Churchtown's History

KANTURK BRIDGE AND CHURCHTOWN

By Jim McCarthy

Returning again to the Windmill I must give a mention here to the quarry in this townland. When Sir Edward Tierney rebuilt the village of Churchtown 1825-1846 the stones for the greater part of the building came from the Windmill Quarry. This stone can be seen in the walls of the parish church 1839. The Market House in 1845 and the old school 1846. In the year 1780 by order of the Earl of Egmont, seven men from Churchtown, with seven horses and carts, carried the stones from the Windmill quarry all the way to Kanturk for the building of the great bridge over the river Allo from O'Brien St to Church St.

The following poem is chisled on the parapet of the bridge as if the stone is telling its story to the passerby.

THE POEM

From my womb at Windmill hill
Great Egmonts order to fulfill
Was brought by seven of my race
His Lordship honoured town to grace
See Kanturk Castle and Fermoyle
Retreats of Percival and Boyle
Illustrious in their countrys cause
And guardians of its rights and laws
Secure from surly wind and rain
The gentle nymph and amorous swain
May here their gentle vows repeat
Which I shall surely ne'er relate
See Dalua Roll its floods along
And Allua famed in Spencers song
Where lordly swans in wanton pride
Expand their plumes to stem the tide
Hence Bluepools waving graves delight
Amaze the fancy, please the sight
And give such joy as may arise
From Sylvan scenes and azue skies
The weary here in safe repose
Forgetting lifes attendant woes
May sit secure, serene and still
And view with joy for famed hill

I have often wondered how many times those seven men and their seven horses travelled the road from the Windmill Quarry in Churchtown, to and from Kanturk, more than two hundred years ago. It would be a great puzzle to figure out how many horseloads of stones it took to build that great humped backed bridge in the centre of the town of Kanturk.

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