Клонмель: История и современность ирландского города

Town in County Tipperary, Ireland

Clonmel is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Drogheda and Wexford. With the exception of the townland of Suir Island, most of the borough is situated in the civil parish of "St Mary's" which is part of the ancient barony of Iffa and Offa East.

The 2016 census used a new boundary created by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to define the town of Clonmel and environs, resulting in a population figure of 17,140. The latest National Census (3 April 2022) determined that Clonmel had a population of 18,369, the 27th largest urban area in Ireland.

The name Clonmel is derived from the anglicisation of the Irish name Cluain Meala meaning "honey meadow" or "honey valley." It is not clearly known when it got this name; many suppose that it came from the fertility of the soil and the richness of the country in which it is situated.

Clonmel grew significantly in medieval times, and many reminders of this period can be found in the town. A small section of the town walls remains in place near Old St. Mary's Church. This building is one of the main architectural features of the town. It was originally built in the 14th century or earlier but has been reconstructed or renovated on numerous occasions. The church was fortified early in its history, the town being strategically important, initially for the Earls of Ormonde, and later the Earl of Kildare. Some fortified parts of the church were destroyed or damaged during the mid 17th century Cromwellian occupation. One of the former entry points into the town is now the site of the West Gate, a 19th century reconstruction of an older structure. There were originally three gates in the walled town, North, East and West – with the South being protected by the river Suir and the Comeragh Mountains. The West Gate is now an open arched entrance onto O'Connell Street, the main street of the town.

On 17 September 1583, while a fugitive during the last stages of the Second Desmond Rebellion, Fr. Muiris Mac Ionrachtaigh, chaplain and confessor to the Rebel Earl of Desmond, was taken prisoner upon Sliabh Luachra and taken to Clonmel for imprisonment, while he continued his priestly ministry to the best of his ability. According to historian James Coombes, "Here, as in other southern towns, Counter Reformation Catholicism was already beginning to make a real impact; and, as in these other towns, the citizens of Clonmel were beginning to come up against the problem of combining loyalty to the Pope with loyalty to the Queen. Maurice MacKenraghty continued his ministry during what proved to be a long imprisonment." In April 1585, his jailer was bribed by Victor White, a leading townsman, to release the priest for one night to say Mass and administer Communion in White's house on Easter Sunday (11 April 1585). Permission was granted, and Fr. MacKenraghty spent the whole night hearing Confessions. Fr. Muiris Mac Ionrachtaigh was beatified by Pope John Paul II, along with 16 other Irish Catholic Martyrs, on 27 September 1992.

Under a charter granted by James I of England, Clonmel became a Free Borough on 5 July 1608, and the Mayor and officers of the town were granted the power to "name, elect and constitute one Swordbearer and three Sergeants at Mace". The present sword and two silver maces date only from Cromwellian times. The sword, of Toledo manufacture, was donated by Sir Thomas Stanley in 1656 and displays the Arms and motto of the town. The larger mace is stamped 1663.

Oliver Cromwell laid siege to Clonmel in May 1650. The walls were eventually breached, but Hugh Dubh O'Neill, the commander of the town's garrison, inflicted heavy losses on the New Model Army when they tried to storm the breach. That night, O'Neill, deciding that further resistance was hopeless due to a lack of ammunition, led his soldiers and camp followers out of the town under cover of darkness. The story is told that Cromwell became suspicious of O'Neill's desperate situation when a silver bullet was discharged by the townspeople at his troops outside the walls. The following morning, 18 May 1650, mayor John White was able to surrender the town on good terms as Cromwell was still unaware of the garrison's escape just hours before. Although feeling deceived, Cromwell did not put the inhabitants 'to the sword' as occurred elsewhere. After being denounced by three men who desired the £5 bounty and arrested at Fethard while vested for Mass on Holy Saturday, 25 March, 1654, Augustinian Friar William Tirry was taken to Clonmel Gaol (on the future site of the Clonmel Borstal) and held there pending trial. On 26 April, he was tried by a jury and Commonwealth judges, including Colonel Solomon Richards, for violating the Proclamation of 6 January 1653, which defined it as high treason for priests to remain in Ireland. In his own defense, Fr. Tirry replied that while he viewed the Commonwealth as the lawful Government, he had no choice but to disobey its laws, as the Pope had ordered him to remain in Ireland. Fr. Tirry was according found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out in Clonmel on 2 May 1654. An account told by Franciscan Friar Matthew Fogarty, who had been tried with Friar William Tirry, supplies further details: "William, wearing his Augustinian habit, was led to the gallows praying the rosary. He blessed the crowd which had gathered, pardoned his betrayers and affirmed his faith. It was a moving moment for Catholics and Protestants alike." Despite the efforts of a Puritan minister to silence him, Fr. Tirry told the assembled crowd, "there is only one true Church, whose head is the pope: Pope and Church are to be obeyed. He publicly forgave the three men who had betrayed him, and stated explicitly that he had been offered life and favour, it would renounce his religion." Fr. Tirry was then hanged, after which he was buried, with some ceremony, in the ruins of the Augustinian friary in nearby Fethard. The evidence is that he was buried in the grounds, rather than inside the ruins of the church, but it has not yet been possible to locate his grave. Fr. William Tirry was beatified by Pope John Paul II along with 16 other Irish Catholic Martyrs on 27 September 1993. The Augustinian order celebrates his feast day on 12 May.

During the second half of the 18th century, the famous Sean nos song Príosún Chluain Meala was composed inside Clonmel Gaol by one O'Donnell, a member of the Whiteboys originally from Iveragh, County Kerry, who was being held awaiting execution by hanging upon the following Friday. According to Donal O'Sullivan, O'Donnell had two companions awaiting the rope with him and that their heads were posthumously severed from their bodies and displayed spiked upon the prison gates. "The Gaol of Cluain Meala", a highly popular and often sung English translation of the lyrics, was made by County Cork poet Jeremiah Joseph Callanan (1795–1829).

A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of Kickham Barracks in 1805. During an 1807 visit to Ireland on behalf of the London Hibernian Society, Welsh nonconformist minister Thomas Charles alleged ruefully that the Reformation in Ireland had failed because of the refusal of Protestant clergy to preach or educate in the local vernacular. Of his visit to Clonmel, Rev. Charles recalled, "All the county spoke Irish they spoke Irish in the streets." Following the failed attempt at rebellion near Ballingarry in 1848, the captured leaders of the Young Irelanders were brought to Clonmel for trial. The event was followed with great interest internationally and for its duration brought journalists from around the country and Britain to Clonmel Courthouse. Standing in the dock in the image opposite is Thomas Francis Meagher, Terence MacManus and Patrick O'Donoghue. Their co defendant, William Smith O'Brien was also sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, the last occasions such a sentence was handed down in Ireland. When delivering the guilty verdict, the foreman of the Grand Jury, R. M. Southcote Mansergh, great grandfather of the academic Nicholas Mansergh stated:
We earnestly recommend the prisoner to the merciful consideration of the Government, being unanimously of opinion that for many reasons his life should be spared. The sentences of O'Brien and other members of the Irish Confederation were eventually commuted to transportation for life to Van Diemen's Land. A conspiracy to rescue the prisoners on 8 November led by John O'Leary and Philip Gray was betrayed and resulted in the arrest at 'The Wilderness' of seventeen armed rebels led by Gray.

Clonmel was the location of the foundation of the Labour Party in 1912 by James Connolly, James Larkin and William O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress.

In November 2015 the town was the location of Ireland's first marriage between two men.

Clonmel was one of ten boroughs retained by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. The borough corporation elected 12 councillors. The first mayor of Clonmel Borough in 1843 was John Hackett. Clonmel Town Hall was opened in 1882. Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, the area became an urban district, while its body retained the style of a borough corporation. The borough corporation became a borough council in 2002. On 1 June 2014, the borough council was dissolved and administration of the town was amalgamated into Tipperary County Council. Pat English was the last Mayor of Clonmel Borough Council. The chair of the borough district uses the title of mayor, rather than Cathaoirleach. As of the 2019 Tipperary County Council election, the local electoral area of Clonmel elects 6 councillors.

Clonmel belongs to the Dáil constituency of Tipperary which elects five TDs to Dáil Éireann (the Irish Parliament). Senator Garret Ahearn is a former mayor of Clonmel borough district. He was a candidate in Tipperary at the 2020 Irish general election.

The town is built in the valley of the River Suir. It divides the town which is mainly located on the north bank. To the south, the town is surrounded by the Comeragh Mountains and Slievenamon to the northeast. To the north, east and west is some of Ireland's richest farmland, known as the Golden Vale. The town covers a land area of approximately 11.59 km2.

The River Suir floods the local area after very heavy rainfalls in the up river catchment area of 2,173 km2. The Office of Public Works (OPW) completed and installed a Flood Forecasting System which has been used since 2007. The flood of 2015 had a flow of 390m3/s, 2004 had a flow of 354m3/s with the flood of 2000 having a flow of 353m3/s. The 2015 flood was the worst since that of 1946, which had seen a flow of 479m3/s. Phase 1 of the Clonmel Flood Defence (planned to cope with a 100 year flood) started in 2007. It was scheduled to be completed by late 2009. Phases two and three were completed by 2012. Property omitted from Phase 1 along the Convent Road were protected in 2014 and the access to the river for the workmen's boat club was also raised. Flooding of October 2014 was less than a 1–5 flood with a flow of 300m3/s. As part of a media exercise by the OPW the barriers were all put up. The flood defence consists of demountable barriers, walls and earth banks. Flooding occurred at the Gashouse Bridge, Coleville Road, Davis Road, the Quays and the Old Bridge area before the flood defences. Clonmel is not tidal as the tide turns above the Miloko chocolate crumb factory in Carrick on Suir. Floodwaters spill onto the land above Miloko on the County Waterford side of the river.

Clonmel's main shopping streets are Gladstone Street and O'Connell Street which are home to many national and international retailers such as Elverys Sports, Penneys, River Island, Easons and Lifestyle Sports to name a few. More local retailers can be found along the streets branching off from those streets. The Showgrounds Shopping Centre built during the Celtic Tiger can be found only 1 km from the town centre. This modern shopping centre built on the towns original showground, houses retailers such as M&S, TKMaxx, Argos and Golden Discs. The Poppyfield Retail Park is located on the outskirts of the town. It has many stores such as DID Electrical, Supervalu, Maxi Zoo, Woodie's and World of Wonder. The retail park has food vendors being KFC, Costa Coffee, the Red Herring and Esquires Coffee. There is also a hotel on the site.

Clonmel has become home to many large multi national companies, particularly in the medical area. The two biggest medical companies in the town are Abbott and Boston Scientific, both of which manufacture implantable devices. Two other multi national pharmaceutical companies are Merck & Co. and Pinewood Healthcare which can be found less than twenty minutes away. The town produces many beverages both alcoholic and non alcoholic. Bulmers cider, also known as Magners outside Ireland, was founded in the town and is still brewed in a new complex east of the town with orchards surrounding it. The original brewery in the town is set to become a new visitor attraction. Glenpatrick Spring Water bottles still, carbonated and flavoured water from the limestone rocks beneath Slievenamon for many big supermarket chains in Ireland and the UK such as Tesco and M&S. Clonmel is home to international engineering and construction groups such as Kentz and Sepam which were both founded in the town. Sepam has helped in the construction of huge infrastructure projects around the world such as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, Disneyland Shanghai and some of the terminals at Heathrow Airport to name a few.

Tipp FM is a local radio station for the county of Tipperary. It has its main office in Clonmel. In 2019, Tippfm had over 69,000 listeners tuning in every week, increasing its market share to 35% It broadcasts on FM, on 95.3, 97.1, 103.3 and 103.9. The Clonmel transmitter broadcasts on 97.1 MHz.