The family residence of Mr. Blackburne is at Tankardstown and formerly had a farm of a 1000 acres attached. A few year's ago nearly 400 acres were sold to the Land Commission so that now there are about 600 acres attached to the residence.
The Blackburne family did not always own Tankardstown. Formerly this land belong to a man named Tankard and that is how it be came to be known as Tankardstown. This man Tankard ruined himself by making an artificial lake opposite his residence on which he could sail boats. This lake lately dissappeared and its site is still called "The Lough meadow".
Later when Tankardstown was put up for sale, Mr. Morris of Mullagha employed an eminent lawyer of the time to purchase it for him. This lawyer's name was Blackburne. At the sale Lawyer Blackburne purchased Tankardstown but when Mr. Morris came to him to settle matters Mr. Blackburne told him that he had

Local Roads
1. Eoin Bermingham
2. Tankardstown, Kilmallock.
3. η 15 years.
4. Schoolboy
5. Tankardstown, Tankardstown.
6. Richard Bermingham
7. Tankardstown, Kilmallock.
8. 10 months ago.
9. 58 years.
10. February 25th, 1938.

Local Roads
1. Eoin Bermingham
2. Tankardstown, Kilmallock.
3. 15 years.
4. Schoolboy
5. Tankardstown, Tankardstown.
6. Richard Bermingham
7. Tankardstown, Kilmallock.
8. 11 months ago.
9. 58 years.
10. March 22nd, 1938.

Aggie Reilly, Tankardstown, SlaneThe material of this composition was got from Alexander Reilly, age 53, Tankardstown, Slane.

are all bye roads. They are always kept in good condition by the County Council as there is great Traffic on them by the creamery boys going to the creamery every morning. I don't know who was the first to make those roads, but the old people say it was the County Council.The Tankardstown road is supposed to be one of the worst kept roads in the County of Limerick. There is nothing but holes on the road. It is very dangerous for people travelling on bicycles. The Tankardstown road goes by the name of the low "Low Road".

or on horseback.The Tankardstown road continues until it meets a cross called Shea's cross. A road branches off there which is the main road to the village of Bruree. The Tankardstown road then proceeds westwards for about two miles. It then meets another cross and forms three roads. One road leads to Bruree, the other leads to Kilmallock and the other leads to the hill of Knocksoun [?] which is about three miles west of Kilmallock. In olden days a great festival used be held on the top of this hill on the first week of November.Those roads which I have mentioned

Tankardstown Cave
Tankardstown lies between Kells + Navan where Hickeys Publichouse now stands.
There is a cave in this district in which a man was lost. The cave had never been explored + a travelling fiddler undertook to do so. He arranged to go in and play his fiddle as he followed the tunnel + the local boys by remaining overhead would hear the music + would thus be able to follow the course of the cave + see to where it lead. For a considerable distance they were guided by the music. They said that the cave took a very zigzag course but still seemed to head for the Blackwater. Suddenly the music stopped + the watchers waited for a while waiting for it to recommence, but it never did. The fiddler was lost and those outside ran away with fear. They say that travellers passing by the spot at night were often startled by the music of the fiddle coming from the cave.

In writing about the local roads we will start at Rathkenny Church because here there is a four-crossroads.
From here one road runs south-east and east through the townland of Lacken and Horistown and on to Tankardstown Cross, straight to the four-crossroads of Sally Gardens. Here is crosses the Dublin Carrickmacross road and straight on to Grangegeeth, Tullyallen and Drogheda. Turn to the right at Tankardstown Cross and the road brings you past College Hill to Gernonstown. At Harbinstown Bridge it meets to the Dublin- Carrickmoss road and a hundred yards further on at Bolton's Cross it meets the Drogheda-Kells road. Go straight on to the Castle of Slane turn to the left an through the village of Slane to Rossin and you meet the Boyne at the bottom of Marron's Hill. Now we are in the historic "Valley of the Boyne"

bought Tankardstown cheap enough and that he would keep it for himself. This is how the Blackburn family got possession of Tankardstown a very long time ago. One member of this family came to be Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The Blackburne family also had a big castle at Footstown in Lobinstown Parish near Ardee and this is how they came to own it. When Cromwell drove the Irish to "Hell or to Connaught" he allotted large portion's of land to his officers and soldiers as payment for their services in the conquest of Ireland. One soldier was alloted this portion of land at Footstown. He travelled along the road from Drogheda to Slane to see his newly acquired property. When he came near Footstown he met a man on the road and again asked his way; this man that he met was a Mr. Blackburne, who got from the soldier the whole story of his new property. He told the soldier he knew of the farm well and that it was all swamp and that it was so bad it would not feed snipes. When the soldier heard this he was in despair for he was footsore, weary and hungry. He was also among strangers and had not a penny in his pocket to buy food. Mr. Blackburne offered to buy the farm and the soldier agreed to sell it.

Mr. Thomas Drake Oldcastletown Kildorrery Co. Cork kicked a football from Oldcastletown to Tankardstown, jumping over ditches and hedges without letting the ball hop once. There used to be no referee in olden times and the players wore only their shirts and pants. The goal spaces were marked with furze

in Kirby's of Tankardstown. Droicheadín,
A small bridge near Tankardstown cross.Crocha
Crocha is a little mound behind Kilmallock Catholic church where Bishop O'Healy and Fr. O'Rourke were hanged long ago.

There was a hedge school at the corner of the field west of our house in Tankardstown. A stump of a sally marks the site. The teacher was a Mrs. McCarthy who lived where our house is. A Carpenters spelling book was the chief lesson book.

O top of Dromin hill is a mass of ruins, paved paths, yards etc. It is known as Cathair. Castle existed in Hogan's Farm Tankardstown and Condon's farm Ballygibba.

Local RoadsI live in Tankardstown in the parish of Kilmallock and in the County of Limerick.A road passes my house. This road begins at the Catholic Church Kilmallock. About two hundred yards north of the Church on the Tankardstown road lies a very ancient old bridge.In olden days Kilmallock was surrounded by walls and at this bridge was a gate that led into the town of Kilmallock.Before ever bridges were made the people in the olden days had a very poor accomodation for crossing rivers. The only means by which they could get across was on stepping stones

Local Forges
In this district there is only one forge but some time ago there were two. the present one is situated at Kilmoyler Cross and is owned by Mr. John Clery of Ballydrehid. The other forge which was situated at Tankardstown Creamery and was owned by Mr. Patrick D'arcy of Tankardstown is now in ruins.
Patrick D'arcy was the seventh generation of the D'arcy family black smiths and he had a cure for a disease of the kidneys in men. He usually shod horses and asses and he mended ploughs, harrows and other farm implements. Some of the work was down in the open air such as landing wheels.
The D'arcy blacksmiths were always looked upon as being very strong and hasty of temper. The forge was always a centre for story telling and the boys around gathered there every evening. There was only one fireplace in the forge and the bellows were made of leather.
Written by: Malachy Brett, Cappagh, Cahir, Co. Tipperary
Told by: Mr Thomas Brett (60)

just as he reached the window one of the dogs bit his leg. However, he got into the house and escaped the dogs. The farmer came up after a time and went into the house and saw the garsoon's grandmother nursing a bleeding leg but no hare was in sight.
On his missionary journey south St Patrick spent a night in Cooleen now called Howardstown and passed on by Tankardstown towards Ardpatrick.

Long ago there was a terrible battle fought in this locality. Everyone in the district has some slight knowledge of its happening though there is no knowledge of the exact date of its happening or of the contesting parties. One version is that English and a party of foreign soldiers came south from Limerick and clashed with Irish - who seemed also to have foreign aid - on the country surrounding the river Leubach. The battle raged around Knocksouna and the fight continued in a circuitous way towards Kilmallock. For over thirty years skeletons remained over ground. There is a field in Ballgibba known as the "High Field" which is said to have been a battle field though it is not stated was it in the same battle or not. The double ditch bounding the "High Field" was being knocked until it was found to have been full of human bones. A complete skeleton was found in Tankardstown quarry as well as other human bones in the vicinity. One man told

One Summer's evening a man named John Walsh was sitting down on the side of the road near a saw-pit which he used when carpentring. All of a sudden he heard a loud rumbling noise coming from the north along the Blogher road towards Ballygibba cross which was a few hundred yards north of him. At the cross it turned east and continued along the Kilmallock road till he judged it had reached garrynoe cross. Here it turned south west along the groe road, and so on to Tankardstown cross where it turned north in the direction of Ballygibba cross again. Between the two crosses lay John Walsh wondering what was coming. As it drew near twas like a "sidhe gaoithe", just a quick rumbling noise with nothing coming to cause it. As the noise reached him something like a plough got under him and turned him around into the ditch. He got such a fright that he ran

Long ago during the time of the Famine a great number of people who were mostly stangers died around Bruree, and were buried inside the churchyard walls where their graves can still be traced. At this time Ryans' mills were in "full swing" and the starving people used come long distances to get fistfuls of corn from the passing cars on the way to the mills. Every day numbers of them were found dead by the sides of the ditches, for example Leahy's Corner in Clogher where a number of strong men were found starved to death against the ditch. The workhouse in Kilmallock was overcrowded and when no more could be possibly buried in the workhouse graveyard - known as Bully's Acre, the dead were piled into common cars and sent to Tankardstown churchyard where they were heeled off the car into big pits. This church-yard soon got filled and the bodies were often left unburied. On numerous occasions the cattle in the fields around got in to the churchyard and the destruction wrought by them

On the road leading from Kilmallock to Tankardstown, which is two and a half miles west of Kilmallock, stands a very ancient moat.
[farm hous]
Near by stands Michael Slattery's farm house. It is said that fairies were seen in in this moat in olden times.Every night a man named Martin Macarthy went home late with messages to Tankardstown.One night he was passing by the moat and two big men with big battons rushed out and haunted him. They asked him where was he going to. He said that he was going home, of course. They said it was no time in the night to go home.They beat him with the battons and put blood flowing from his body.He had therefore to return back again and get a nights lodging at Bridget O Sullivan's,
Sheares St,
Kilmallock.From that night until this Martin Macarthy was no seen out late a night.