Nenagh mourns passing of prominent local historian

Nenagh is mourning the passing of Nancy Murphy, a local historian who played a key role in preserving the town's past.

Nancy (née Tynan), of Tyone, Nenagh and formerly of Inch, was together with her husband Donal a founding member of Ormond Historical Society in 1977. She played a prominent role in the OHS, serving terms as president, honorary secretary and PRO, delivering numerous talks on a wide range of topics and leading field trips.

In 1982, the husband and wife team founded Nenagh District Heritage Society. They succeeded in their objective of preserving two of Nenagh's old gaol buildings, the gatehouse and round house (‘Governor's House’), both of which were running to decay. They also opened an innovative heritage centre/museum on the premises to reflect the history and lifestyles of the people of North Tipperary.

Nancy played a tireless role in directing the building operations and supervising various FÁS schemes over a lengthy period. She subsequently became heavily involved in the North Tipperary Genealogy Centre, which was added later at the site, and which has become the port of call - both in person and online - for thousands of visitors seeking to trace their North Tipperary roots.

Nancy and Donal were also very much involved in the decades-long campaign to reopen Nenagh Castle as a visitor attraction. From as early as 1970, they were engaged in rejuvenating the hitherto neglected site; it was opened to visitors the following year following an extensive clean-up overseen by the Castle Restoration Working Party, of which they were both members. The site was closed in subsequent years due to safety concerns but Nancy remained a determined voice in calling for the reopening of the castle that eventually happened in 2012.

RELAY BOOKS

Donal and Nancy also established their own publishing company, Relay Books, through which they both contributed several works of major importance to the local history canon. Nancy’s most important work was her best-selling analysis of the story of the Cormack Brothers, ‘Guilty or Innocent? The Cormack Brothers - Trial, Execution and Exhumation’ (1998). She was also noted for ‘Walkabout Nenagh’ (1994), a street-by-street documentation of the town's history, and ‘A Trip Through Tipperary Lakeside'’(1997), both of which are now collectors’ items.

More recently, Nancy worked along with Donal and PJ Maxwell on ‘A Central Culture: Gaelic Sport in Nenagh’, the first two volumes of which were published in 2014.

Relay Books also published several significant works by other local historians, as well as Brendan Treacy's compilation of historical photographs.

Perhaps Donal and Nancy's most significant publishing achievement was bringing two long-out-of-print classics of local history to a new generation of readers. In 1976 they republished EH Sheehan’s much sought-after ‘Nenagh and its Neighbourhood’, which had been out of print since 1949, while in 2001 Relay published a revised and updated edition of Dermot F Gleeson's ‘The Last Lords of Ormond’ (1938).

It is notable that Donal and Nancy regarded Gleeson as “the pathfinder of our local history”; they very much followed in his footsteps and continued his legacy.

Nancy leaves behind an invaluable body of work that will remain key to understanding our local past for generations to come.

Nancy died peacefully on Friday last, March 22, in the company of her husband Donal and her niece Ann, at Ashlawn House Nursing Home, following three years of constant care there. She was in her 92nd year.

Sister of the late Peggy Tynan, Sr Brigid Tynan and Mary Fogarty and infant brother Willie, she is deeply mourned and will be forever remembered by her loving and beloved Donal; her Fogarty (Liverpool) nieces and nephews Liam, Brendan, Ann, Michael, John, Patrick and Sheelagh; her Costelloe and Harkin, and allied cousins in Inch and Drom parishes; her in-law Murphy families; her co-founders of the Ormond Historical, Nenagh District Heritage and Tipperary North Family History Societies, and their staffs; multiple colleagues on North and South Tipperary history; close friends and kind neighbours.

Funeral Mass took place at St Mary of the Rosary Church on Tuesday. May she rest in peace.