The Corn Mill at Carrigahorig

The Lamp, 2020, pp 18-20

A stone over the entrance to Carrigahorig Mill, Lorrha, Co. Tipperary used to state that the structure was built in 1805. A fine building of four storeys, it was demolished in 1994. According to the Bassett’s County Tipperary Guide and Directory, which was published in 1889 ‘the village of Carrigahorig consisted of eight houses and a mill. Mrs. A. Flynn was the village grocer, and three others, Martin Hough, Thomas Joyce and Michael Salmon, were publicans and grocers. The Postmaster was Michael Joyce and the miller was Edmond Doolan, who was also a farmer and Justice of the Peace. The mill was known as Santa Cruise.’

As mentioned above, the stone over the entrance stated that the mill was built by Thomas Going in 1805. It was an impressive building of four storeys with different grinding stones on each floor. The Goings were originally from Lorraine in France. In 1713 Richard Going leased premises in the Barony of Lower Ormond from Francis Heaton. Philip Going of Moneyquil, Nenagh died in 1820 in his 79th year and was buried in Ballymackey graveyard. He married Grace Bernard in 1767 and the couple had one son, Thomas, and three daughters. It appears that Thomas, whose address is given as Santa Cruz, Sherragh, Barony of Lower Ormond, was born in 1769. He married his first cousin, Rebecca, in 1803 and died without issue in 1815, before his father, at the age of 46 years.

The building of the mill at the time may have been the result of the Inland Bounty Act of 1758. This act was passed to ensure an adequate supply of corn and flour to the capital, Dublin by offering premiums to enterprising millers in the provinces. It led to a big expansion in the milling industry.

We don’t know who succeeded Thomas Going as the owner. A man by the name of Thomas P. Ferman is reputed to have owned the mill during the 19th century. His family suffered a misfortune, when his son was shot accidentally. Apparently there was a party in his house and one of the boys picked up a pistol and pointed it in fun at the son, not realising there was a bullet in it. He pulled the trigger and the bullet went through the son, killing him instantly. The father was so disillusioned he leased the mill and became an absentee landlord. One of the people who leased it was a man by the name of Samuel Palmer, who had associations with Portumna, Palmerston. He was the occupier of the mill in 1850.

A Flourishing Enterprise

The mill was a first class one, on a par with the best in the country. It produced top class flour with its silk screen. It also produced wholemeal, pollard and bran. It purchased wheat from the neighbouring farmers and dried it in a kiln before extracting the flour. The kiln was a major one and was heated by turf, which was also supplied from neighbouring bogs. Suppliers were paid sixpence a box for the turf. It is unclear what volume of turf the box held. The place was a hive of activity when it was at the height of production at the end of the nineteenth century and was reputed to employ over one hundred people. There was a row of houses in Ballyquirke, where many of the workers resided.

It appears that a man called Joyce, probably from the village, was the head man for Palmer. The story goes that at one stage the price of wheat rose by sixpence a barrel. Joyce refused to pay it and the farmers refused to supply grain to the mill. There was danger it would have to close but Joyce tried a ruse. He announced one day that the price of grain would drop by sixpence a barrel the following Monday. According to the story there was a traffic jam at the mill the following days as the suppliers struggled to get the wheat in before the price went down!

As stated above the miller in 1889 was Edmond Doolan. At some stage it came into the possession of Edward (Ned) O’Donoghue. He died on April 16, 1906 at the age of 74 years and is buried in the Old Cemetery, Terryglass. It is said that his remains were brought to the church the evening before burial, the first remains to be thus treated in Terryglass church. Up to then the dead were waked in the home and brought to the burial ground the following day. One of the reasons for changing the practice was what we would call today, health and safety matters. Wakes in small houses were conducive to the spread of disease because of the crowded conditions. A son of Ned O’Donoghue’s, John C, died two months later at the age of 38 years, and a second son, James, died in October, 1909 at the age of 36 years. It appears the mill was then taken over by another son, William.

William O’Donoghue

William O’Donoghue married Teresa Sammon in Lorrha Parish Church on November 13, 1912. The witnesses were Paddie Sammon and Mai Sammon and the ceremony was performed by Fr. John Gleeson, P.P. The couple had six sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Michael Raymond, who was born in January 1914, became a priest, and the older of the two daughters, Mary Josephine, who was born in November 1916, became a nun.

In 1920 Bill O’Donoghue’s name appeared in an advertisement in the Irish Independent looking for a miller ‘to dress stones, make oatmeal and grind corn.’ The candidate must be a T.T., the job was indoor and the applicant was requested to state his age and wages. The address given was Santa Cruise Mills, Carrigahorig. A similar advertisement appeared in the same paper on October 14, 1926.

As part of the safety measures in the mill, there was a timber wheel attached to the grinding stones, which came into use if there was interference with the stones, in order to prevent them from being damaged. On such occasions the wheel shattered and brought matters to a halt. The wheel had then to be repaired and put back in working order before milling could resume. During Bill O’Donoghue’s time the carpenter who used to repair the wheel was Bill Loughnane from Lorrha.

Bill O’Donohue carried on an extensive business of grinding corn and making oatmeal. In the forties and fifties all the local farmers used the facility to have their grain ground and neighbours from that time remember it as a bustling, busy place with plenty of traffic in horses and carts travelling into and out of the mill. Interestingly it wasn’t the only mill in the place. O’Donoghue had another mill further up the river on the Aglish Road and it was leased to Grubbs. They specialised in making oatmeal. Later, this mill was converted to the generation of electricity and the Grubbs supplied light to the village for a number of years before the coming of Rural Electrification.

Bill O’Donohue’s sister was married to a Boland of Boland’s Mill , Dublin fame. During World War 1, Bolands used to supply Carrigahorig with pollard, which Bill sold to the local farmers.

After Raymond, who became a priest, the O’Donohue boys were Wilsy, who was a farmer and he married an O’Meara, who had a drapery business in Birr, Cyril, who was born in 1919, Des, in 1920, Charles in 1922 and Brendan in 1925. The second girl was Teresa Kathleen, who was born in 1918 and married Nicholas Cunningham. Wilsy, Des and Brendan played with the Lorrha senior hurling team beaten by Holycross in the 1948 county final. Theoretically, they should have played with Shannon Rovers, born, as they were on the Terryglass side of the Carrigahorig river. Des and Brendan ended up in the United States and Charles in Africa.

Athlete of Note

Bill O’Donohue was an athlete of note. Cycling was his great interest. He started a race that went from Carrigahorig to Borrisokane and back by Kilbarron and Terryglass. Bill put up a clock for this race and won it himself every year. Eventually a man, who worked at McAinch’s at the Ferry beat him, kept the clock and that put an end to the race.

Bill travelled all over the place taking part in cycle races. The story goes he used to keep his good clothes in the Little Mill on the Aglish road, later owned by the Grubbs, so that he could get away to races without his father knowing. He was a successful cyclist and won a lot of races. There is a story that he had cups all over the house, some of them holding up windows!

Bill was a good swimmer and used to go to Galway for a week at the time of the races. He usually travelled with John McIntyre. The latter had a very fast pony and they travelled in a trap to Galway during the Emergency.

An advertisement appeared in the Nenagh Guardian on August 3, 1963 from Desmond O’Donohue offering for sale Santa Cruise House, Lands and a Corn Mill. The land included 84 acres and the sale also included a ‘magnificent residence’ with five bedrooms.

The sale must have gone through because another advertisement appeared in the Nenagh Guardian on October 5, 1963 for a clearance sale at the mill. The sale consisted of livestock, machinery, furniture, outdoor effects and a motor car. The sale was to take place on October 12 and the auctioneer was Wm J. Kennedy, Borrisokane.

Demolition of Mill

The new owner was Colm Keane from Carney. When he took over he tried to continue the business of grinding corn in the mill but some accident happened to the water wheel, which was regarded as one of the biggest in Ireland. The wheel was never repaired and was later dismantled and sold.

Keane sold the mill to Peter Gibbs in 1987 while retaining the dwelling house and the land.. The mill had fallen into disrepair by this stage and the new owner couldn’t get grants to restore it. He demolished it in 1994 and sold off the stone and the other effects. He started a fish farm, which he still runs. The dwelling house, described as a magnificent dwelling in the 1963 sale, has deteriorated much in the meantime.

The demolition of the mill was carried out by P. J. Downey of Terryglass, who pulled the building down by attaching cables to parts of it. By this stage a large crack had appeared in one of the gables. The stone and effects were purchased by an architectural salvage firm.

On one occasion , it must have been the early fifties, I brought grain to the mill to be ground, I had to wait an age before my turn came. It must have been well into the afternoon. I was ravenous with the hunger and Bill must have taken pity on me. The next thing his wife appeared with a jug of hot sweet tea and some brown bed lightly buttered. It must have tasted beautiful because I can still remember the pleasure it gave me!

Of course there is no such place as Carrigahorig! It is made up of four townslands, Ballyquirke, Firmount, Garryclohy and Roran. Carrigahorig, Carraic-an-chomhraic, means the rock of the meeting, in this case the rock of the battle-meeting. It is reputed to be a place famous for its fights. The Mearas of Firmount, three brothers of them, were notorious for fighting, They fought all over North Tipperary, and challenged groups from near and far.