Longfordpass

(Dr. Willie Nolan)

The pre-Norman parish of Longfordpass was under the control of the O'Briens of Thomond.  Durrihy church in the area, may have been included in the grant of land given to the Cistercians, (of Kilcooly), by Donal Mor O'Brien, under the name of Kildarchy.  In the summer of 1174 reinforcements for Strongbow's army at Cashel marched through Tubbrid-Britain above Kilcooley and on through Longfordpass before being ambushed and defeated out-side Thurles by the same Donal Mor O'Brien.

A deed dated September 1199 granted Elyas FitzNorman the vill (a small town) of 'Adlongpost', (translated by Fr. Skehan as Longfordpass), and "having settled their allotments the Normans proceeded to open communications through the country".  

 The strategic importance of Longfordpass in the middle ages was due to the fact that this was one of the few places that one could cross the Bog of Allen.  Longfordpass or the "Tuogher" and the pass of Compsey near Mullinahone were the two main routes of communications between Munster and Leinster.  Longfordpass was guarded by the castle of Longfordpass, owned by Elyas Fitznorman. 

 In the Longfordpass North townsland, there is a very rare example of a medieval settlement site.  These sites were made up of houses and craft workshops attached along a street or around a green, often with lanes leading to the fields around.  The remains consist of low rectangular banks and mounds that could be seen between the old barracks and Durrihy church. The site was listed as a national monument on the 16th July 1982.  There's also a moated site just south of the barracks, this is a rectangular earthwork with an area of 612 metres square.  The moated site was an early nor- man farmstead whose function was to provide protection for a family and animals from thieves and wolves.

 There is also evidence of people living here from early Christian times.  A spade like wooden implement thought to be the still and share of an early plough or ard and a hone (for sharpening blades) were found in the bog in the townsland, both are thought to date to approximately 400A.D.  Bord na Mona uncovered two wooden roads, (or toghers), in Longfordpass North. during the 1960s  Timber from the roads were not dated but other such Irish roads have been dated to two distinct periods, 1640 plus-or-minus 170 years B.C. and 780 plus-or-minus 80 years A.D.  The two roads seem to have connected the high ground in Leigh townsland., where the Laithmore churches ruins are situated, to the high ground in Longfordpass South.  Another road seems to have joined Leigh and Bawnreigh, across the bog.  Two medieval leather shoes and a firkin of butter were also found in the bog in Longfordpass North.

 The Cromwellians also fortified the pass when they came in the seventeenth century.  A massive, double ring earthwork fort, designed to absorb artillery fire which for the first time was becoming common on the battlefield.  It was built just behind Thomas Hayden's house, it encloses an area of approximately 9000metres square.  The Civil Survey of 1654 has a description of the fort, which then was in Kilcooley parish, "there is lately erected upon the said lands a strong fort by the name Fort Ireton".  Ireton was a leading general in Cromwell's army. Local legend believed that some of Ireton's officers billeted in the ruined buildings around Durrihy church.

 The pass has economic importance as well as military importance.  In 1662 the inhabitants of Tipperary made a petition to the Duke of Ormond, Longfordpass "being a cuaseway of a mile long and the only road for many parts of Munster, it's eaten away and destroyed by the waters and must be newly made". The road was estimated to cost £600 to repair, the petitioners believed the amount was far too large for Tipperary alone to raise and as the people of Clare, Limerick, Kilkenny, King's and Queen's counties, (i.e. Offaly and Laois) benefit they should be expected to contribute.  

 In more recent times the townsland was the scene of a battle during the Civil War of the early 1920s.  Urlingford barracks was captured by anti-treaty forces in July of 1922.  When the news reached Thurles a party of pro-treaty soldiers under the command of Vice-brigadier Small were dispatched to the district.  They ran into a unit of anti-treaty forces near Richie Fogarty's house (12) and a fight that lasted an hour broke out.  The rebels withdrew leaving three dead and several wounded as well as a number of prisoners they had captured with the barracks.