CK Heritage BlogWe recently came across the following Waterford maps courtesy of Twitter friends @TimeFinding – one from 1685 by William Petty and the other from 1746.
What caught our eye initially were the various townland designations show on both maps for the parish of Clashmore & Kinsalebeg (some of which are quite cryptic!), but the one that stands out has to be the different names given for the contemporary townland of D’Loughtane.
Ireland was still part of the British Empire in the first decade of the 20th century, but a wave of nationalistic spirit was ensuring that any remaining loyalties to the crown were ebbing away by the year. This was the historical backdrop which accompanied those Irish men who elected to enlist in the British Army for service before or during The Great War of 1914. No doubt this was not an easy decision, but with this said it was paid service and employment and any decent prospects were scarce in many areas of our country at the time.
Laurence was born in Clashmore, County Waterford and came to Newfoundland sometime between 1808 and 1810 and within 10 years had established at Water Street, St. Johns the business of Lawrence O’Brien and Company, a wholesale and retail trading company. O’Brien owned a wharf, warehouses and a retail store, and was also the owner of several trading ships, aswell as being involved in the seal fishery.
The history of Clashmore Distillery is a brief but colourful one and indeed this establishment stood alone in this county for the best part of 170 years until the recently established Blackwater Distillery produced it’s first spirit back in 2010.
Like most other rural areas of the country at the end of The Great Famine years, the parish of Clashmore & Kinsalebeg was also experiencing the after effects of the heavy toll felt after successive potato crop failures and the latent dereliction of the very poorest in society by many of the ruling classes of the time.