Templemore
the big church; Joyce notes the name was given by way of distinction to a cathedral or important church
A Tipperary town under the Devil's Bit, best known today as home of the Garda Síochána College, in the old military barracks since 1964. The Carden family shaped the town for two centuries, and their demesne, with its lake, the ruined Black Castle and the old 'big church', is now the Town Park. In late summer 1920 reported Marian apparitions briefly made it a pilgrimage town and brought a short local truce between the IRA and Crown forces.
The district was once part of the ancient territory of Éile, and its old name was Tuatha Corca Teine; a holy man named Silean is reputed to have come with St Patrick and founded a monastery, and the townland the town stands on is Kiltillane, St Sheelan's church. After 1169 the Butlers became overlords, and James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond, built the Blackcastle in 1450. The ruined abbey in the park may have been founded by the Knights Templar. Around 1695 the Butlers sold land to the Cardens from Cheshire, who over the next two centuries built the town, granting the ground at a nominal rent. They later built a sixty-room Gothic mansion, the Priory, still under construction in 1861.
Richmond Barracks, later McCan Barracks, was built in 1809 on land given by Sir John Carden, with quarters for 25 officers, 48 married men and 767 single soldiers; nearby streets such as Talavera Place recall Peninsular War victories, and George Borrow stayed there in 1816. The market house, now the town hall, dates from 1816. In late summer 1920 alleged Marian apparitions drew pilgrims and led to a brief truce in the area during the War of Independence. Since February 1964 the barracks has been the Garda Síochána College.
Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on Templemore ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Timoney Stones · tomb · 13 km
- Loughmoe Castle · castle · 5 km
- Killahara Castle · castle · 9 km
- Ballynahow Castle · castle · 12 km
Straight-line distances from the town centre, from each site's documented coordinates.
- Hayes's Hotel, Thurles · In a billiard room here on 1 November 1884, seven men founded the GAA. Today it has 2,200 clubs on five continents.
- The Devil's Bit · The devil bit a chunk from this mountain and spat it out — where it became the Rock of Cashel. The gap in the ridge is his tooth-mark.
All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.
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