A virtual stroll around an Irish village: Clashmore, County Waterford
At the time of writing, January 2021, there seems little prospect of holiday travel in the near future. This webpage suggests a virtual visit to the pleasant Irish village of Clashmore, in the under-valued county of Waterford.
A virtual visit to Clashmore Located in the beautiful Blackwater valley, Clashmore is about half way between the cities of Cork and Waterford, around 60 kilometres and an hour's drive from each. The heritage towns of Youghal, County Cork, and Ardmore and Lismore, County Waterford, are nearby. Not only is Clashmore on Google Street View, but it has some major e-advantages for the virtual tourist. The local community group's Discover Clashmore website is useful and interesting.[1] The website includes an interactive map of the village in 1851 (https://tinyurl.com/y2fpf4v8) and its numbering of houses is used for reference here. The village has also been studied by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH).[2] Individual references given for buildings in the text are worth exploring for the photographs. In-text references for several websites, including those of the NIAH and some from Discover Clashmore, are given in abbreviated (tinyurl) form.
Clashmore is often twinned with Kinsalebeg, the district to the south. The history of Kinsalebeg was extensively described by the late Don Lehane, whose research into the impact of the Famine of the 1840s resulted in a very fine local study.[3]
The linked websites may contain more detail than will appeal to the average web surfer, but the references are there to be followed up if e-visitors wish to know more. Virtual tourists will get their exercise by leaping from screen to screen. Some local stories about places slightly further away are indicated in endnotes.
Irish place names use two words for a valley: if it's narrow it's a gleann [pronounced in Munster to rhyme with "clown"] – like the Scottish glen; if it's broad, it's a clais. Although the Munster pronunciation is close to the English word "clash", it has no connection with conflict. Unpoetically, Clashmore's Irish name, Clais Mhór, translates as "big trench": although it is a minor tributary, the local stream – variously called the Cregagh or Graigue – occupies a broad valley (with some fine local views) as it flows towards the Blackwater.
There is a plausible tradition that a seventh-century monastery was founded at Clashmore on the orders of St Mochuda of Lismore, who is known as Mochua in Clashmore, and has the additional alias of St Carthage. (The Protestant cathedral at Lismore still has a stall reserved for the Prebendary of Clashmore, although no such dignitary now exists.) Of the actual village, much less is known. It has the look of a planned settlement, with the main street cut across the landscape – up a gentle slope from the river – without regard for the existing road pattern: the sharp bends at each end of the street are a hazard for trucks. If Clashmore village was a landlord project, nobody seems to know when it happened.[4] The Main Street is not much over one hundred metres in length: its compactness has probably helped to ensure that there has been very little intrusive development or dereliction.
I hope that a virtual stroll around Clashmore, from anywhere in the world, will allow imaginations to soar at this confined and confusing time. Maybe something like normality will eventually return, and tourists who have explored the village online will find a real-life visit all the more rewarding. Clashmore will stand ready to welcome them.
It's recommended that the link to Google Street View (starting at https://tinyurl.com/yxck2fvk) should be pasted into a separate screen. If you are not familiar with Street View, it's easy to use. Push the cursor (the onscreen ^) as you "walk" through the village. Commands at the bottom right of the screen allow you to swivel and zoom for close-ups. Specific links to Street View are included in each section, but these can be ignored if you're following the tour on a parallel screen. (It's hard to get lost in Clashmore.)
From Ballyheeny to Coolboa by laptop: entering the Main Street It's suggested that the e-walk around Clashmore should begin opposite the south end of the Main Street, at the foot of the hill from Ballyheeny. (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/yxck2fvk).[5] Ireland is divided into randomly-sized local units called townlands: the edge of the village is part of the townland of Ballyheeny.[6] The pictures here were taken in 2009 (when, as sometimes happens in County Waterford, it had been raining), but the rest of the village was captured in 2019.[7]
To the left (west) of the road is a thatched cottage, which the NIAH survey dates to about 1820 and describes as "an important component of the vernacular tradition in County Waterford" which "contributes to the character of the streetscape on the approach into Clashmore from the south." It is probably the oldest building in the village, giving us some idea of how Clashmore would have looked before the elegant rebuilding phase from about 1820 to 1840. (https://tinyurl.com/yy9qawmx) Thatching was widely practised in west Waterford, although relatively few examples survive. Unfortunately, the nearby thick reed beds along the Blackwater can no longer be used for the craft.
Head across the road, and swivel the screen back to look at the Grotto, dedicated to Our Lady of the Wayside. (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/y43653sj). It was built by local volunteers in 1971, a relatively late date for such a major act of communal piety. Most similar shrines were constructed to mark the Marian Year, 1954. You have also stepped forward ten years, from 2009 to 2019: note that the trees have grown and the cottage has been re-thatched.
Then turn the screen around again and take the short step across the river to the start of the actual street. To the left (west) a tourist sign (they're brown) indicates the walk to Raheen Quay, in the Blackwater reed beds. The walk takes in St Mochua's Well: https://tinyurl.com/y6sbzr73 (scroll down). There is a charming brief video of the riverside walk on https://tinyurl.com/y52r75sq (scroll down and click).
The Main Street (east) (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/y5pkpyny). The Main Street crosses the river by a low, three-arch stone bridge, built from local limestone. The NIAH survey dates this to c.1840, but the e-tourist will quickly realise that this is the default year for anything that can only be vaguely dated! There are two good photographs on https://tinyurl.com/y5gnllrj.
To the right (east) is Clashmore's most distinctive feature, the giraffe-like chimney of the former distillery: https://tinyurl.com/yxhyt6js. The distillery produced whiskey, and lots of it, from 1825 to about 1840. Strikingly, the chimney appears to emerge from the river, a view that is believed to be unique in Ireland. Although the distillery was entirely legal, and may indeed have been made possible by a reduction in the excise duty, there are local legends of attempts to hide consignments to avoid paying tax. One story alleges that news of a sudden visit by excise officials forced the distillery men to dump thousands of gallons into the river, with dramatic effects on cattle downstream. The project's history was relatively brief. It has been claimed that it was the victim of the campaign against alcohol by Father Mathew, the Cork-based "Apostle of Temperance" who swept thousands into abandoning booze.[8] The distillery later became a corn mill, but that too had ceased operations by 1900. There is a detailed history on http://www.discoverclashmore.com/article003.html.
In 2018, the local community group flew a drone around the chimney to check the brickwork of the upper section. The three-minute video includes interesting close-ups, and there are also glimpses of some of the more recent housing development around the edge of the village: https://tinyurl.com/yywtpxa3 (Discover Clashmore, scroll down and click) or https://tinyurl.com/y6tf6372 (Youtube).
Next to the distillery is The Old Still. (https://tinyurl.com/y2fpf4v8, nos 1 & 2) "The pub front in particular is of artistic design distinction," says the NIAH survey, which dates the building to c. 1830. The NIAH survey also draws attention to the intricate design of the painted quoins at ground-floor level: https://tinyurl.com/yyn26b7z. There are some photographs of The Old Still on the Restaurant Guru website (https://tinyurl.com/y6cgey4f), including one of Clashmore in the snow, happily an unusual event. The Old Still also has its own Facebook page.
Working up the Main Street on the right (east) side, we come to the most handsome house in Clashmore. (https://tinyurl.com/y2fpf4v8, no. 7) The NIAH survey (which has several photographs) dates it, as usual, to c.1840, but the inspiration is clearly Georgian, as can be seen in the round-headed front door case, with its semi-circular overlight.[9] During the challenging years of the 1840s, this was the home of Dr Uniacke Ronayne, the local Medical Officer of Health, who led the fight against Famine fever (cholera and dysentery).[10] The status of the doctor's house is underlined in various ways, such as the front step cut from a limestone block: https://tinyurl.com/y2y2355z. On the pavement outside stands a small cast-iron water pump (repainted since the NIAH survey photograph), made by a foundry in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and installed about 1911. There is a bracket on the south (downhill) side that can support a plant pot: https://tinyurl.com/yxz6ppxq.
The building at the jack-knife corner at the top of the Main Street was the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks. (https://tinyurl.com/y2fpf4v8, no. 13) It was burned by republican forces on 8 July 1920, as part of a campaign to destroy the infrastructure of the police during the War of Independence. The attackers are reported to have courteously removed the furniture belonging to the local sergeant, who lived there, before pouring petrol into the building and setting it on fire. There is a centenary account on the local Heritage Group's Facebook page: https://tinyurl.com/y4tkgjxc.
Although the RIC building was gutted, its shell was later incorporated into The Decies Bar next door (https://tinyurl.com/y2fpf4v8, no. 12) – the pub itself had a close call during the burning of the barracks. Decies ["dee-shiz"] is the traditional name for this part of Waterford. In its Irish form, Déise ["day-shuh"], it's used to support county teams ("Up the Déise!"). The Restaurant Guru website has some atmospheric interior shots of The Decies Bar, in 2017 when Clashmore was cheering for two of its local hurlers on the Waterford team: https://tinyurl.com/yys38c2e.[11] The Decies Bar was formerly Duggan's, as can be seen in a photograph dating from about 1940 in the collection of the Waterford County Museum: https://tinyurl.com/y5sye965.
The Main Street (west) (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/y5gb45xr). Across the road, on the west side of the Main Street, Beresford's (The Rising Sun) has some interesting features. (https://tinyurl.com/y2fpf4v8, nos 30-31) "An attractive building of balanced proportions," says the NIAH survey, in particular praising "the fine rendered pub front, incorporating traditional raised lettering, which is of artistic design merit, and which attests to high quality craftsmanship." (https://tinyurl.com/yy8g3md5.) The nearby town of Cappoquin has a number of examples of this vernacular form of shop front, incorporating miniature pilasters (flat-fronted pillars). Beresford's is the best example in Clashmore. The archway giving access to the yard behind is another elegant feature, while the scrolls under the upstairs windows are fun.
A few doors up the street, the former Kennedy's shop is a smaller example of the traditional frontage. (https://tinyurl.com/y2fpf4v8, nos 26 & 27.) Originally two houses, visually merged into one by painted quoins at either end, Kennedy's is praised by the NIAH survey for unifying its sloping site into "an appealing, well-proportioned house that contributes to the streetscape value of Main Street": https://tinyurl.com/yx9boou2.[12]
The Court House and the Protestant church (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/y5slqkq6). At the top of the Main Street on the west side, at the start of the road north out of the village, is An Siopa Nua (The New Shop). (https://tinyurl.com/y2fpf4v8, no. 21). (Unlike nearby Helbhic [Helvick] and An Rinn [Ring], Clashmore is not a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) area, although an Irish language chat group met at Beresford's in pre-virus days.) The shop was originally the local Court House. It was here, in September 1846, that an enraged crowd of three thousand starving people protested against the local magistrates. Their anger was particularly directed against Lord Stuart de Decies of Dromana House, who was alleged to have only subscribed £5 to a local relief fund, and to be determined to keep down the level of wages paid on make-work relief projects. The hungry and angry people attempted to blockade the magistrates in the Court House. A party of soldiers from a nearby British garrison had been summoned to keep order. After scrambling to get into his coach, Lord Stuart de Decies ordered his driver to gallop along the road to the north, while the soldiers tried to hold back the protesters. The crowd regrouped in the graveyard across the road, taking advantage of its higher ground and the protection of the churchyard wall to let loose fusillades of stones against the hated military. The soldiers charged the defended position several times, inflicting injuries with their sabres. Fortunately, the remaining magistrates persuaded the officer commanding not to open fire, thereby avoiding a massacre. Clashmore had a thriving retail trade in those days: shopkeepers handed out food to the incomers, but there was no looting. Don Lehane's account in https://tinyurl.com/y6gnfxzm is recommended. Use the search command (^F) for "Clashmore": hits 8 to 23 cover various sources for the episode, one of the most dramatic in the history of the village.
It is interesting that the old Court House is not included in the NIAH survey. During Free State days, a garage operated in the building: maybe the prominent, if off-centre, archway that spans the double doors into the shop was inserted at that time. Perhaps this deterred the architecture experts, but it is clear from its Georgian-style chimneys that this is an early building.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable continuities about Clashmore is that the Main Street today looks pretty much as it would have done in the era of the Famine. It is a sad thought that the architectural story tells us that many people in Ireland were living comfortable lives when the tragedy of the potato blight struck in 1845. Two old photographs from the Discover Clashmore gallery illustrate continuity in the Main Street. One, looking up the street and dating from sometime around 1900, shows the aftermath of an eviction, with two constables, truncheons drawn, theatrically arresting a defiant man in a tradesman's apron. Maybe he had been evicted from his shop for not paying rent, or perhaps he had helped protect some poor cottager against a greedy landlord. The photograph was probably posed, and many villagers turned out to be in the picture: https://tinyurl.com/y3n3jahp. The other photograph dates from around 1930, and looks down the street past Duggan's pub (now The Decies Bar). Beyond the site of the Grotto stands a long-vanished building that housed the local Dispensary. This provided medicines, cheap or free, in the days before public health services: https://tinyurl.com/yyvmz6k2. These two photographs have also been republished in the Gallery / Streetscapes section (scroll down) of a recently launched Heritage website: http://heritage.discoverclashmore.com/gallery/. This also includes a view of the local band parading down the Main Street, sometime probably in the early twentieth century.
Opposite the Court House, at the top of the Main Street, is the former Protestant church. It's assumed that it stands on the site of the seventh-century monastery founded from Lismore, which makes it a very ancient religious site. At the Reformation, the buildings, but not the congregation, passed to the Protestant Church of Ireland: Sir Walter Raleigh was recorded as the owner in 1602. In the 1774 edition of his history of Waterford, local author Charles Smith recorded it as "in ruins". It was rebuilt in its present form around the time of the battle of Waterloo (online sources give both 1813 and 1818).[13] The church went out of use during the twentieth century, and became derelict. It has been restored in recent years by the local Enterprise Group, and now functions as a Heritage Centre. The NIAH survey grumbles that the restoration was over-enthusiastic, but it's also possible to see it as adding a happy overlay of modernity to a building with a continuing story. There is a short history on Discover Clashmore https://tinyurl.com/y6sbzr73 and a selection of interesting NIAH photographs on https://tinyurl.com/y42mr3uc.[14]
The road to the north and the lost mansion (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/yyxgfewm). A short distance to the north, beyond modern housing called St Mochua's Terrace, stand the stone gateposts to the former Clashmore House. For some reason they were protected by a portable security fence when Google Street View came by in 2019: the pink barriers and Clashmore's only speed bump help make the location visible at some distance. The gateway is dated to about 1830, and described on https://tinyurl.com/y4qg6kry. Of course, there is not very much anybody can say about a gateway. It is hard to believe that the wide field beyond was once the location of a mansion, the home of the Power family and later of the Earls of Huntingdon. Discover Clashmore (https://tinyurl.com/y6sbzr73, scroll down) states that the house disappeared about a century ago. Some traces may have survived until the 1940s: https://tinyurl.com/y6nwx6cl.
It seems strange, almost eerie, that a Big House, so long a major feature of the village, should have vanished so completely. However, there are two related architectural survivals. Opposite the gate pillars stands a small, neat Lodge, a single-storey building dated to about 1830: https://tinyurl.com/y3fghht3. Perhaps it is eccentric that the lodge should be across the road from the actual gates, but probably there was little traffic in earlier days, and the NIAH survey believes it was a secondary entrance anyway. J.A.K. Dean, in his 2018 book The Gate Lodges of Munster (a much more interesting read than cynics might assume), calls it a building "of considerable presence". It may be tiny, but the fanlight over the front door speaks of dignity.[15] Currently (2021) the lodge is unoccupied.
The second link to Clashmore House is the home farm of the Big House, still operating, about half a kilometre to the north, on the west (left) side of the road (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/y66d6kxh). Since for safety and insurance reasons, farmers cannot welcome sight-seers (even if they had the time), this is a case where a virtual visit provides more information than a tourist could observe on the ground. Street View gives a glimpse from the road of the handsome stone entrance arch into the farmyard. However, the passer-by can have no idea of the spacious interior, a courtyard rather than a farmyard. The buildings are extensively illustrated by the NIAH survey: https://tinyurl.com/yxttr3zq. The quality of the construction – with cut-stone door surrounds and bulls-eye windows – gives a clue to what was lost with the destruction of Clashmore House. The farm buildings are approximately dated to around 1830. It does indeed seem they were constructed before the Famine, because the beleaguered British soldiers are reported to have taken refuge here during the September 1846 protests.[16] With something of the appearance of a Lowland Scottish steading, the farm is evidence that some landlords did inject some investment into Irish agriculture. Unfortunately, improvements came with a Catch-22: making Irish agriculture more efficient usually meant reducing the need for farm labourers. This was especially the case where landlords switched from arable to the much less labour-intensive practice of raising cattle, producing meat for the growing urban populations of Ireland and Britain: unlike spuds, cows did not have to be hand-weeded. Families who found themselves unemployed in rural areas migrated to industrial areas, adding to the demand for food supplies in the cities.
Chapel Lane and Coolboa (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/y2uto492). Return now to the top of the Main Street and turn left (east) along Chapel Lane. On the edge of the village, Street View in 2019 captured a motor caravan announcing Strings & Things, Clashmore's annual folk music event – temporarily suspended – (https://www.facebook.com/Clashmore.festival/), which also carried a slogan ("Best of luck lads") for the local hurling heroes. A stroll of about 300 metres brings the e-visitor to Coolboa, Clashmore's "suburb" (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/y5cqrlho). The broad open space created by a Y-shaped road junction is enhanced by a row of comfortable houses that seem to slide down the hill. The NIAH survey dates them (surprise-surprise!) to c. 1840. One of them has a Georgian-style front door, complete with semi-circular overlight, plus an arched carriage entrance to the side: https://tinyurl.com/yyzxb7yu. Half-hidden in the small traffic island is another cast-iron water pump: https://tinyurl.com/yy4ej6ow. The view here does not seem to have changed much in more than a hundred years, as may be seen in this photograph in the Gallery / Streetscapes section of the Discover Clashmore Heritage website: http://heritage.discoverclashmore.com/gallery/.
Above the Coolboa terrace is the former village school, which bears the date 1887. The NIAH survey calls the building "elegantly proportioned ... in a muted Tudor style". Given the ravages caused by Tudor monarchs in this part of the world, it is perhaps for the best that the style is so muted that it is hard to detect: https://tinyurl.com/y5sl5lnt. The school moved some years ago to modern premises on the other side of the village. The original building is now occasionally used as a community centre, and fund-raising is in progress for a restoration project.
Beyond the former village school is the Catholic parish church of St Cronan: the NIAH survey states that it was erected in 1827; according to Canon Patrick Power, the diocesan historian, it was built in 1825. The NIAH survey explains its relatively plain external appearance to the fact that it belongs to the period just before Catholic Emancipation in 1829: in the eighteenth century, architects often made Catholic churches seem unobtrusive, for fear of challenging the Penal Laws. However, the era of persecution had largely passed by the 1820s, and the utilitarian exterior was more likely the result of a tight construction budget. The interior is charming, thanks mainly to an intricate timbered roof which gives the church a friendly, barn-like appearance. The liturgical changes made to all churches after Vatican II were perhaps less intrusive here than in some other parishes: https://tinyurl.com/yykyo4zx.[17]
Clashmore's Newfoundland connection Near the south door of St Cronan's is the grave of Fr Michael O'Donel, the parish priest who built the church. He died in 1832, just short of his 55th birthday.[18] His headstone mentions that he was the nephew of Dr James O'Donel, the first Catholic bishop of Newfoundland: https://tinyurl.com/y2nbqzz2. This does not tell anything like the full story. Michael O'Donel worked with his uncle as one of the first priests in Newfoundland. He had almost certainly grown up in an Irish-speaking area in the hinterland of Waterford City, and it would have been very difficult to minister to Munster fishermen without being able to speak the Irish language. Since he also spent three years studying in Quebec City, and hoped to stay there, he was presumably fluent in French. Preparation for the priesthood included the study of both Latin and Greek. "He is neither a bright wit nor a blockhead," his uncle grudgingly wrote. Most people today would feel that a command of five languages was an impressive achievement. Fr O'Donel's career is outlined on https://tinyurl.com/y2mqmdgv. Another Clashmore link with Newfoundland can be found in the life of Laurence O'Brien, who was born locally in 1792, coming "from the lowest levels of society". He became a merchant and politician in St John's, and was a tough customer. Discover Clashmore has a note about him (https://tinyurl.com/y2m7x6eh) and there is a longer account of his career in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (https://tinyurl.com/yxa4fww7).
Céad míle fáilte This concludes the virtual stroll around the village of Clashmore. There is much more in the wider local area to interest attract visitors, such as the ice-houses with thick stone walls, primitive refrigerators which preserved salmon caught on the Blackwater: https://tinyurl.com/y6sbzr73. There are views of the river itself at Ardsallagh, 4 kms south-west of Clashmore, looking across to the ruins of Templemichael (Street View: https://tinyurl.com/y6pt8bc9). Further upstream is Dromana, where the Villiers-Stuart family can trace their ancestry back a remarkable eight centuries, to 1215. In a 12-minute video, the latest of the line, Barbara Grubb, explains the challenges of maintaining the house in modern times – against the stunning background of the Blackwater valley: https://dromanahouse.com/videos/. If you have enjoyed exploring Clashmore online, I hope that you will – one day, in happier times – find a real-life visit just as interesting.
ENDNOTES (Some extra information, nothing too serious. Websites were consulted in January 2021.)
[1] http://www.discoverclashmore.com/discoverhome.html.
[2] Dial up https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search, type in Clashmore and choose Waterford from the county list, click on Search and scroll down.
[3] http://kinsalebeg.com/chapters/famine/famine.html. References in the text are given in tinyurl form. Kinsalebeg has no connection with Kinsale, the gourmet town along the County Cork coast. Its name means "head of the tides", and the "beg" (little) was presumably added to avoid the confusion that occasionally occurs with its more famous namesake.
[4] Charles Smith did not refer to a village at Clashmore in the 1774 edition of his history of Waterford, nor did R.H. Ryland in his successor volume of 1824, which described places such as Ardmore and Lismore. The 1849 edition of Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland referred dismissively to "the town, or rather village": the full entry may be read on https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_srE4AQAAMAAJ/page/n329/mode/2up. However, the [Dublin] Freeman's Journal of 26 June 1821 reported a meeting of magistrates "at the town of Clashmore". It is likely that there was some sort of habitation here at the gates first of the medieval monastery and later providing services to the gentry at Clashmore House. It is also likely that the village was replanned and rebuilt in the early 19th century. Recoverable dates include the rebuilding of the Protestant parish church, 1813-18, the opening of the distillery 1825, and the construction of the Catholic church, 1825-7. With several buildings in the Main Street dated to 1820-40, it seems likely that Clashmore took on its present form in the quarter century before the Famine struck in 1845. This may point to the work of the then owner of Clashmore House, Richard Power, who was MP for County Waterford from 1814 to 1831, and who died in 1834. A Whig and a supporter of Catholic Emancipation, he was probably interested in improvements: https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/power-richard-1775-1834.
[5] If there are any problems with the Google Street View link, it's easy enough to find Clashmore, County Waterford on Google maps, and drag the little yellow man from the lower right-hand corner of the screen to a spot on the road just south of the village.
[6] For the legend of Ballyheeny Castle (about 1 km south), see http://www.discoverclashmore.com/history.html (scroll down).
[7] Until recent times, County Waterford followed the pleasant practice of using Irish language road signs. In 2009, the Give Way sign at the foot of Ballyheeny Hill still warned: GÉILL SLÍ. This has since been phased out.
[8] The legend may not be accurate. A Clashmore distiller appeared in Perry's Bankrupt Gazette on 24 July 1837. Fr Mathew's campaign began the following year.
[9] An overlight is a semi-circular window over a front door, but without the spokes of a fanlight.
[10] Between 1847 and 1849, he operated a fever hospital by the river Lickey 1.5 kms south of Clashmore: http://www.discoverclashmore.com/history.html. The site is still known locally as the Hospital Field.
[11] The blue and white banner celebrated Waterford's success in reaching the 2017 All-Ireland hurling final. "Port Láirge Cumann Lúthchleas Gael" is the official name for the Waterford Gaelic Athletic Association.
[12] Four twentieth-century houses are also discussed on the NIAH website. They all fit unobtrusively into the Main Street.
[13] In 1937, the erudite but quirky Waterford scholar Canon Patrick Power called it an "ugly modern Protestant conventicle". P. Power, Waterford and Lismore... (Dublin, 1937), 130: http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/ebooks/106729/106729.pdf.
[14] There is much information about the headstones in the pleasantly jumbled churchyard on: https://historicgraves.com/graveyard/clashmore-st-mochua/wa-cmor.
[15] The applicable traditional Irish phrase would be "relic of ould daicency".
[16] The farm complex might be imagined as the mission station at Rorkes Drift, in the film Zulu.
[17] For names and thumbnail sketches of headstones in the churchyard, see: https://historicgraves.com/graveyard/st-cronan-s-church-and-graveyard/wa-stcr?page=4.
[18] Fr Michael O'Donel died on 13 March 1832, five days before the first reports of Ireland's major cholera outbreak of that year.