From fairytales to the Front
There is a new volume of the Tipperary Historical Journal out, and of particular interest to readers in this part of the county will be David Broderick’s article on Lieutenant Thomas Butler Stoney of the famed family once of Lower Ormond.
Chairman of the Lorrha and Dorrha Historical Society, David seeks to shed light on a lesser known, more human dimension of a man remembered mostly as a solider who gave his life during the First World War.
But Butler Stoney was also a talented artist who illustrated and authored children’s books in the early 1900s. Among these was a well-received rendition of one of the most widely-recognised fairytales, ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’. The Portland native went on to depict scenes he saw in the war, providing a rare firsthand visual account of the Front in France. It seems he was actively sketching enemy positions when he was struck by a shell in July 1917, suffering injuries that led to his death the following September at the age of 42.
Several Butler Stoney artworks and associated documents have been acquired in recent years by the author and by Tipperary Studies.
TEMPLEDERRY TENANTS
Also in this year’s Tipperary Historical Journal, genealogy writer James G Ryan casts his scope on the old Castle Otway Estate at Templederry. He studies a rental list created in 1771 – long before the time of most surviving records – of 126 local tenants, 18 of them Ryans and 17 Kennedys.
Effectively a census of heads of households, the rental ledger is a valuable information resource on local families, one that also provides a stark illustration of the power of landlords in mid-eighteenth century Ireland, and the punishment they often meted out to their tenants.
PREHISTORIC FIND IN ROSCREA
Elsewhere is an intriguing account by archaeologists Graham Hull and Grace Stuart on the excavation of an Early Bronze Age ‘fulacht fia’ trough at Roscrea’s Glencarrick estate. It was one of 15 finds of its kind in close proximity to each other, the majority of which were excavated during construction of the N7.
Fulachtaí fia were used by prehistoric people to produce hot water using heated stones in a trough. The Glencarrick discovery helps build a clearer picture of Bronze Age activity in the Roscrea area and shows that occupation in the Early Bronze Age was over a wider area in the locality than was previously known.
In ‘Did the police get a dog’s chance?’ Wexford native Aidan Mahon investigates the Royal Irish Constabulary in Tipperary and his home county during the War of Independence. In determining public perceptions of the RIC in Tipperary and Wexford – “the former a hotbed of republicanism during the War of Independence, the latter not involved to the same extent” – the author recounts a number of key events from the north of the county, including the shooting dead of constables James Rocke and Charles Healy in Toomevara in 1920.
Look out also in this volume for ‘Food, glorious food’, Miriam Lambe’s look at how restaurant and wedding menus have changed over the last 70 years, seen largely through the eyes and recipes of Nora Kennedy of Cronavone, Borrisoleigh.
There are 17 chapters all told in the 2026 Tipperary Historical Journal, as well as book reviews and obituaries. This, along with many of the previous volumes, is now available online through www.tipperarystudies.ie and in local bookshops.