Ardclough
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ardclough Ard Cloch |
||
| Location | ||
|
||
| Statistics | ||
| Province: | Leinster | |
|---|---|---|
| County: | County Kildare | |
| Elevation: | 61 m | |
| Population (2002) | c. 300 | |
Ardclough is a village and community in the parish of Kill County Kildare, Ireland, two miles off the N7. Amongst its buildings today are a national school, a church, Ardclough GAA Club, and one shop. Ardclough also contains the historic round tower at Oughter Ard, the graveyard in which Arthur Guinness is buried.
Contents |
[edit] Etymology
‘Aclagh’, marked in Alexander Taylor’s map of 1783 on the opposite bank of the canal from the site of the masshouse (later old Ardclough church) and school, is believed to be the first occurrence of the name. Ard Cloch literally means high stone, but there is no high stone in the area today. There has been a suggestion that the name is derived from Ard Clochar, referring to the convent at Oughter Ard.
[edit] Royal Site
The earliest evidence of human habitation at Ardclough was the discovery of a flint dated to 4800-3600BC, at Castlewarden below Oughter Ard Hill, rare for a dryland location from the time. Lyons Hill was the inauguration site and base for 10 Uí Dúnchada kings of Leinster. The battle of Gleann Máma, where Brian Boru defeated Máel Mórda king of Leinster and Sitric Silkbeard King of Dublin in 999, is believed to have taken place on the Dublin side of Oughterard Hill. The area was accorded its own place-legend in the Dindsenchas, Liamuin.
[edit] Churches
There are five medieval churches and three castles in the area. Most important is Oughter Ard founded by St Briga (feast day January 21) around 650 and site of a round tower. Recent research has estimated that the ruined church there dates to 1350, not 1609 as previously believed. Whitechurch became an important monastic site after it was established in 1300 and enfifed in 1506. A single headstone is the only reminder of the church of Castledillon (1000), once a parish of its own. The graveyard beside another disappeared church at Clonaghlis (pre 1206) is still in use while Castlewarden (c1200) has also disappeared. A mass house built below Oughter Ard hill in 1714 became the site of the first modern Catholic church in 1810 and a school in 1839. Lyons parish was united with Oughterard in 1541 and with Kill in 1693. The centre of the parish moved to Kill in 1823.
[edit] Castles & Estates
A well-preserved moated site at Puddlehall dates to the 1200s and was cited by University College Dublin Professor Sean O Riordain as one of the finest examples of a moated house in Ireland. Lyons, Reeves and Oughter Ard tower houses date to the 1300s. The large houses of |Bishopscourt (constructed 1790) and Lyons (constructed 1804-10) provided an economic focus of the community in the 19th century, as did the Grand Cana (reached Ardclough 1763) in the vicinity of the 13th lock.
[edit] Grand Canal
When work on the Grand Canal begun in 1756 Ardclough’s was one of the first sections to be dug. The canal reached Ardclough in 1763, when the 13th lock, a 137 feet double lock built with Pozzuolona mortar, was opened, following to the ambitious design of the canal’s original engineer, Thomas Omer. When a new engineer, John Trail took over construction of the canal in 1768, the proposed canal capacity was reduced from 170 ton barges to 40 ton barges. Canal records show that “ Lyons or Clonaughles lock” was reduced in size in 1783, but the canal through the thirteenth lock serves as a reminder of Omer’s original plan, 20 feet wide, compared with the 14 feet width adopted by Trail. Ardclough bridge was named in original plans for the Bruton family of Clonaghlis but constructed with a name plate bearing the name of the Henry family of Straffan. From 1777 a local river, the Morrel was proposed as water feeder for the canal, construction resumed and the first passenger boats were towed to Sallins in February 1779. Local landowner Valentine Lawless was a canal enthusiast, constructing the Lyons mill and lockyard village complex in the 1820s and serving as chairman of the Grand Canal Company five times during his lifetime. The canal was an important, if slow, passenger thoroughfare feeding passenger’s to John Barry’s hotel at Lyons. When in 1834 Flyboats increased the average speed for passenger boats from 3mph to 9mph Ireland’s first railway was already under construction. The canal peaked at 120,615 passengers in 1846, the year construction started on the Dublin-Cork railway line. When a Dublin-Galway railway line was opened in 1850 the closure of the rarely-profitable passenger service followed in 1852. Cargo traffic continued to use the canal for another 108 years, peaking at 379.045 tons in 1865 when an average of 90 barges a day passed through Ardclough. The canal was motorised 1911-24 and closed to cargo in 1960, but is still a popular thoroughfare for leisure boats. The tracks of the ropes of the horse drawn barges can still be traced at Ardclough canal bridge.
[edit] Economic Activity
Limestone quarries (sinkhole recorded 1804) made Ardclough canal bank the focus of economic activity from the 1820s until 1910 (peak activity 1850s), when the quarries flooded suddenly. Stone was brought by light railway to the nearby quays and by canal barge to Sullivan’s lime kiln. Ardclough limestone used on construction of Naas jail and hospital. A cluster of warehouses and workshops at Lyons lockyard village on the canal was largely constructed in the 1820s, featuring a mill (leased to William Palmer 1839 and Joseph Shackleton, second cousin of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, 1853, converted to roller mill 1887), hotel (leased by Patrick Barry 1840-60), police station (active 1820-60) and boatyard employed over 100 people at their peak but declined when the focus shifted away from the canal, the declin in fortunes of the Lawless family and most dramatically as a consequence of the accidental burning of the mill in 1903. In September 2006 the buildings were restored as themed residences and a restaurant. The Great Southern & Western Railway (constructed 1844) and Straffan Station (used until 1947) opened communications to Dublin for cattle and horse dealers. A rail accident near Straffan Station, the third worst in Irish history, killed 18 people in 1853.
[edit] Ardclough relocates
When the GAA club (1936), community hall (1940, reconstructed 2004) and school (1950) were built on a crossroads beneath Henry Bridge it shifted the focus of the community to a site in Tipperstown, which is regarded as the modern Ardclough. The population was boosted by houses built at Wheatfield (1940), Boston Hill (1949-51) and Tipperstown (Wheatfield Estate 1976, Lishandra Estate 1989). A new Catholic church designed by Paul O’Daly was sited nearby in 1985 and a new school and graveyard are proposed.
[edit] Ardclough People
Noted Ardclough people include politician Valentine Lawless 2nd baron Cloncurry (1773–1853), financier of the 1798 and 1803 rebellions and United Irish organiser in London who later became a British Pee. His granddaughter, writer Emily Lawless (1845–1913) was born in Lyons. Sculptress Mary Redmond (1863–1930), and artist Philippa Bayliss lived a century apart in homes which are in close proximity on the canal bank near the old church, while singer Ronan Keating lived briefly in Tipperstown (1998-2000). Ryanair founder Tony Ryan has a home in Lyons. Daniel O’Connell fought a famous duel with John d’Esterre at Oughter Ard in 1815 (Feb 1).
[edit] Ponsonby Family
Bishopscourt was home to John Ponsonby, speaker of the Irish House of Commons (1753-1761) and William Ponsonby, leader of the Irish Whigs (1789-1803) and birthplace of his brother George Ponsonby (1755–1817) leader of the Whig Party in the British House of Commons at Westminster (1808 –1817), his uncle Major-General Sir William Ponsonby (1772–1815) whose inept charge at the Battle of Waterloo resulted in his death at the hands of the Polish Landers and was studied as an example of failed battle strategy for generations afterwards, and of his sister Mary Ponsonby, wife of Charles Grey, British Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834 and best known nowadays as the Earl Grey of the tea brand. Ponsonby descendants include Sir Alec Douglas-Home (British Prime Minister from 1963-4) and William Windsor, heir to the British throne.
[edit] GAA & Sports
Ardclough GAA (community associated with Hazlehatch Irish Harpers 1887-8, active as Ardclough 1924-5, refounded 1936) is the smallest community to win a Kildare senior football championship, defeating an Army team that featured All Ireland and inter-provincial players in the replayed final of 1949. Officers of the 1936 club were Mick Treacy (Chairman), Johnny O'Grady (Secretary) and Dan Graham (Treasurer). The hurling club founded by Callan native Mick Johnson in 1948 by Mick Houlihan (Chairman), Mick Johnson (Secretary) and Patrick "Sonny" O'Connor has won 12 Kildare senior hurling championships, 1968, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 2004 and 2006, when they went on to become Leinster Intermediate club champions and were awarded Kildare GAA club of the year. Ardclough GAA club (founded 1962 by Mick Houlihan, revived 1983 by Phyills Finneran) won a Kildare senior championship in 1968. Five Ardclough players were selected on the Kildare hurling team of the millennium: Richie Cullen, Tommy Christian, Bobby Burke, Johnny Walsh and Mick Dwane. Current (2007) Kildare senior hurling panelists include team captain Colm Buggy, Richie Hoban, Tony Spain, Brendan Byrne and Brian Coulston. David Ritchie from Oughterard laid out Ireland's first golf course. Ardclough had a soccer club briefly in 1941-3.
[edit] Clubs
Ardclough had a brass band which performed at Bodenstown in 1914 and at the 1949 Kildare County Senior Football final. There was a branch of the LDF/FCA (Nov 8 1941), Fianna Fail (1931), Labour (1943), Fine Gael (1943) and Macra na Feirme (1955). There are active branches of the Irish Countrywomen's Association (active 1941-42 and revived 1974, with Maura Costello as Chairwoman) and Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (branch established in 1966 with Paddy Corry as Chairman).
[edit] Horses
Notable Ardclough horses in both flat and national hunt (once described as "the four horses of the Ardcloughalypse") include The Tetrarch (1911, regarded as probably the finest two year old in Irish racing history), Captain Christy (winner Cheltenham Gold Cup, 1974), Star Appeal (winner of the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, 1975) and Kicking King (winner Cheltenham Gold Cup, 2005). Horse breeder Edward Cub Kennedy came from Baronrath, while father-and-son trainers Pat Taaffe and Tom Taaffe came from Alasty. As a jockey Pat Taaffe (1930-92) rode two winners of the English Grand National Quare Times in 1955 and Gay Trip in 1970 and was Irish National Hunt champion six times.
[edit] Bibliography
- Ardclough Churches 1985 Souvenir Brochure.
- Eoghan Corry and Jim Tancred: Annals of Ardclough (2004).
- W J Fitzpatrick: Life, Times and contemporaries of Lord Cloncurry (1855).
- Valentine Lawless, Lord Cloncurry: Recollections (Dublin 1849). Online version available: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/other/abl/etext/irish/recollections/cloncurry.html
- Irish Geography Vol 18 1985 DN Hall M Hennessy and Tadhg O’Keefe Medieval Agriculture and Settlement in Castlewarden and Oughterard pp16-25
- Kildare Archaeological Society Journal. Volume I : pp84-86, 195, 296, 297, 298, 299. Volume II : pp179, 183, 395. Volume III : pp361, 364, 456. Volume IV : pp64, 165, 179-183, 255, 257. Volume XII : pp264, 332, 339-341, 400, 429.
- The life of Ronan, book on the life of Ronan Maguire written by Neil Fitzgerald.
