Ardmore in 1916

The Ardmore Tidy Towns Association decided that researching the residents of Ardmore in 1916 would be an appropriate way to commemorate the 1916 Centenary. Because of time constraints we focused on Main Street, Chapel Row, Ard a Mhinistir and the older end of College Road. It is our intention to complete the rest of the village in 2016.

 

Immediately it was obvious to us that we would need to enlist assistance. We were fortunate to be able to call on local archaeologist, John Tierney, Eachtra Archaeological Projects & the Ardmore Grange Heritage Group. We were also very lucky to be able to call on Tommy Mooney and Noel Rooney, two local men with a wide knowledge of the history and heritage of Ardmore. This publication would not have been possible without their input. They voluntarily spent many hours of research, debate and the occasional argument in compiling the data. 

 

We would like to acknowledge the earlier writings and works of James Quain and Siobhán Lincoln, which were of great assistance. Our principle sources were the 1901 and 1911 census websites and the house and building registers attached to them. Another census will be conducted in Ireland on the 24th April 2016, so there will never be doubt about who lived here in 2016. We also used the Griffiths Valuation Cancel Books (covering approx 1850-1960) which the Ardmore Grange Heritage Group are currently digitising for the village and surrounding townlands. 

 

We would also like to acknowledge the various stories and nuggets of anecdotal information passed on to us by many local people. We don’t claim 100% accuracy, rather we have pieced together what was available to us to make the record as accurate as possible.

 

Several of the structures and properties differ from today, a number of properties no longer exist, more have been added, some of today’s properties were subdivided at the time and some of the 1916 properties have been subdivided since. The forebears of many today’s residents of Ardmore parish lived in Main Street at the time but the Keevers Family is the only family still living in Main Street, who lived in the same house in 1916. 

Special thanks to Ber Keevers, Principal of Ardmore National School, for her work in digitising the 1916 School Register. Also thanks to Ber Keevers, Ber Quinn, Tommy Mooney, Noel Rooney, Des Fitzgerald & Aidan Quirke for access to their historical photograph collections. The map accompanying this survey was created by Robin Turk and will also be used to erect a commemorative plaque later in the year.

Waterford City & County Council supported this project through the Ireland 1916 scheme and Aidan and Patricia Quirke of the Round Tower Hotel hosted our research meetings and sponsored this book. Míle Buíochas!

Billy Harty for the Ardmore Tidy Association