Bansha (; ) is a village in County Tipperary in Ireland. The village is part of the parish of "Bansha and Kilmoyler" (united in 1858) in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. It is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam. Bansha is co-extensive with the pre-Reformation parish of Templeneiry of which the townland name of Templenahurney is thought to be a corruption. While the village is the focal point of the area, there is also an outlying hamlet in the parish, located at Rossadrehid where a rural creamery once serviced the dairy industry.
Location Bansha is located on the National Primary Route (N24) linking the cities of Limerick and Waterford and is eight kilometres south-east of Tipperary Town and thirteen kilometres north-west of Cahir. The village is strategically located on the eastern approaches to the Glen of Aherlow, which forms a large part of the parish as do the Galtee Mountains (spelt Galty Mountains on Ordnance Survey maps), which has the highest inland mountain peak in Ireland, Galtymore (917 metres, or 3,009 ft). The Roman Catholic Parish Church of the Annunciation, built in 1807, is centrally located in the village as is the Church of Ireland, for the parish of Templeneiry, known to be in use from 1718 but now closed as unviable because of a reduced local congregation. However, the building which has an imposing spire, erected in 1814, is used for community purposes and the surrounding graveyard is still used for burials by the old families of the area. Bansha is located in the Golden Vale and the surrounding land is some of the finest in Ireland due to its natural limestone bedrock. The River Ara flows by the village, through the Deer Park of the old Lismacue demesne. The railway line from Limerick to Waterford also passes through, though the railway station which opened on 1 May 1852, was closed on 9 September 1963 as part of the rationalisation policy of the national railway company, Córas Iompair Éireann. Tipperary railway station, around 8 km. away, is now the nearest railway station. Bansha is served by Bus Éireann route 55.
History The names Bansha and Kilmoyler do not appear ancient records but instead, this area was divided into different ecclesiastical administrations. The modern parish of Bansha & Kilmoyler comprises the whole of the two Civil Parishes of Templeneiry and Clonbullogue, and also parts of the four parishes of Killardry, Relickmurry & Athassel, Kilshane and Cordangan. The Papal Taxation records of 1291 record Templeneiry and Clonbullogue as Nachrich and Clonhalke, Archbishop O'Hedian (1437) names them as Naryt and Clonbolygg. Bansha village is thought to be an ancient settlement and its main geographical features and landed gentry of the surrounding area were vividly described by Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published in 1837. Historically, it was a small compact village comprising two streets and two lanes - Main Street and Barrack Street with adjacent Banner's Lane (named after the Rev. Benjamin Holford Banner, the Church of Ireland rector of the Parish of Templeneiry) and Cooke's Lane which was a small enclave off Main Street, named after a member of the Cooke Family of Cordangan Manor, who lived here.
The Station Road from Bansha Bridge (over the River Ara) to Bansha railway station had strategic importance for about a century as it was the commercial artery connecting the village to both the station and the creamery which was the centre of activity each morning as trains arrived on one side of the road and busy creamery activity on the other side gave a vibrancy that has now been lost with the closure of both. The village expanded towards the end of the 20th century when the "Galtee View" residential area was developed in the Glebe close to the old Village Mill.
Further expansion took place in the early 21st century when "Master Horgan's Field" adjacent to the northern boundary of the old graveyard was developed as a modern residential quarter. In earlier decades, the site was owned by Mr Peter Horgan, a native of Kilmichael, County Cork, a place which won fame as the site of the famous ambush of the same name which took place there during the War of Independence, a fact of which the old master was very proud. Mr Horgan was the long-time Principal of Bansha Boys National School in succession to Masters Pat Leahy and David Dee and also managed his own public house in Barrack Street. He also grew his own sallies on the river bank within the confines of his riverside garden, now sadly no more. These sallies made an occasional appearance in class and were an effective deterrent to wayward pupils. Nonetheless, he was a much-loved character, reminiscent of Oliver Goldsmith's "Village Schoolmaster". The only buildings on the site prior to development were the village telephone exchange erected in the 1960s and the "Farmers Hall", a wooden building of fragile construction, which was erected in the mid 20th century by the young farmers association in the parish which was a precursor of Macra na Feirme. It was used for dancing, variety shows, "pongo" which was a form of modern-day bingo and on Sunday afternoons up to about 1962, as a rendezvous by locals who wished to tune into the commentary of major hurling and football matches relayed from Croke Park on Radio Éireann. The building endured until the 1960s when because of dilapidation, it was eventually closed, after which the Parochial Hall became the sole entertainment centre for the village and surrounding area.
Muintir na Tíre Bansha came to national prominence when The V. Rev. John Canon Hayes, founder of Muintir na Tíre, was appointed parish priest of Bansha & Kilmoyler in 1946. Due largely to Canon Hayes's endeavours, a factory - Bansha Rural Industries - was started and enjoyed some success producing preservatives for the Irish home market. At that time also, Bansha was to the forefront in developing many Muintir na Tíre initiatives and for a time in the 1950s enjoyed the sobriquet of The Model Parish. While Bansha still relies mainly on an agricultural economy where dairying is the main preoccupation, many of its residents are employed in industry and commerce in neighbouring towns such as Tipperary, Cahir, and Clonmel, to where they commute on a daily basis. He was succeeded as chairman of Muintir na Tire by local man very Rev. Maurice Morrissey of Dromline.
Parliamentary tradition Despite its small size, two Bansha natives have represented County Tipperary in different parliaments. John Cullinan, a member of the National League and a Gaelic Athletic Association activist in its earliest years, was a Nationalist Member of Parliament at Westminster from 1900 until he was defeated at the election of 1918 when Sinn Féin ousted the Irish Parliamentary Party in most constituencies.
Michael Ferris was a TD in Dáil Éireann from 1989 until his death on parliamentary business in Lisbon on 20 March 2000 at the age of 69. Overall, he had over twenty years of service in the Oireachtas (parliament), having been elected to Seanad Éireann for the first time on 23 April 1975. He was a member of the Labour Party and a prominent spokesman on agricultural matters and social affairs. As a public representative, he was following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Patrick Ferris, who was a member of the Tipperary (SR) County Council in the early years of the 20th century.
Séamus Ryan, a native of Deerpark, in nearby Kilfeacle, was a member of the Irish Senate—Seanad Éireann— before his death in 1933. Mr. Ryan and his wife, Agnes Harding of Solohead opened their first retail shop in Parnell Street, Dublin in 1918, known as the Monument Creamery. They specialised in the sale of dairy products and quickly developed their business to include a chain of over thirty restaurants and shops in Dublin over the next four decades. After Mr. Ryan's death, his widow carried on and indeed expanded the business. Their daughter was the Hollywood actress, Kathleen Ryan who starred in many movies in the 1940s and 1950s and their son John was an artist and man of letters who wrote a famous memoir of bohemian Dublin in the 1950s— Remembering How we Stood.
Darby Ryan Diarmuid Ó Ríain (Darby Ryan) was born at Ashgrove, Bansha, in 1777 and was a poet and patriot. His compositions include The Peeler and the Goat, a ballad or satire which was popularly sung across Ireland and was taken worldwide by emigrants. Copies of his Tipperary Minstrelsy are to be found in the British Museum and at the Royal Irish Academy. Ryan died in 1855 and is buried in the old graveyard in Bansha.
Sir William and Lady Butler Lieutenant-General The Rt Hon. Sir William Francis Butler, GCB, PC (31 October 1838 – 7 June 1910), a soldier, a writer, and an adventurer, lived in retirement at Bansha Castle from 1905 until his death in 1910. Sir William was born a few miles distant at 'Suirville', Ballyslatteen. He took part in many colonial campaigns in Canada and India, but mainly in Africa, including the Ashanti wars and the Zulu War under General Sir Garnet Wolseley. He was made commander-in-chief of the British Army in South Africa in 1898, where he was also High Commissioner for a short period. His views on colonialism were often controversial as he was sympathetic to the natives in many of the outposts of the British Empire in which he served. His wife, the famous battle artist, Elizabeth Thompson (1846–1933), known as Lady Butler, continued to live at the castle until 1922 when she went to live at Gormanston Castle, County Meath, with their youngest daughter, Eileen, who became Viscountess Gormanston (1883–1964) in 1911 on her marriage to the 15th Viscount Gormanston (1878–1925), the Premier Viscount of Ireland. Lady Butler died in 1933 in her 87th year and is buried at Stamullen Graveyard in County Meath, just up the road from Gormanston. Among her many famous paintings is The Roll Call depicting a scene in the Crimean War. This painting was bought by Queen Victoria and forms part of the Royal Collection and is now in Buckingham Palace. Her daughter Eileen suffered a great loss during the Second World War when two of her three sons, William, 16th Lord Gormanston, and Stephen were killed in action at Dunkirk (1940) and Anzio (1944) respectively. Both boys, together with their brother Robert and sister Antoinette, spent many childhood days at Bansha Castle where they were once marooned during the Irish Civil War when Bansha and the surrounding area was the cockpit for fighting between the Free State forces and the local Republicans. Descendants of Sir William and Lady Elizabeth include their great-grandson, the 17th Viscount Gormanston, who lives in London.
McCarthy family of Springhouse The MacCarthy Reagh family of Carbery in West Cork were aristocrats of the old Gaelic order, Princes of the medieval Barony of Carbery. Since early in the 15th century, they had their principal seat at Kilbrittain Castle, near Kinsale. Denis McCarthy Reagh settled at Springhouse, near Bansha in the late 17th century where he built a mansion and had an estate of , which in its day was considered to be the largest cultivated farm in Europe. Owing to the severity of the Penal Laws, his grandson, also named Denis went into exile in France where he died at Argenton, Berry in 1761. Justin McCarthy (1744–1811), son of the exiled Denis, realised his father's property and settled at Toulouse. He was an accomplished linguist and classical scholar. He cultivated the fine arts and possessed one of the finest libraries in France, rivalling the King's collection at Paris. He and his family resided in splendour at their palatial townhouse at 3, Rue Mage in the city of Toulouse.