bounding Castlecor Demesne), “…to erect a good stone bridge with lime and sand on the River Awndallow where the old wooden bridge stood leading into the town of Kinturk”.

Furthermore, it was required that “ … a sufficient key … be made above the bridge to prevent the water from changing its course or under-mining the first great arch adjoining to the river of Awnalla …..”. He was granted £250 to carry out the work and was made responsible for the bridge for seven years. He was later granted £150 more to aid completion (£400 in total).

In May 1713 Percival’s agent, Berkeley Taylor, reported that land erosion over a period of ten years had placed the town in danger of being “carried away” if the course of the river were not reverted to its former direction. In July he declared that the only way to save the town was “by making a good dry stone wall of about 150 yards long” and he intended to begin the work soon.

Again in August, he reported that the men were at work “to fence the bank” following damage to one of the bridge’s pillars as a result of flooding in July.

The building of these quay walls led to the eventual stabilisation of the channels, thus helping to define the town’s layout along the channel. The walls were further developed in a flood-relief programme in the 1980s.

32. Tierney’s Screens

Kanturk town has been historically noted for its ‘well-wooded appearance’ and mature trees – especially beech – add much to the town’s visual character. This has much to do with a historical feature particular to the area which can be simply characterised as a double ditch, or bank, parallel with the road and with trees grown in between.

The outer bank is the normal roadside ditch or wall. The inner bank varies between 20 and 30 feet from the roadside bank. The feature is quite distinctive once identified and remnants survive in a good number of locations around Kanturk and district.

There are historic references to the origin of these, mainly related to Edward Tierney whose improvements have left an important handprint on Kanturk – he was land agent for the Earl of Egmont’s Irish Estates from 1824 to 1841 and proprietor of same from 1842 to 1856. These estates were mainly around Kanturk and Churchtown.

In the decade up to 1842 alone, a sum of £24,000 was consumed by these improvements, of which plantation was an important component. Evidence at the Devon Commission in 1844 informs us that Tierney was fond of planting on both sides of the road, thereby cutting it off completely from tenants’ farms.

Thousands of saplings were planted, the cost of which he bore himself. Tenants were allowed whatever grass lay within these roadside screens in exchange for the surveillance and maintenance of them. Any expenses incurred in fencing and ditching were always paid for by Tierney.

These plantations, in quantity of land and rent, were exempted from tenant’s dues.  When grown to maturity, they provided what one observer has called “Kanturk’s well-wooded appearance”.