Town defences in Nenagh South,nenagh North

Situated on a low rise of ground with good views in all directions. The Anglo-Norman town at Nenagh was founded between 1200 and 1220 by Theobald Walter, the first Butler of Ormond (Gleeson and Leask 1936, 248). There was possibly an earlier settlement here as there are references to 'Aenach thete', which appears to be Nenagh, being burned during raids in 994 and 1056 (Annals of the Four Masters). An inquisition dated 1299 concerning the alteration of a roadway near the town concluded 'that it would not damage any but those who dwell in Theobalds Town of the Nanagh in the street below the castle to the east viz. Robert, son of David and his neighbours dwelling in that street' (CJR, vol. 1, 234). In 1323 the village of the Nanagh accounts for 641 for remitting the account of murage (PRI rep. DK 42nd, 42). In 1305 and 1338 burgesses are mentioned in state papers (CJR, vol. 2, 108; CIPM, vol. 8, 121). The town appears to have suffered in the fourteenth century: first in 1316 Robert Bruce's army wasted the manor of Nenagh but left the castle and settlement intact (Gleeson and Leask 1936, 250), then in 1348 the town was burnt by the O'Kennedys (Prendergast 1851, 392). At the end of this troublesome century, in 1392, the Butlers bought Kilkenny Castle and transferred their chief residence from Nenagh to there (ibid., 393-4). There is a fifteenth-century reference which mentions that the 'reeve and community [were] summoned to seneschal's court' in 1432 (Martin 1981, 47). The town possesses a thirteenth-century castle with curtain wall and gatehouse (TNO20-037001) and a Franciscan friary (TN020-037002). Although there is no surviving evidence of town walls around Nenagh many historians and archaeologists believe that medieval Nenagh was walled (Bradley 1985, 50-52). In 1287 it is recorded that Walter de la Hyde did 'repairs of roofs and in building a house below the gate; in repairing and roofing other towers and houses; in rebuilding a bridge, gate and palisades which were thrown down by a storm' (Gleeson and Leask 1936, 249). A more substantial fortification may have been built in the fourteenth century as murage was being collected in 1322-3 and 1344-5 (Bradley 1985, 2). Two gates, Thomond Gate at Connolly Street on the west side of the town and the unlocated Sparragibba, were referred to in the seventeenth century (Bradley 1985, 50; Thomas 1992, vol. 2, 173; Grace 1993, 115). According to Sheehan (1949, 8), Sparragibba was located at River Lane, in the angle between Kenyon Street and Connolly Street. In the Civil Survey (1654-6) Thomond gate is described as being located on the W side of Nenagh town (Simington 1934, vol. 2, 211) and there is a reference to the 'Walls' southwestward of Nenagh (ibid., 278). According to the Civil Survey the road from Ballycahill led to 'a gate on the walls of Nenagh called Sparragibba bounded on the southeast wth the lands of Tyone' (ibid., 295). The town is described as containing 'sixty cottages & thatcht houses lately built' (ibid., 295). The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008