If walls could talk: Ringmoylan has always had a special draw

"GLORIOUS Ringmoylan with his bracing air” is how a visitor described the scenes at the pier in 1933 during a hot summer day.

The townland of Ringmoylan, in the parish of Pallaskenry is approximately 20km from Limerick city and has a storied history.

Across the river is Shannon Airport whose aircraft has replaced sail boats and steamships as the main method of transporting people and goods to and from this region of Ireland. Accounts from the nineteenth century describe Ringmoylan as having ‘excellent arable land, well adapted for growing wheat, large quantities of seaweed are regularly discharged at the quay, and turf is often landed: the people are industrious.’

The 1840 OS map reveals several points of interest including a windmill, ancient woodlands, ringforts, a gazebo, a charter school, a police barracks, and a quay.

The location of Ringmoylan quay on the busy River Shannon formed a vital link to an extensive network of piers, quays and harbours situated along the estuary that enabled trade to flourish between Limerick, Kerry, Clare and beyond, and provided an important source of income for local farmers and fishermen. Early newspaper mentions of Ringmoylan invariably focus on storms and shipwrecks.

For instance, in October 1778, the Dublin Evening Post reported that ‘a large sloop, with 60 people, and a large quantity of butter, corn and leather was driven upon the rocks opposite Castletown, owing, it is imagined to the pilot’s drunkenness.’ This case ended in tragedy as 12 people, in their attempt to get to the safety of Ringmoylan, were drowned. The pilot and his first mate survived.

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Some 30 years later, the Limerick Chronicle stated that another violent storm took the lives of three men named as Vaughan, Driscoll, and Nash whose bodies were washed up on shore at Ringmoylan.

The extensive woodlands, measuring approximately 61 acres, at Ringmoylan provided another source of income for the landholder, Charles Bury, Earl of Charleville (1801-1854).

The number of trees was estimated at 9,000, the value of that timber was £1,113. A notice, printed in 1834, informed the public of the ‘sale at Ringmoylan, in the Barony of Kenry, within a few yards of the quay, a large quantity of oak, calculated for ship and boat building, “tis very gross, being the growth of one hundred years.”

Other species of tree in the ancient woods included larch, ash, birch, and sycamore. The woodlands were managed by Patrick Brien whose murder in 1838 prompted the Earl of Charleville to state that ‘politics, religion or the discharge of duties had nothing to do with the quarrel, I feel this statement to be due to the respectable tenantry on that property.’ He added ‘Patrick Brien always bore a good character.’

The quay at Ringmoylan was deemed sufficiently busy enough to warrant its extension and the construction of an embankment in 1838. The project was funded by the Earl of Charleville who engaged ‘Mr Duhie [presumably an engineer], to construct an embankment by the river side from Ringmoylan quay, which will serve to reclaim a great tract of land for years exposed to the tide.’

The following year it was reported that ‘the embankment “will rescue many hundred acres … and prove a valuable acquisition to his lordship’s estates”. In 1842, the Earl of Charleville sold Ringmoylan and the surrounding lands.

The Rev. William Waller acquired it for the colossal sum of £10,000, an indication of the value of the land.

The enduring spirit of improvement was clear from the mid-1840s when a group of local grandees resolved to clear the rocks in the craggy part of the barony and thus provide employment to the local population, while another proposed scheme sought to improve and extend piers along the river especially at Ringmoylan, Beagh Castle, and Ballysteen.

In 1846, the Grand Jury (a forerunner to local government) granted John Fahy £15 to build a guard wall to the hill of Ringmoylan on the road from the quay to Rathkeale.

To advance the interests of Limerick Port, the Harbour Board installed in 1865, 20 beacons and buoys on dangerous rocks along the river as far as Ringmoylan and directed that the notorious navigation hazard “Cock Rock” be removed by blasting.

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Sporting pursuits were also a staple in Ringmoylan and hunting, fishing, coursing, and gandelow racing were enjoyed. For instance, in 1886, during the annual regatta at Askeaton ‘the chief interest lay in the First-Class Gondola [sic] Race, the favourites being the Ringmoylan crew who had won at the Foynes Regatta. Immense crowds turned out to observe the event, but alas the favourites were beaten by a length and a half by the hosts Askeaton. Ringmoylan came in second, while Low Island placed third.

By the 1930s, the Annual Ringmoylan Regatta attracted vast crowds and featured amusements such as roulette, shooting gallery, greasy pole, trips on the river and live music.

These traditions continue to the present day. During the recent June bank holiday weekend, swimmers and bathers flocked to Ringmoylan to take advantage of its beautiful clear water and scenery.

Dr Paul O’Brien lectures in Mary Immaculate College