Grandad Maguire, was born in Birkenhead. He came from irish parents who moved to Birkenhead. Still havn't found much information about that time but apparently Grandad came back to Ireland to work in a newly established Furniture Factory near Kilkenny. Talbots Inch is about 2.5km from Kilkenny and it became a kind of 'Model' Village. The Countess of Desert (Dysart) was a wealthy English woman who spent her money freely improving the town. She also built and established a Woolen Mills, built houses for the workers and also built a very early Suspension bridge for people to reach the Mill. Grandad worked in the factory for a number of year. Dad told me however at some time the Countess either ran out of money or perhaps after Ireland gaining Independance, the factory came in to the hand of the workers as a kind of Co-Operative. Cant be really certain but according to my Dad and I seem to remember Grandad saying, the workers ran the factory into the ground. It was commonplace for many workers to walk out with goods without paying and eventually the factory must have closed down. Possibly it actually burnt down, I cant remember and there is no other record.
Here is a very old photograph of the Suspension Bridge. Again it is long gone. Following a flood in the late 1930's the whole bridge was swept away. No one had bothered maintaining the bridge and it was never replaced. Possibly because the Countess was of English descent , and there was a very Anti british feeling following Independance. Apart from the Factory, the Countesses House was also damaged in a fire. Some of the Houses she built are still there and one recently sold on 'daft.ie' for nearly 500,000 euro.
I have just found out that my Dad did have a camera at the time. Mum says at the time if you collected cigarette cards, given with packets of cigarettes you could send away for a 'brownie' camera. Dad didnt smoke but as he lived over a shop and sometimes worked in the shop many customers used to give Dad their unwanted cards and he must have got enough to send off for a camera.
5 comments:
The remains of the bridge are still there. The mill was operating til the 60s and I remember swimming near it the day after it burned down
I think you will find that the house burnt down much later-in the 1920's.
My Grandfather Timothy Creevey worked as a stone carver and then wood carver for the Countess,and the family lived in a cresent on the Talbot's Inch Estate.
I'm researching the family, so if this name rings a bell do contact me.
jacqueline.demarigny@wanadoo.fr
There is still some of the bridge to be seen, I do believe that Lady Desert was a very much loved person in Kilkenny. Failure to replace the bridge is just part of the general neglect that has permitted the city to destroy a lot of it's heritage like the old city walls, the mayors walk and Grace's Castle now disfigured with hidious stainless steel bollards.
If you go you my facebook page you can see a photograph of my aunty Bid Fahy standing beside the destroyed bridge. She tells me that it was destroyed in the floods of 1947. Judging by her age in the photo I think she is correct. Tony Murray (ex Fatima Place Kilkenny): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.106344046140085.10473.100002934696127&type=3. My facebook page contains may archive images from the Fahy/Denieffe family of Wolftone St
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