[edit]
Banagher Fair[edit]
See also: Banagher Horse Fair
As part of the charter of incorporation of 1628, the corporation was given powers to: "hold two fairs, one on the Feast of St. Philip and Jacob, the other on the Feast of St. Simon and Jude, each to continue for two days." These feast days equated to 1 May and 28 October. However, a fair was already in existence in Banagher since 1612 and was held in September. These three fairs were certainly still in existence in the mid-1830s, as they were described in a government-commissioned report in 1835.
The fairs established by the first corporation continued to gain in size and importance during the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century. In 1826, the enormous number of 43,000 sheep was offered for sale at the September fair, with three-quarters of that number being sold. Pigot's Directory of 1824 described the workings of the fair: "...and there are three fairs; the principal one commences on the 15 September and continues for four days, the first for sheep, the second for horned cattle, the third for horses, and the last day is the country fair for linen, woollens and other merchandise."
It seems that the fair held in September was the main fair and is the one that has survived to the present. Pope-Hennessy described the granting of the charter by Charles I which "empowered them to hold the famous Banagher Great Fair, at which everything from cattle and sheep to boots and basket chairs was on sale. This Fair, the greatest in all the Irish Midlands, began on September 15 and lasted four days. The line of horses tethered on each side of Banagher Main Street stretched from the Shannon river bridge to the crossroads two and a half miles outside the town known as Tailor's Cross."
The fair had achieved an international reputation by the early 20th century and a local newspaper report of 1909 states "The Banagher Great Fair was a huge success and among those present were Senor Gelline of Milan to make purchase on behalf of the Italian Government, while Mr Rodzanko bought for the Russian Government." The report also stated that "Eighty-nine wagons of horses were entrained at Banagher Railway Station...this representing in round numbers about 500 horses."
Architecture, buildings and structures[edit]
Banagher Bridge[edit]
Main article: Banagher bridge
Banagher Bridge
The first bridge that is known to have been built at this point was erected as a "spacious stone bridge of 18 arches" by Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (Anglicised Roderic O'Connor), the King of Connacht, around 1049. However, medieval sources tell of a "bridge of 27 arches of divers(e) architectural form, each different from its fellow", which stood here for over 500 years. A stone bridge of 17 arches was certainly constructed in 1685 and this was detailed in profile drawings by Thomas Rhodes in 1833.
Banagher Bridge
The bridge of 1685 featured prominently in the Williamite War in Ireland of the 17th century and was used by Patrick Sarsfield to retreat to Connacht after his ambush of a Williamite convoy at Ballyneety in County Limerick during the siege of Limerick. Because of its affording Sarsfield and his army a method of advance and retreat, the old bridge was often referred to as Sarsfield's Bridge. This bridge was blown up in 1843 by gunpowder by a section of the Corps of Royal Engineers. The abutment of this bridge can still be seen adjacent to Cromwell's Castle on the Connacht side of the river.
Banagher Bridge in the 19th century
The present bridge of seven arches was erected by the Commissioners for the Improvement of Navigation of the Shannon in 1841–1843. The engineer was Thomas Rhodes, one of the commissioners of the Shannon Navigation, whose name can be seen on many of the bridges over the Shannon and on surviving lock mechanisms, notably at Victoria and Athlone locks. This bridge was reconstructed and widened jointly by Offaly County Council and Galway County Council in 1971. Their work included replacing massive stone parapets on either side of the bridge with aluminium railings, and the removal of a swivel arch which had allowed passage for masted boats.
A heritage review of the bridges of County Offaly in 2005 described Banagher Bridge as of national heritage significance, of high architectural merit and demonstrative of mid-19th century construction work by a government body. It states "This is the only six-arch masonry span in the county. It is an interesting contrast with the 1750s bridge at Shannonbridge. Although both are approximately the same length, Banagher Bridge achieves the crossing with fewer spans (six as opposed to 16). It also has the longest masonry arch spans of all the county's bridges, averaging 17.88 m".
All of the castellations around and near the bridge were built to protect it, including Cromwell's Castle, The Salt Battery (Fort Eliza), Fort Falkland and the Martello Tower. However, the guns mounted on these forts could be used to destroy the bridge if necessary, as well as to bombard attacking forces on the river.
A narrow quay passes under the old swivel section of the bridge from Waller's Quay to the marina. A well-worn handrail offers the pedestrian some protection against a slip into the river. This rail has been known as the Duke's Rail since in 1897 the then Duke of York, later to become George V, paid a state visit to Ireland. The royal party travelled up-river from Portumna on the steamship Countess of Mayo. Disembarking at Waller's Quay, the Duke was received by Lord Rosse, the Lord Lieutenant of King's County. The party had to traverse the narrow quay under the bridge to get to Banagher Railway Station, and undoubtedly made good use of the Duke's Rail. The stretch of the Shannon from Portumna to Banagher was known for some time after as the Duke of York's Route.
Barracks[edit]
Old Barracks Wall (Fort Falkland)
This former constabulary barracks was built around 1800. Irregular in plan and now in ruins, it comprises a partially roughcast rendered rubble limestone enclosing wall with a cut stone segmental-headed entrance to the east and is situated to the south of the River Shannon, adjacent to the bridge. Remains of structures within the enclosure include a barrel-vaulted powder magazine built around 1806, with a gun platform above. These
walls are thought to be the perimeter walls of Fort Falkland from 1642. According to Pigot's Directory of 1824, the barracks housed two companies of foot, had apartments for three officers, a bomb and waterproof magazine and an artillery battery mounting three 12-pound guns. The Directory also states that the barracks was formerly a nunnery (possibly that of Saint Rynagh, which would have been founded around 580) and communicated with Saint Rynagh's Old Abbey by a subterranean passage of some 400 yards. After the British garrison left the town in 1863, the barracks was used by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and was looted and burned shortly after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The building was largely intact until the 1990s when the majority of the internal structures were illegally demolished.
Bow-fronted Georgian houses[edit]
The Shannon HotelBanagher has two bow-fronted Georgian buildings dating from the mid-to-late 18th century and both are listed as protected structures. One is a detached seven-bay, two-storey building, called Crank House, due to its location on the corner of Main Street and Crank Road. It was restored in the early 1990s by the Offaly West Enterprise Co-operative Society and opened in 1992. It was formerly used as the headquarters for Crann, an NGO dedicated to planting native trees and protecting Ireland's woodlands. It is now used by the West Offaly Partnership as a Community Enterprise Centre which includes an exhibition hall, tourist office, retail and enterprise units and a hostel. The building is also the location of the Midlands branch office of Birdwatch Ireland.
The second of these buildings is a terraced, three-bay, three-storey house with an adjoining four-bay, two-storey coach house, which still has its original limestone carriage arch. It has been used as a hotel since the early 19th century and was home to Anthony Trollope during his stay in Banagher in the 1840s. It has a prominent location next to the marina and close to the bridge. Long called the 'Shannon Hotel', the name was changed to 'The Royal Shannon' in the 1990s. It has ceased to trade as a hotel and is now falling into neglect.
Charlotte's Way[edit]
Charlotte's Way (Hill House)
Charlotte's Way, formerly known as Hill House, is located close to Saint Paul's Church of Ireland church. This house was once the home of Charlotte Brontë's husband, Mr Nicholls, who returned to Banagher after Charlotte's death. Nicholls remarried and lived at Hill House until his death in 1906. The house was sold to a Major Bell in 1919. He died in 1944 and his wife inherited the property. Florence Bell died in 1959. This connection to Charlotte Brontë and the Brontë family is revealed in its present name. It is a detached three-bay two-storey house, built in 1753, with a gabled central bay to the façade with modern porch and single-bay two-storey wing to the south and two-bay two-storey wing to the north. It is now used as a bed and breakfast.
Cromwell's Castle[edit]
Cromwell's Castle
The structure that stands on what is known locally as the Canal Bank, called Cromwell's Castle, primarily derives its current form from work related to the Napoleonic Wars. Similar to the Martello Tower that stands opposite it, on the same bank of the river, Cromwell's Castle was largely reconstructed as a defensive position to repel any invading fleet coming upstream towards Banagher.
Previously, the English had established many forts on the Leinster bank of the river, including Fort Frankford and, later, Fort Falkland. The garrison at Fort Falkland was overrun by the forces of the Confederate Catholics in 1642 but was recaptured by Cromwell's army in 1650. The Cromwellians established a new fortification on the Connacht bank of the river leading up to the plantation of Connacht in 1654. The castle was modified in 1817 to enable it to mount artillery with a platform for a 24-pound traversing gun constructed on its roof. Its interior became a powder magazine and housed a garrison of 20 soldiers.
Having fallen somewhat into disrepair, the structure came under the care of the Banagher Branch of the Offaly Historical Society in the 1980s and considerable restoration work has been undertaken since then. The bank on which it stands is held in trust as a public amenity. Considerable works around the castle have also taken place and the castle, park and riverside walk are open to the public.[citation needed]
Cuba Court[edit]
Cuba Court, also known as Cuba House, was a house dating from the 1730s and may have been constructed by one George Frazer, a former Governor of Cuba and perhaps to a design of Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, who designed the Irish Houses of Parliament in Dublin. It is certainly known to have been constructed with money from the sugar plantations in Cuba. In his biography of Anthony Trollope, James Pope-Hennessy describes Cuba Court as "a fine example of an Irish country-house of the mid-eighteenth century in the manner of the Dublin architect, Pierce (sic). The building contained ... two circular rooms ... and an avenue of lime trees led to the front door." The Belfast writer, Maurice Craig, in Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size (1976), describes Cuba Court as "perhaps the most splendidly masculine house in the whole country." Towards the end of the 18th century, Cuba Court was the home of Denis Bowes Daly, who was a prominent member of the local ascendancy. Prior to his death in 1821 he had leased Cuba Court to the Army Medical Board on a 61-year lease. The building was little used as a hospital and the Medical Board was quite happy to give it up to the Commissioners of Education for the Royal School, which had eventually been established as a result of the Royal Charter of 1621.
Charlotte Brontë spent her honeymoon at Cuba Court in 1854 following her marriage to Arthur Bell Nicholls (See Charlotte Brontë). She noted of Cuba Court: "It is very large and looks externally like a gentleman's country seat – within most of the rooms are lofty and spacious, and some – the drawing room and dining room are handsomely and commodiously furnished. The passages look desolate and bare – our bedroom, a great room of the ground floor, would have looked gloomy when we were shown into it but for the turf fire that was burning in the wide old chimney."
During the 1820s, the Royal School at Cuba Court was attended by Sir William Wilde, who later married the poet Jane Francesca Agnes Elgee. The couple had two sons: Willie and Oscar Wilde, and a daughter, Isola Francesca, who died in childhood. Another pupil at the school was William Bulfin, the journalist and writer associated with Argentina through his work Tales of the Pampas, who attended in the 1870s. His son, Eamon Bulfin was one of the main participants in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to deportation to Argentina where he had been born.
Due to the Irish policy on rates at the time, the house was unroofed in 1946 and this hastened its demise. Pope-Hennessy described Cuba Court in 1971: "Like so many of Ireland's great houses, Cuba Court is now being slowly but deliberately demolished. The lime trees have long since been hacked down." In spite of this, it was described as "a superb ruin that could tell the history of Ascendancy Ireland", as late as 1979. It was eventually acquired by a local businessman and demolished in the 1980s. Craig describes the loss of Cuba Court as "particularly to be lamented". A development of four houses was built on the site at Cuba Avenue in 2003. An archaeological survey revealed nothing of significance.
Fort Eliza[edit]
Fort Eliza, also known as the Salt Battery, is a freestanding five-sided four-gun battery, constructed around 1812, and standing on the east side of the River Shannon. Three sides face the river and were formed of broad parapets. The other two sides meet at the rear salient angle at a guardhouse, which is now ruined. The battery is surrounded by a dry moat, with the entrance originally across a drawbridge close to the guardhouse. At the centre of the enclosure was the brick-vaulted powder magazine. This fort, combined with Cromwell's Castle, the Martello tower and Fort Falkland would have protected both the town and the river crossing from all angles.
Martello Tower[edit]
Martello Tower at Banagher
Martello towers (or simply Martellos) are small defensive forts built in several countries of the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars onwards. They stand up to 40 feet (12 m) high (with two floors) and typically had a garrison of one officer and 15–25 men. Their round structure and thick walls of solid masonry made them resistant to cannon fire, while their height made them an ideal platform for a single heavy artillery piece, mounted on the flat roof and able to traverse a 360° arc. Fear of an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte reached panic proportions amongst the authorities in Ireland and England in 1804 and the first towers were built in Ireland that year.
In case an invasion fleet tried to sail up the River Shannon, two towers were built on the middle reaches of the river to defend its crossing points. One of these was located at Meelick and the other at Banagher. The tower at Banagher is located on the west (Galway) bank of the river and measures 36 feet (11 m) in diameter and height. The tower was described in 1970 as having "... no corbels, a ridge around the top, much vegetation growing around it, and its general condition is fair."
Memorials and sculptures[edit]
Barnes & McCormack Memorial
A memorial in the form of a stone Celtic Cross is situated at the eastern side of the town. It is known as the Barnes & McCormack Memorial and dedicated to two local men who were executed in Birmingham in 1940 for their involvement in the Coventry Explosion of 1939 in which five people died. The executions caused a public outcry in Britain and internationally as the men had admitted to constructing the bomb, which was intended to be used to destroy a power station, but claimed not to be involved in planting it. The cross was erected in 1963 by The Barnes & McCormack Memorial Committee in association with The National Graves Committee and bears an inscription in both Irish and English: "In commemoration of Staff Captain James McCormack and Company Captain Peter Barnes, Irish Republican Army, who for love of country, were executed by the British Government at Winson Green Prison, Birmingham on the 7th February 1940." The monument was sculpted by Desmond Broe of Dublin and features images of the two men, a female head representing Ireland and symbols of the four provinces.
In December 2011 the Zimbabwean artist, Parazai Havatitye, a sculptor who specialises in wood carving, created a sculpture from a tree stump, entitled The Musician, which is dedicated to the musician Johnny McEvoy, who was born in Banagher in 1945. The sculpture is located on the main road, at the gate of the marina.
Places of worship[edit]
St. Paul's Church of Ireland
Arising from its history as a plantation garrison town, Banagher has active Catholic and Church of Ireland communities. The lane between Market Square and Pucka Lane (formerly Queen Street) is called Church Lane and it is here that the first church in Banagher was sited. The 6th-century abbey of St. Rynagh is now in ruins. This church later became the Church of the Blessed Mary in the 16th century, and was also known as the Church of Banagher. According to tradition, the Cross of Banagher once stood next to a crystal spring in the Market Square. The surviving sandstone shaft of the cross was found in the churchyard by a Birr antiquarian named Thomas Cooke in the 1840s and was in reasonable condition then as he described it in great detail in an article in the Transactions of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society in 1853. The stone that he found appears to have been part of a sepulchral or commemorative cross, set up at Banagher well to record the death of Bishop William O'Duffy, who was killed by a fall from his horse in 1297. Cooke had become so perturbed by the deterioration of the stone by 1852 that he had it removed to his residence in Birr. It is now housed in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. St. Rynagh's Catholic Church
The Church of Ireland community had worshipped at the old church, which was in a ruinous state by 1829 when the new St. Paul's Church was built at the top of the hill, overlooking the town. An appraisal by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes the church as having 'a handsome tower with spire', containing pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows by the English glass-maker Arthur Louis Moore of London, and 'the tall spire with pinnacles acting as a beacon to the local parishioners'. The most outstanding feature of St. Paul's Church is the Window of the Resurrection, a stained-glass window commemorating the Bell family that was originally intended for Westminster Abbey in London.
The new Catholic church of St. Rynagh's had been constructed some three years earlier and on land given by the Armstrongs, the most influential and wealthiest Protestant family in the area, who consistently and energetically advocated Catholic Emancipation and repeal of the Penal Laws. This situation demonstrated the friendly relations that existed between the two communities in Banagher during those difficult times for Catholics in Ireland. The church was built in 1825 with a bell-tower and spire added in 1872 to a design by William Hague Jr., a protégé of A.W.N. Pugin. An appraisal by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes the later addition of a bell tower with an elaborate door surround and finely carved belfry openings as adding to the otherwise modest church. The appraisal also describe the tall stained glass lancet windows and a mandorla called The Madonna and Child carved in 1974 by German sculptor Imogen Stuart, as giving an artistic quality to the building.
Literature and the arts[edit]
Literary figures to have stayed at Banagher include Anthony Trollope, who used the town as an inspiration for his first novel The Macdermots of Ballycloran and Charlotte Brontë who married a curate who was raised in Banagher. The town is the source of the phrase: "Well, that beats Banagher!"
The Musician dedicated to Johnny McEvoy
The town was one of the settings for the series Pure Mule, as featured on RTÉ television. The mini-series was an RTÉ production and shot in 2005 in Banagher, Birr and Tullamore. The series was favourably received by some critics, although some locals maintained that it portrayed Midlanders in a bad light. The folk-singer Roger Whittaker took up residence in Banagher for about 10 years until 2006. During the time he purchased and renovated Lairakeen House.
Anthony Trollope[edit]
Anthony Trollope by Napoleon Sarony
Banagher's greatest literary association is with Anthony Trollope, who had been employed by the General Post Office in 1835 and was sent to Ireland in September 1841 at the age of 26. Trollope had had an unhappy life up to that point and remarked in his autobiography: "This was the first good fortune of my life." After landing in Dublin on 15 September, he travelled by canal-boat to Shannon Harbour and then on to Banagher, arriving on 16 September, which coincided with the second day of the annual Great Fair. Although very much smaller than the town of Birr, which is only eight miles away, Banagher had been chosen as the base of a Postal Surveyorship, probably because its position on the Shannon offered easy access by can boat to Dublin and Limerick.
Trollope established himself at The Shannon Hotel, a long bow-fronted Georgian building, which was over 100 years old at that time. The hotel, which still exists, is located at the bottom of the town, close to the river. The post office where Trollope worked was at the top of the town, which is a few minutes away on foot. Next to the post office was a two-roomed bungalow which was used by the Postal Surveyor and his new deputy as their working headquarters. This building is often erroneously considered to have been the residence of Trollope himself.
Although Trollope's initial knowledge of Ireland was limited, he soon noted that the Irish were good-humoured and clever – "...the working classes very much more intelligent than those in England. They were not, as they were reputed to be, spendthrifts, but were economical, hospitable and kind." Their chief defects, he judged, were that they could switch to being very perverse and very irrational and that they were "but little bound by the love of truth."
Trollope remained stationed at Banagher until late 1844 when he was transferred to Clonmel. It was while in Banagher that Trollope began to write his first novel, The Macdermots of Ballycloran. He had begun to contemplate this novel whilst walking outside Drumsna in County Leitrim where the ruins of Ballycloran House stood into the 1840s and were still there in the 1970s. Trollope had been up in Leitrim inspecting the accounts of an errant postmaster. He thought the ruins of Ballycloran "one of the most melancholy spots I had ever visited" and he later described it in the first chapter of his novel. Although his first novel was initially unsuccessful, Trollope was undeterred and in all, went on to write forty-seven novels, as well as dozens of short stories and a few books on travel. He returned to England in 1856 and by the mid-1860s had reached a fairly senior position within the Post Office hierarchy. Postal history credits him with introducing the pillar box (the ubiquitous bright red mail-box) to Britain. Anthony Trollope died in London in 1882 and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.
Charlotte Brontë[edit]
Charlotte Brontë by George Richmond, 1850
Charlotte Brontë had a brief association with Banagher in the mid-1850s when she married one Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate. Nicholls was born of Scottish parents in County Antrim in 1818. He was orphaned early and subsequently brought up by his uncle, Alan Bell, in Banagher. Alan Bell was headmaster at the Royal School at Cuba Court at that time. The couple honeymooned in Ireland and stayed at Cuba Court for a period in June 1854. According to Pope-Hennessy, Mrs Nicholls disliked both Banagher and its inhabitants, although she greatly admired the surrounding countryside.
If Bell Nicholls was a poor unknown curate in England – in Banagher he was a member of a respectable family. In a letter quoted by Elizabeth Gaskell in her book The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte wrote: "My dear husband, too, appears in a new light in his own country. More than once I have had deep pleasure in hearing his praises on all sides. Some of the old servants and followers of the family tell me I am a most fortunate person; for that I have got one of the best gentlemen in the country... I trust I feel thankful to God for having enabled me to make what seems a right choice; and I pray to be enabled to repay as I ought the affectionate devotion of a truthful, honourable man."
In January 1855, Brontë discovered she was pregnant. It was accompanied by severe illness and she died on 31 March 1855, officially from tuberculosis. Mr Nicholls remained with Brontë's father for a further six years before returning to Banagher in 1861, taking with him his wife's portrait, her wedding dress (of which a copy has been made), some of Charlotte's letters and other mementoes. Forty years later, when the critic Clement Shorter prepared to write Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle, he found at Banagher among other relics, two diaries of Emily and Anne, in a tin box, and some of Charlotte's minute childhood writings wrapped in newspaper at the bottom of a drawer.
James Pope-Hennessy[edit]
James Pope-Hennessy came to Banagher in 1970 to write his biography of Anthony Trollope. Pope-Hennessy had published his first book, London Fabric in 1939, for which he was awarded the Hawthornden Prize and was a well-established biographer and travel writer by the time he arrived in Banagher. Among his works were a biography of Queen Mary for which he was rewarded by being created a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1960, Verandah (1964) a biography of his grandfather, the Irish colonial governor John Pope-Hennessy and Sins of the Fathers (1967), an account of the Atlantic slave traffickers.
Like Trollope before him, Pope-Hennessy took rooms at The Shannon Hotel, near the river and set about trying to capture the essence of the town which had inspired Trollope's first novel, The Macdermots of Ballycloran. He proved to be a very popular figure in the town, evidenced by the fact that he was asked to adjudicate at a local beauty pageant and the horse fair. Pope-Hennessy gives particular mention to the Corcoran family, the proprietors of The Shannon Hotel in the 1960s and 1970s, for their help in the production of his work. They sold the hotel in 1977.
Pope-Hennessy stayed in Banagher from March 1970 to April 1971 and largely completed his study of Trollope during this time. The finished biography, Anthony Trollope, won the Whitbread Award for Biography in 1972 and is largely regarded as Pope-Hennessy's finest work since Queen Mary. Pope-Hennessy grew very fond of Banagher and returned to stay at The Shannon Hotel several times before his premature death in 1974. This is illustrated by his description of Banagher in Anthony Trollope: "... in Trollope's words, Banagher then seemed 'little more than a village'. It retains a quality of friendly village life to this day and can have changed little since Trollope's time, save that its population has declined to eleven hundred."
Sir Jonah Barrington[edit]
Sir Jonah Barrington was born in 1760 near Abbeyleix in the Queen's County (County Laois). He was first elected to Parliament as a member for Tuam in 1790. He lost this seat in 1798 and was elected as a member for Banagher in 1799. He voted against the Act of Union in 1801 and as a result, he was deprived of his £1,000 a year sinecure in the Customs House and this also stopped his further advancement. In 1809 he published, in five parts, the first volume of the Historic Memoirs of Ireland. It is thought that he was induced to delay the second volume – the English government shrinking from the exposure of their conduct in carrying the Act of Union, and it was understood that to purchase his silence he was permitted to reside in France from about 1815.
In 1827, he published two volumes of Personal Sketches of His Own Times. In 1830, by an address from both Houses of Parliament, he was removed from the Bench, in consequence of well-proven misappropriation of public money. The third volume of Personal Sketches appeared in 1833 as did the delayed volume of his Historic Memoirs. This book was subsequently reproduced in a cheaper form as The Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation. His works are interesting, racy, and valuable – although his statements of fact cannot always be depended on – containing much of personal incident, related in a fascinating style. He died at Versailles on 8 April 1834.
