8. Tip O’Neill Park:
Thomas P. O’Neill (1912-94) served the longest term as Speaker in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives.
He played a crucial role to bring about the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
This park was created in his honour in 1994 and the plaque was unveiled in the presence of his daughter, Rosemary and Jean Kennedy Smith, the then U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.
His grandfather, Patrick O’ Neill, emigrated to the U.S. from this area around 1845.
9. Spa House:
IN 1724 curative springs were discovered in Mallow, making the town a popular Irish spa holiday resort from 1730-1810.
The water has a mean temperature of 72 Fahrenheit. The curative season ran from April to October.
Still visible to-day, the many bay windows in town are those of boarding houses which accommodated the Spa patrons.
The town began to fashion itself after Bath, building promenades, throwing balls, creating a Long Room and even bottling spa water to sell in Cork. Mallow became known for the wild men, called the Rakes of Mallow, who loved to drink, gamble and hunt. An excerpt from a 1753 ballad, ascribed to ‘Pleasant’ Ned Lysaght, describes them:
“Living short but merry lives,
Going where the devil drives,
Having sweethearts, but no wives,
Live the Rakes of Mallow”.
The Spa House was constructed in 1828 over the spring well to the design of George Pain.
His original plan was a Greek temple in the classical style, but Sir Charles D. O. Jephson MP, who commissioned the house, preferred a Tudor design.
In its day it contained a pump-room, an apartment for medical consultation, a reading room and baths.
10. Salt Works:
In the 19th century and earlier, salt as a necessary food additive and preservative was imported to Ireland as rock salt and was reduced into brine with spring water.
This brine was then evaporated in vats over the heat of the lime-kilns. When the brine was reduced to 25 per cent moisture, salt crystals formed and sank to the bottom.
There were two lime quarries in Mallow where salt works operated. Most salt works were operated in coastal towns, but Mallow seems to be an exception. In the Spa water was supplied from a well and pumped up by a suction pump for the salt processing,
11. Dogs’ Heads:
THE ‘Dogs’ Heads’ are three spouts of water coming out of carved heads on a walled alcove, that reaches down about five-feet under road level with steps leading down to them.
The water spouts out through carved heads of lions that are locally referred to as ‘ the dogs’ heads”.
Spa water piped underground from the well room in the Spa House across the road gave townspeople access to clean water for their private use.
12. Thomas Davis Statue:
Unveiled on November 28, 2014 by the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, it is a copy, in bronze, of the statue by John Hogan, now in the City Hall in Dublin, but originally located at the grave of Thomas Davis in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.
13. The Steps (The Red Lion Inn):
This house was an inn in the 17th century. One of Cromwell’s generals is reputed to have spent a night there. The steps are known locally as ‘Cromwell’s Steps’.
14. Old Market House and Shambles:
On Tuckey’s Hill, it served the needs of the town until 1823.
The Shambles behind the market house was where animals were slaughtered and meat processed for sale.
There were four arched sales areas in the Market House – now closed off, with added shop fronts - where local produce was sold.
15. Thomas Davis (1814-1845):
Thomas Davis was born here on October 14, 1814.
Graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, he founded ‘ The Nation’ newspaper with Charles Gavin Duffy and John Blake Dillon.
He was a leading member of the Young Irelanders and wrote many famous poems and ballads, including, ‘A Nation Once Again’. He died in 1845.
16. The Monument House (now World of Wonder) Fr. John Sullivan, SJ (1861 – 1933):
A lucrative business was conducted here by Edward Sullivan, father of Edward Sullivan, who became Lord Chancellor of Ireland and the father of Fr. John Sullivan, SJ.
Fr. John Sullivan was born in Dublin, educated at Protora Royal School, Enniskillen and Trinity College, Dublin. A practising barrister, he converted to Catholicism in 1896 and in 1900 joined the Jesuit Order.
Ordained priest in 1907, he taught in Clongowes Wood College, from where he did much to help the poor and needy in the area.
He died in 1933. In 2014 he was declared Venerable, and in 2016 he was beatified by Pope Francis. His great grandfather worked as a butler in Mallow Castle.
17. The Town Hall:
The present town hall was built in 1926 on the site of the one destroyed by fire on 28 September 1920, in reprisal for the capture of
Mallow Barracks. Prior to the first Town Hall a drapery business was conducted on the site by Mr. Rafferty, from whom it was purchased by the Urban District Council.
18. Fitzgerald Monument:
Erected by public subscription at a cost of £375 to the memory of John Joseph Fitzgerald.
It was unveiled by Wm O’Brien on October 13th 1907. John Joseph Fitzgerald (1872-1906) was born in Shortcastle and became a teacher at the Patrician Academy. He was the first Chairman of Mallow Urban District Council and was also a member of Cork County Council.
19. Canon Sheehan (1852-1913):
This is the birth place of Rev. Patrick Augustus, Canon Sheehan.
Canon Sheehan was appointed Parish Priest of Doneraile in 1885, where he successfully mediated between tenants and local landlords and helped avoid the levels of strife that occurred elsewhere.
He published numerous influential novels, including ‘Glenanaar’, which were translated into several European languages.
20. Market Square:
In 1823 Charles D. O. Jephson of Mallow Castle built a market house and enclosed area for trading on this site, which was anciently known as Ardtemple.
Fairs for cattle, horses, sheep and pigs were held in the area outside the walls of the market.
In 1959 Mallow Cattle Mart and Springmount Dairies were established here. In 2003 The New market Square complex was built, incorporating the original entrance to the area.
21. No1 Landscape Terrace:
This is a mid-19th century range of houses. In September 1857 following the appointment of a new master, the Cloyne Church of Ireland Diocesan School reopened here.
However, the Diocesan School did not long stay there before moving to a new home at Annabella House soon after 1860.
22. Mallow Court House:
Mallow Court House was built in 1829 replacing an older Sessions House which stood in Gallows Hill Lane (now St. Joseph’s Rd.).
Designed by George and Richard Pain, its size, classically-inspired façade and stone construction give it an austere appearance, typical of courthouses of its era.
In 2003 a new entrance was constructed, using the former doorway to Lord Leitrim’s castle in Manor Vaughan near Milford in Co Donegal.
23. O’Connell Monster Meeting:
Daniel O’Connell organised a number of ‘Monster Meetings’ throughout Ireland to pressurize the British government to repeal the Act of Union.
Mallow was one of the places chosen. The meeting was held in the Fair Field on June 11, 1843, with estimates of the attendance varying anywhere from 250,000 to 400,000.
At a banquet held (in a hall which was situated where the present-day Lidl supermarket stands) to honour him that evening, he gave a rousing speech, which became known as ‘ The Mallow Defiance’.
24. Convent of Mercy Bathview:
The Convent was built between 1850 and 1879 to the designs of Robert Rolt Brash.
In the early 1850s the sisters moved to the earliest part of the Convent described as the “New Presbytery in 15th century style”.
It was gradually extended until 1879. The entire complex, dominated by a slated spire, is built of red sandstone and limestone dressings
25. Academy:
The Patrician Brothers came to Mallow in 1879 after the Christian Brothers left due to a dispute with the local parish priest. Originally the Patricians had only a national school, but later they opened a secondary school called The Academy.
In 1954 they built a new school, St. Patrick’s Boys’ National School, on what was originally part of the Fair Field. Due to falling vocations, the last Patrician Brother, Simeon Geraghty, left Mallow in 1994.
26. Seamus Murphy RHA:
Was born here July 15 1907, son of James and Margaret Murphy. His father was a train driver.
When he was four years of age, the family moved to Cork. He attended St Patrick’s National School, Dillons Cross, where one of his teachers was Daniel Corkery.
He became an apprentice stone-cutter with J.A. O’ Connell and Sons, Watercourse Road and on completion of a seven year apprenticeship, he was awarded the Gibson Bequest Scholarship which enabled him to study in Paris.
In 1933 he returned to Cork and set up his own workshop on the Watercourse Road. For the next forty years he sculpted monuments, statues, busts, lettered panels, but mostly headstones. His autobiography Stone Mad, was a bestseller in 1966.
Murphy died on 2 October, 1975, and was buried in Rathcooney Graveyard.
27. Fossett’s Circus:
George Lowe was born in Fair Street, Mallow. He emigrated to the United States where he joined the famous Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
His only daughter Mary married Edward Fossett, a member of the famous English Sir Robert Fossett’s Circus.
At the outbreak of World War 1 the circus changed its name to Edward Fossett and Sons. George Lowe died in the early 1940’s and is buried in Glenmore, Co. Kilkenny.
He is the great grandfather of Marion and Edward Fossett who manage the present-day Fossett’s Circus.
28. Zion Chapel:
The Chapel (later the Capital Cinema) was built in 1821 by the Congregational Church with the assistance of the Irish Evangelical Society.
A long serving minister, the Rev. C.B. Gibson MRIA was Secretary to the Mallow Famine Relief Committee.
He wrote a history of Cork City & County and a novel, ‘ The Last Earl of Desmond’.