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The story behind New Tipperary
In1889 the Plan of Campaign was a stratagem adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, co-ordinated by Irish politicians for the benefit of tenant farmers, against mainly absentee and rack-rent landlords. It was launched to counter agricultural distress caused by the continual depression in prices of dairy products and cattle from the mid 1870s, which left many tenants in arrears with rent. Bad weather in 1885 and 1886 also caused crop failure, making it harder to pay rents. The Land War of the early 1880s was about to be renewed after evictions increased and outrages became widespread
Tipperary Town Involvement
In Tipperary Town around this time there was a landlord called Smith Barry he owned most of Tipperary Town and held 27000 acres of land in Tipperary and Cork all this was inherited from Erasmus Smith who secured ownership from Cromwell’s time.
In May 1889 at a meeting in Tipperary of the local branch of the National League, a spokesman for Canon Keller of Youghal explained that by paying Smith-Barry’s ‘increased Tipperary rents’, all the Tipperary tenants were doing, was subsidising the clearance of the Youghal estate.
In July 1889 Smith-Barry’s agent, Horace Townsend was awaiting for the Tipperary tenants to enter his office with the rents due, but not one tenant paid their rent.
In late August 1889 Smith-Barry got the Sheriff in Thurles to auction off the interests of 24 defaulting Tipperary tenants . 7 Tenants allowed their homes to be sold, but the rest paid up which showed that a lot of the tenants were reluctant to let go of their holdings.
Due to the majority supporting the tenants, Smith – Barry refused the Town Commissioners the use of the town hall. Local shops refused to sell goods to the Police, Smith – Barry locked up the town’s fire engine at night.
Publican’s lost their licenses for refusing to serve the Police. Tenants who served the Police were further boycotted to reduce their numbers.
William O’Brien MP got 6 months for a speech he made in Cork supporting the tenants of Tipperary, and in early December 1889 Smith – Barry was contemplating mass eviction.
On the 3rd December 1889 wholesale clearance of Tipperary Town began it was supervised by Dublin Castle. Over 1000 towns people were evicted from their homes that their families had lived in for generations.
The evictions were carried out by over 200 police headed by the District Inspector and the Sheriff an entire company of the Manchester Regiment who were part of the garrison stationed locally since the Fenian rising of 1867 supported the police.
Fr Humphreys led the locals out of the town and told the tenants not to provoke violence, he warned the Inspector not to exceed his legal powers.
The evictions went on for 4 months and Tipperary Town looked like a besieged town with everything shuttered, empty houses, and British troops on constant patrol.
The leader of the tenants Michael O’Brien Dalton, lost his house in the town, and the Police transformed it into a temporary barracks. In September 1889, John McCormack editor of the Tipperary people, wrote that ”It would not be an impossible thing to build a New Tipperary” close to that place which Barry-Smith calls his own.
Towards the end of December 1889 this sprung to life due to the kindness of William Hurley a sympathetic land owner who gave a site behind Henry Street (Now named William O’Brien Street) to the townspeople.
An army of volunteers started immediately and people from all over Munster and as far away as Galway came with horses, gravel, skills, and laboured to build ‘New Tipperary’.
A special fund that was set up had accumulated £50,000 which came from Australia and America,
by April 1890 when the opening banquet was arranged, at least 2,000 men had given a free weeks work, and 16,000 loads of gravel were donated to build New Tipperary.
Daltons started off back in 1990 as the New Tipperary Centenary Company Ltd
The society had two main aims:
To create awareness as to the importance of New Tipperary. To preserve the physical remnants’ of what was a unique development in Tipperary Town.
A run down dilapidated shop and house at 9 Emmet Street was purchased and we successfully lobbied for a EU grant and Daltons’ received a grant for 26.000 punts this was the only project in Ireland that year to get a grant.
The grant was used to renovate the building back to its original state when it was built in 1890; it now stands as a testimony to the heritage of New Tipperary.
Daltons is a uniqe historic building and has stood the test of time for the last 125 years.
Daltons was unsucessful in it's grant application from local government so we find ourselves needing to raise funds to repaint our exterior and carry out some repairs to a leaky roof.
As we are a listed building we have to meet the criteria set out by the Department of Heritage and Culture for any works are carried out.
Daltons is very much part of the community and we are used as a community centre by the following groups.
Tipperary Branch / Arthritis Ireland / Ceoltas Ceoltorai Eireann / Tipperary Active Retirement Association / Beginners Irish classes / Local resident associations / Tipperary Heritage Group / The Tipperary vintage animation team.
We also provide the following services from Daltons we have the Tipperary Clans Heritage society as part of our organisation and we help to organise Clan and Family rallies we provide surname certificates and surname histories.
Currently we have over 700 surnames with coats of arms in our database.
We also have access to graveyard records from 1701 to the 1990s.
We arrange walks and tours for visitors in the New Tipperary ‘area of Tipperary Town
We offer our assistance to visitors in tracing their family roots in the area.
This year Daltons in its present state is 25 years old our silver anniversary, we hope to continue serving our community for the next 25 years but we need help.
Thank you for taking the time to read our appeal and any support to keeping part of the heritage of Tipperary town alive is most welcome.
Mike O'Meara
Daltons
Volunteer Researcher.
In1889 the Plan of Campaign was a stratagem adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, co-ordinated by Irish politicians for the benefit of tenant farmers, against mainly absentee and rack-rent landlords. It was launched to counter agricultural distress caused by the continual depression in prices of dairy products and cattle from the mid 1870s, which left many tenants in arrears with rent. Bad weather in 1885 and 1886 also caused crop failure, making it harder to pay rents. The Land War of the early 1880s was about to be renewed after evictions increased and outrages became widespread
Tipperary Town Involvement
In Tipperary Town around this time there was a landlord called Smith Barry he owned most of Tipperary Town and held 27000 acres of land in Tipperary and Cork all this was inherited from Erasmus Smith who secured ownership from Cromwell’s time.
In May 1889 at a meeting in Tipperary of the local branch of the National League, a spokesman for Canon Keller of Youghal explained that by paying Smith-Barry’s ‘increased Tipperary rents’, all the Tipperary tenants were doing, was subsidising the clearance of the Youghal estate.
In July 1889 Smith-Barry’s agent, Horace Townsend was awaiting for the Tipperary tenants to enter his office with the rents due, but not one tenant paid their rent.
In late August 1889 Smith-Barry got the Sheriff in Thurles to auction off the interests of 24 defaulting Tipperary tenants . 7 Tenants allowed their homes to be sold, but the rest paid up which showed that a lot of the tenants were reluctant to let go of their holdings.
Due to the majority supporting the tenants, Smith – Barry refused the Town Commissioners the use of the town hall. Local shops refused to sell goods to the Police, Smith – Barry locked up the town’s fire engine at night.
Publican’s lost their licenses for refusing to serve the Police. Tenants who served the Police were further boycotted to reduce their numbers.
William O’Brien MP got 6 months for a speech he made in Cork supporting the tenants of Tipperary, and in early December 1889 Smith – Barry was contemplating mass eviction.
On the 3rd December 1889 wholesale clearance of Tipperary Town began it was supervised by Dublin Castle. Over 1000 towns people were evicted from their homes that their families had lived in for generations.
The evictions were carried out by over 200 police headed by the District Inspector and the Sheriff an entire company of the Manchester Regiment who were part of the garrison stationed locally since the Fenian rising of 1867 supported the police.
Fr Humphreys led the locals out of the town and told the tenants not to provoke violence, he warned the Inspector not to exceed his legal powers.
The evictions went on for 4 months and Tipperary Town looked like a besieged town with everything shuttered, empty houses, and British troops on constant patrol.
The leader of the tenants Michael O’Brien Dalton, lost his house in the town, and the Police transformed it into a temporary barracks. In September 1889, John McCormack editor of the Tipperary people, wrote that ”It would not be an impossible thing to build a New Tipperary” close to that place which Barry-Smith calls his own.
Towards the end of December 1889 this sprung to life due to the kindness of William Hurley a sympathetic land owner who gave a site behind Henry Street (Now named William O’Brien Street) to the townspeople.
An army of volunteers started immediately and people from all over Munster and as far away as Galway came with horses, gravel, skills, and laboured to build ‘New Tipperary’.
A special fund that was set up had accumulated £50,000 which came from Australia and America,
by April 1890 when the opening banquet was arranged, at least 2,000 men had given a free weeks work, and 16,000 loads of gravel were donated to build New Tipperary.
Daltons started off back in 1990 as the New Tipperary Centenary Company Ltd
The society had two main aims:
To create awareness as to the importance of New Tipperary. To preserve the physical remnants’ of what was a unique development in Tipperary Town.
A run down dilapidated shop and house at 9 Emmet Street was purchased and we successfully lobbied for a EU grant and Daltons’ received a grant for 26.000 punts this was the only project in Ireland that year to get a grant.
The grant was used to renovate the building back to its original state when it was built in 1890; it now stands as a testimony to the heritage of New Tipperary.
Daltons is a uniqe historic building and has stood the test of time for the last 125 years.
Daltons was unsucessful in it's grant application from local government so we find ourselves needing to raise funds to repaint our exterior and carry out some repairs to a leaky roof.
As we are a listed building we have to meet the criteria set out by the Department of Heritage and Culture for any works are carried out.
Daltons is very much part of the community and we are used as a community centre by the following groups.
Tipperary Branch / Arthritis Ireland / Ceoltas Ceoltorai Eireann / Tipperary Active Retirement Association / Beginners Irish classes / Local resident associations / Tipperary Heritage Group / The Tipperary vintage animation team.
We also provide the following services from Daltons we have the Tipperary Clans Heritage society as part of our organisation and we help to organise Clan and Family rallies we provide surname certificates and surname histories.
Currently we have over 700 surnames with coats of arms in our database.
We also have access to graveyard records from 1701 to the 1990s.
We arrange walks and tours for visitors in the New Tipperary ‘area of Tipperary Town
We offer our assistance to visitors in tracing their family roots in the area.
This year Daltons in its present state is 25 years old our silver anniversary, we hope to continue serving our community for the next 25 years but we need help.
Thank you for taking the time to read our appeal and any support to keeping part of the heritage of Tipperary town alive is most welcome.
Mike O'Meara
Daltons
Volunteer Researcher.
Organizer
Daltons-Heritage And-Visitor Centre-Tipperary
Organizer
County Tipperary, Tipperary