In 1840 about 2,000 people lived in Bonmahon. It had 2 hotels, a pawn shop, creamery, bacon factory, several shops and 21 public houses. The mine supervisors were worried that drunkenness was affecting the work in the mines, so in 1842 they built a Temperance Hall.
John Wheatley, the son of Thomas and Johanna Wheatley, was born in Bonmahon, Ireland, on 19th May 1869. John had nine brothers and sisters and in 1876 the family moved to Braehead in Lanarkshire. At fourteen, John became a miner like his father.
The medieval parish church of Dunhill is situated c. 300m west-north-west of Dunhill Castle, Co Waterford, about 2 km north of Annestown village and 7 km west of Tramore. The castle is spectacularly positioned on a rock outcrop overlooking the valley of the river Anne to the South West.
Author: Des Cowman
Background
This is a summary of a compilation of historical sources which I put together experimentally as editor of Decies (no. 18) in 1978 taking it as a typical village emerging around a church from the early 19th century.
David Alfred Doudney, the son of a soapmaker, was born at 386 Mile End Terrace, Portsea, Hampshire on 8 March 1811. (Charles Dickens was born in the house next door.)
Una Troy was born in 1910 at Fermoy, County Cork. She was educated at Loreto Abbey, Dublin, and her childhood during the “troubles” was an exciting one, as her home on the outskirts of Fermoy was flanked by the British Military Barracks on one side and the aerodrome on the other, with ambushes frequent. When the Irish Free State was established her father was appointed a Justice of the District Court and the family moved to Clonmel, County Tipperary.
Edith Collier’s contribution to New Zealand art as an innovator, modernist and expatriate painter placed her in a most distinguished group. Edith worked and painted for a time in Bunmahon.
Fenor Parish, which in medieval times was known as the Parish of Islandkeane, is in the Barony of Middlethird. The Parish lies between the Annestown River and Garrarus Strand. Fenor means ‘The Sunny Side of the hill’ and Fenor village and parish church are indeed on the sunny side of Ballyscanlan.
Copper Coast Geopark Ltd.
Knockmahon,
Bunmahon,
Co. Waterford,
X42 T923
Ireland
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