TULLOGHERROSBERCON
MASS RESUMES
Mass will be celebrated in the Church of the Assumption Rosbercon at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 4. Due to a limitation on the numbers attending people are asked to be patient with the opening up of the lockdown. The normal Sunday Mass goes ahead at 11 a.m. on Sunday, July 5.
LATE MONSIGNOR JAMES CASSIN
The recent death of Monsignor James Cassin in Thomastown was heard of with deep regret in this area. He often celebrated Mass in Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School when the church here was under renovation. A native of Chapel Hill Thomastown, Monsignor Cassin gave a lot of his priestly life in Maynooth College.
GAA NEWS
The silent playing fields of the last few months are about to become a hive of activity once more. Juvenile training commenced on Saturday last with full-scale adult following on almost immediately. Players will once again be pleased to hear the clash of the ash and the resounding thud of the leather football.
ROSBERCON DOMINICANS
The Dominican Order of monks established themselves in Rosbercon on October 20, 1267. Credited with helping to found the monastery were the two great Catholic families in Kilkenny at the time, the Graces of Corstown, Tullaroan and the Walsh’s of Castle Hoell situated in the Walsh Mountains, between Ballyhale and Piltown.
In tandem with other Dominican Abbeys in Ireland Rosbercon was given the title of the Holy Cross. The very existence of the Dominicans in Rosbercon is scarcely remembered. But once it was a renowned seat of learning with many groups of students coming from as far away as the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and
Portugal to the then famous monastery situated on the banks of the river Barrow.
A different scenario took place there on April 12, 1328, when John De Rupe (Roche of the Rower) De Rupe, he of Norman stock, held sway in the Rower district for a long number of years. On that fateful day 20 of his companions and himself were hunted from their lawful habitat by the British under De Poer and chased into the abbey and then dragged outside and brutally murdered in cold blood.
‘But what cared men of tainted blood for abbey, saint or cell.
For holy shrine, or right divine, for heaven of for hell.
After the Reformation the abbey appeared to lose its power with the monks seeing a rapid decline in numbers year by year. Yet, even in ruins there were some small few monks who carried out parish work in the area. One such was Michael Bergin appointed Prior in 1683. The following year (1684) he was given permission to act as PP of Rosbercon therefore becoming its first parish priest.
The ruins of the abbey were visible up to about 1800, when one John Lamphier knocked down the building and used the stones to build a warehouse up river. He had no luck however as was caught and convicted for smuggling, sentenced to jail and his building to be demolished. Next time you are in Rosbercon below the old railway gates, peek in at the former recycling plant and gaze upon a scene of former monastic splendour.
DOWN MEMORY LANE
1n 1941, all games in Kilkenny were delayed due to an outbreak of the Foot and Mouth disease. All competitions ran into 1942 when they were completed early that year. Tullogher, had already qualified for the Senior Football Final by virtue of earlier wins over Clooneen and Black and Whites. At Barrett’s Park, New Ross, on New Years Day 1942, they faced the Rower in an eagerly awaited decider.
When Sergeant Bertie Graham (a Kildare all-Ireland Footballer) threw in the ball there was a sense of anticipation that patrons were in for a cracking game. However, these predictions were upset from the word go as Tullogher tore into the fray with rare abandon and carved out a 2-5 to 0-1 lead at half-time.
Keeping up the pressure in the second half they ran out easy winners in the end. A rock-solid defence against which the Rower failed to add to their tally and with the Tullogher forwards adding 1-3, it meant that the final score was 3-8 to 0-1-the biggest winning margin in what was the Tullogher Club’s sixth championship win in 11 years-no mean achievement.
The team was, Jim Dwyer Listerlin Capt), Pat Foley (Inistioge, Goal), Pat and Luke Gaule (Slievecorragh), Luke Roche (Ballycurran), Jack Walsh (Ballybeg), Stephen Murphy (Hoodsgrove), Michael and Larry Morrissey (Milebush), Tom Malone (Hoodsgrove), Ned Moore (Shanbogh), Mick and Peter Purcell (Kilbrahan, Mikey O’Brien (Ballyknock), Tom Bird (Hoodsgrove).