History of Clonmel

Pre-historic Clonmel Megalithic Tomb at Gurteen, near Kilsheelan.
Early Christian period Monastic settlement at Donaghmore, four miles north of Clonmel. A Hiberno-Romanesque Church was built here in the 12th Century.
916 – The Annals of Ulster record that a battle between the Uí Néill and the Vikings took place in the Clonmel area. There were 100 men killed in this battle.
1147 – A Cistercian Abbey was founded at Inishlounaght.
1205/1206 – William de Burgo was granted the lordship of the Manors of Clonmel, Kilsheelan and Kilfeakle.
1225 – His son, Richard obtained from King Henry III authority to hold an annual fair in Clonmel.
1228 – A visiting Abbot preached a sermon in the parish church of Clonmel. This is the first documentary evidence referring to a specific Clonmel building.
1263 – The administration of Clonmel was vested in Otho de Grandison (a native of Grandison or Graunzon, Switzerland).
1265 – de Grandison became Sheriff of Tipperary and Lord of the Manor of Clonmel. It was he who commenced the building of the town walls.
1328 – James Butler was created Earl of Ormond and granted the rights of a palatinate in Tipperary with his headquarters in Clonmel.
1338 – Lordship of the Manor was sold to Maurice Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond.
1349 – The Black Death visited Clonmel. There are plague pits at the sites of the Churches of St Nicholas and St Stephen in Clonmel.
1516 – Clonmel captured by the Earl of Kildare.
1539 – Archbishop George Browne of Dublin preached to the congregation of St. Mary’s amongst which were The Lord Chancellor of Ireland, two other Archbishops and eight bishops. Afterwards the congregation took an oath of loyalty to King Henry VIII as Head of the Church of Ireland.
1599 – The Earl of Essex arrived in Clonmel on May 23rd on his way to lay siege to Cahir Castle.
1608 – Clonmel became a Free Borough by Royal Charter on July 5th.
1650 – Oliver Cromwell captured Clonmel after a three week siege.
1662 – The Earl of Ormond regains the Palatinate of Tipperary on April 2nd following the restoration of the monarchy.
1690 – William of Orange’s army entered Clonmel without resistance on July 20th on it’s way to Limerick.
1716 – The County Palatinate was extinguished by Act of Parliament due to the Earl of Ormond’s Jacobite sympathies.
1766 – Fr Nicholas Sheehy was hanged outside Clonmel Gaol.
C1800 – The Court House was completed. The architect was Sir Richard Morrison. The Convent and Gas House Bridges were built about this time also.
1815 – Charles Bianconi’s car service starts operating between Clonmel and Cahir.
1824 – Gas street lights appeared in Clonmel.
1831 – The population of Clonmel was 17, 838.
1841 – The population had fallen to 13,505.
1852 – The railway reaches Clonmel with the building of the Railway Station and the construction of the line to Limerick. It was extended to Fiddown in 1853.
1871 – Population of Clonmel 10, 112.
1880 – Clonmel to Thurles railway line opened.
1912 – The Irish Labour Party was founded in Clonmel.
1914 -1918- The Great War saw hundreds of Clonmel men fighting in France, Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. Approximately 150 were killed.
1922 – Clonmel was captured by the Free State Army from Anti-Treaty forces who burned the Army and Police barracks as they withdrew from the town.
1923 – April 10th – Gen Liam Lynch died in St. Joseph’s Hospital. He had been shot and captured by the National Army that morning near Newcastle.