The Dungarvan / Lismore Connection

 

Dungarvan Castle

A short trip to Lismore on another sunny day was well worth the time.  We took a short but historically interesting tour of the town, saw an impressive VR tour of Lismore Castle, and had a lovely bowl of soup and toastie sandwich at a local pub. For me, it was a stop that brought much of the history of Ireland and the local area of County Waterford and Dungarvan together. Lismore Castle, built by King John in the later 1100s, is the same man that built Dungarvan Castle. The Dukes of Devonshire built the bridge in Dungarvan across the Colligan River and the bridge in Lismore across the River Blackwater. And Tom Keith gets recognized and stopped on the street in both Lismore and Dungarvan.  Of course the towns are not too far apart, and especially today with the Local Link bus service, there are many links between the two. Lismore’s history seems richer in the modern sense because of its connection to John F. Kennedy, Fred Astaire, and the Cavendish family.  It was also the birthplace of Robert Boyle (the father of modern Chemistry), the onetime home of Sir Walter Raleigh (when he was still in the good graces of Queen Elizabeth I), and the home of the Book of Lismore (a book full of early Irish manuscripts including many stories from the Fenian Cycle).

Lismore Castle

But Dungarvan, too, has a rich history. Ernest Walton (from Abbeyside) won the Nobel prize for Physics in 1951. There is the story of (or mythology of) Mrs. Nagle who saved the town from Cromwell’s invaders in the 1640’s.  It is claimed that she drank to his health when he entered the town.  One of Cromwell’s generals died in town around the same time, so I’m thinking there is much more to this story.  There are also several famous shipwrecks in Dungarvan including the SS Coningbeg and the SS Formby that were torpedoed by the Germans in 1917. And then, of course, there is Gallows Hill.  Dungarvan has a rich history.  It’s less Hollywood than Lismore, but more significantly Irish in its stories methinks.

Gallows Hill