Headline news in Nenagh and district in 1925 and 1965
February 14 1925
Roscrea Appeal Case
The award of £12,050 for the destruction of Leap Castle, Roscrea, on June 30th 1922 was confirmed at Tullamore appeal court. The castle was built in the year 1000, belonging originally to O’ Carroll of Ely. It was at one time besieged by Cromwell and ultimately through marriage came into possession of the Darby family.
Mr J. C. Darby, D.L., said his servants were driven away. He thought he would be able to end his days in the castle but was now a pauper driven out of house and home. There was too, he said, an attempt to take his lands from him. Raiders bombed and burned the castle and destroyed everything. He found recently at the cellar some dynamite they were too drunk to explode.
Grallagh Building
At the Appeal Court, Nenagh, on Monday, before Judge Pigott, North Tipperary County Council appealed against a decree for £350 awarded by the County Court Judge Sealy to James McCutcheon, Kilmore, for destruction by fire of a thatched dwelling at Grallagh on the night of August 15th 1923.
The court was told by Mr H. Hamilton, B.L, acting for the council, who said an unoccupied thatched house belonging to Mr McCutcheon, situated with other farm buildings at Grallagh, was observed on fire on the night of August 15th 2023 at 9pm.
People who gathered remained for some hours until the fire was practically burned out. The next morning the gable end of another house fifteen yards away which had been quite safe the night before was found to be burned and traces were found in a third building of where an attempt had been made to set it on fire as charred twigs had been found near a wooden partition.
The Judge said that as the house was burning all round when discovered, and the twigs which started the fire were found also, he had no hesitation in saying the burning was malicious.
On the question of value, Mr R. P. Gill, engineer for the council, estimated damage to the dwelling house was £196 and to a cowhouse £57.
Judge Sealy’s finding of £350 was confirmed, the amount to be levied off the county-at-large.
Great Boxing For Nenagh
Lovers of the boxing code will be pleased to hear that a return contest billed to go fifteen two-minute rounds has been arranged between Battling Brannigan, Waterford, and Paddy Dwyer, Nenagh, for a purse and side stakes amounting to £55 for the Town Hall, Nenagh, on Tuesday night, 24th February, under the auspices of the Sports Committee.
Mr Davitt, Bank of Ireland, holds the stakes, and articles of agreement have been signed on behalf of the respective boxers by Mr Michael Hassey, acting for Brannigan, and Mr Frank McGrath, on behalf of Dwyer. Mr J. Dalton, Limerick, has been appointed referee, and Mr R. White, Provincial Bank, timekeeper.
It is not necessary to go into the records of the two boxers as all local enthusiasts of the noble art have seen the two men in action when they met recently. The result of the first meeting, ten by two-minute rounds, went to Dwyer on points, and Brannigan subsequently reversed this decision in a fifteen by two-minute rounds bout.
February 13 1965
Honour for Tipp Hurler John Doyle
John Doyle should have been a tired man when we met him in the Crofton Airport Hotel on Tuesday night.
The previous night we watched him walk up to receive his trophy as Hurler of 1964 at the Caltex banquet in the Gresham. Before him lay a tidy journey back to his 120 acres in Holycross, Co Tipperary. And no sooner was he at home than he was facing his car to the capital again and further honour.
At the Tipperary Association’s 12th annual dinner, he was presented with a transistor radio in recognition of his prowess on the hurling field. His wizardry in the back-line helped Tipperary to win the All-Ireland Championship from Kilkenny by a 14-point margin.
Our conservation with John after the dinner was interrupted several times as admirers sought his autograph.
John gets a spot of practice about three evenings a week with a local club. He finds that being a farmer gives him enough physical training. It’s a full, hard day that usually starts shortly after seven in the morning.
He is six feet tall, weighs 13 stone 14 pounds, takes a jar, and smokes about forty cigarettes a day. They have no effect on this father of five children.
It was a good night which was enlivened by such Tipperary tunes as ‘Tipperary So Far Away’, ‘Slievenamon’ and ‘She Lived Beside The Anner’. - Report written by Tom Hannigan in the ‘Evening Herald’.
Died In Church
Mr Martin Ryan, Grousehall, Milestone, Kilcommon, collapsed and died in St Mary’s of the Rosary, Nenagh, on Thursday last.
He had come to Nenagh by bus and was in church to have his confession heard for the first Friday of the month. The remains were removed to the County Hospital, Nenagh, and later taken to Kilcommon Church and the funeral was on Saturday to Glenkeen cemetery.
Groomsman Sold to Spanish Duke
Groomsman, owned by Mr J. F. Cleary, Ollatrim, Toomevara, one of the Irish trained entries in the Grand National, has been sold for an undisclosed sum to the Spanish nobleman, Duque De Alberquerque. The ten years old was transferred from Larry Keating’s stable at Fethard to Chally Chute’s at the Curragh.
Chute said: “It is hoped to give Groomsman a pre-National run in the Stand Handicap Chase over about three miles at Thurles on February 25. His new owner hopes to take the ride.”
Mine Shaft At Silvermines
The sinking of a 900-feet vertical shaft will begin at Silvermines this week. It will be about a mile from the original workings.
When the shaft has been sunk, exploration will be continued underground of an estimated 11 million-ton seam of ore with a 10 per cent metal content. Tunnels will be driven out from the 20ft by 15ft wide shaft to open up the working places.
The treatment plant will probably be erected next year, and production on the seam is expected to begin in 1967.