Around Our Town Ep. 29 – The Coleville Road, Clonmel (Part 4) – Ashbourne At the junction where the Coleville Road and the Mountain Road intersect are two old Quaker homes which have much in common. Ashbourne and Roseville were both designed by the much celebrated Clonmel born architect William Tinsley. Both can be described...Read More

Around Our Town Ep. 28 – The Coleville Road, Clonmel (Part 3) – Merlin ‘Merlin’ is one of the most prominent Quaker homes built on the Coleville Road (or Fairy Hill as the area was know in the 19th century). A newspaper report in the Nationalist dated 18/03/1950 references valuation records for newly built houses...Read More

Around Our Town Ep. 27 – The Coleville Road, Clonmel (Part 2) – Minella The Malcolmson’s were among the most successful Irish Quaker Industrialists of the 18th/19th centuries. They had extensive business interests across the south east of Ireland most notably in Portlaw, Co Waterford and Clonmel. By the middle of the 1800s several branches...Read More

Around Our Town Ep. 26 – The Coleville Road, Clonmel (Part 1) The Coleville Road in Clonmel runs from the southern end of the Gashouse Bridge eastwards, parallel with the Suir for about a mile, where it meets the county boundary with Waterford. The origins of its name are difficult to  ascertain definitively however the...Read More

Around Our Town Ep. 25 – The Osborne’s Of Newtown Anner (Part 4) In 1774 the corporation of Clonmel made a fee farm grant of 23 acres at Newtown Anner to Sir William Osborne (the 8th Baronet). It is here at Newtown Anner that Sir William began construction on a country residence befitting the families...Read More

Lady Edith Blake nee Osborne (1845-1926) Catherine Isabella and Bernal Osborne’s eldest daughter, Edith lead an extraordinary life by any measure. She was born at Newtown Anner House, near Clonmel in 1845. She inherited her mother’s aptitude for painting and would go on to become a botanical illustrator, writer and artist of some note. She...Read More

Around Our Town Ep. 23 – The Osborne’s Of Newtown Anner (Part 2) Catherine Isabella Osborne was born on the 30th of June 1818 at Newtown Anner. She was the only daughter of Sir Thomas Osborne (the 9th Baronet, 1757-1821) and Catherine Rebecca Osborne (nee Smith died 1856). The Dictionary of Irish biography describe her...Read More

Around Our Town Ep. 22 – The Osborne’s of Newtown Anner (Part 1) The story of the Osborne Baronetcy in Ireland begins in 1629 when King James I created Richard Osborne of Ballintaylor and Ballylemon (near Dungarvan, Co Waterford) a Baronet. The creation of this new rank was ostensibly a revenue raising measure to help...Read More

The townland of Twomilebridge, as the name suggests, lies two miles east of Clonmel. Its comprises .28 of a square mile and is bounded by two rivers, the Anner to the east, and the Suir to the south. The bridge referred to in the place-name is the Anner Bridge which spans that river shortly before...Read More

Around Our Town Ep. 20 – William Tinsley – Clonmel’s Architect William Tinsley was born at Mary Street in Clonmel in 1804. His father, Thomas, had a building business in the town as had several generations of Tinsleys’ before him. Indeed a construction company baring the family name (Tinsley Construction Ltd) operates in Clonmel today....Read More