What is recorded here

Goresbridge exists because Ralph Gore built a new bridge across the River Barrow in 1756, forcing a remote Kilkenny crossing into the memory of every traveller who crossed it. The townland had already belonged to his family after Charles II granted Barrowmount to Arthur Gore, so Ralph was not an outsider imposing a name but a heir completing what the river had resisted. Even when weapons later broke the peace there in 1798, the bridge remained the measure of the place: a line of stone laid across water that would not stop being crossed.

This steeple repaired, the organ errected (!), the fire engines purchased, all at the expense of the Corporation of this city 1774 Ralph Gore, Esq. Mayor