Made in Cloughjordan

21/08/2025

Several Cloughjordan crafters will be participating in the craft market at Portumna castle on Sunday

20/06/2025

20/06/2025

Cloughjordan market this Saturday June 21st from 10am to 1pm

19/04/2025

16/04/2025

16/04/2025

Have you ever wondered what Cloughjordan was like nearly 200 years ago? Publisher Samuel Lewis (1782-1865) provides a fascinating snapshot of pre-Famine Cloughjordan in his ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’, dating from 1837.

From its “neat and cheerful appearance” and the village’s booming whiskey distilling industry, to the fairs that would see the Main Street bustling with activity, the below description is an intriguing window of insight into Cloughjordan’s constancy and evolution throughout the centuries.

“Cloghjordan, a post-town and district parish in the barony of Lower Ormond […] contain[s] 2770 inhabitants, of which number 824 are in the town. This town is situated on the road from Nenagh to Parsonstown [present day Birr] and consists principally of one main street. It contains 129 houses and has a neat and cheerful appearance.

A large distillery is carried on, in which from 40,000 to 60,000 gallons of whiskey are annually made. A patent for a market exists, but no market has been yet established, though much desired by the inhabitants. Fairs are held on May 12th, August 12th and December 1st and a police force is stationed in the town.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Killaloe, erected out of the parish of Modreeny in 1826 and in the patronage of the Incumbent of that parish […].

The church, a handsome light edifice, in the later English style with an elegant spire was built by a gift of £900 and a loan of £923 from the Board of First Fruits in 1830. There is neither glebe-house nor glebe.

In the [Roman Catholic] divisions, it is the head of a union or district, comprising also the parishes of Modreeny, Ardcrony and Kilruan, in which are three chapels. The chapel at Cloghjordan is a neat, plain building.

There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, also a dispensary and fever hospital.

A plan for the relief and diminution of pauperism originated in the town with William Trench Esq. of Cangort Park, who in 1823 established the ‘Deacon’s Poor Fund’, at first limited to the parish of Modreeny and subsequently extended to many other parishes, particularly to those of Dolla, Kilmore and Ballynaclogh, in which it has been attended with the most beneficial results.”

Image shows a map of Tipperary printed in the ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ (1837).

03/04/2025

13/03/2025