Tallow, County Waterford
Smoke along the Valley Floor - A Look At 17th Century Iron Mining In The Tallow Area In Co. Waterford.
T
BY BILL DALY
his article will transport us back over 400 years to another period when the Tallow region in West Waterford which we are familiar with today was different in its physical appearance and involved in industries that have declined and long since disappeared over time. It is the all too familiar story of how an area can change in time from being productive and prosperous, to take on the appearance of a 19th century ‘ghost town’ in a short space of time. We are recalling a period that been largely neglected in an historical sense, and the following article will be an attempt to re-create the land and people during a very important phase in the history of our local area.
the Blackwater Valley, and Tallow in particular, during this period was the most important area of iron production in Ireland. How times have changed.
Before concentrating on the industry in the Blackwater Valley I will endeavour to set the scene by describing Ireland as it looked then, with a brief sketch of the iron industry on a national scale. It is worth bearing in mind that
It was into this Ireland that the first English colonists came to settle and who, in a relatively short space of time, would have the vast majority of the country under their control. It witnessed the decline of the Gaelic Irish,
Ireland, at the start of the 1600’s, was a country of great poverty and want and in need of outside help to feed its population. The Elizabethan wars had torn the heart and spirit from the people as well as causing the destruction of industry and the virtual collapse of agriculture. It was a country without an industrial or agricultural base, a nation faced with total disaster, and the future seemed pretty bleak indeed.
LisfinnyCastle Tallow Co.Waterford
THE IRISH SCENE | 27
