Smoke along the Valley Floor

Tallow, County Waterford Smoke along the Valley Floor

- A Look At 17th Century Iron Mining In The Tallow Area In Co. Waterford.

BY BILL DALY

This 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. 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 the Blackwater Valley, and Tallow in particular, during this period was the most important area of iron production in Ireland. How times have changed. 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. 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,

LisfinnyCastle Tallow Co.Waterford

the language, religion, Brehon Laws, customs, folklore, and other aspects of a strong heritage which had flourished from early stone age beginnings. It was the start of the exploitation of land and people, the replacement of the old Irish Gaelic system by a colonial one. Because of differences in attitude and outlook a dangerous tension and conflict developed between the native and the outsider, a struggle that was to continue, until quite recently, in the northern part of our country. Once the colonial phase had established itself properly, the most adventurous among them set up iron mining and production centres at various locations throughout the country. These, at first, were to become thriving and prosperous industries but at a later date, were to decline quite rapidly. Ireland was not suited to commercial enterprises as very few roads and communications existed by which the heavy iron-ore could be transported from one centre to the other. The fact that there were little or no routeways was, in some ways, counteracted by the abundance of natural woodland, which was the primary fuel used in the charcoal furnaces. In many areas the woods were looked upon in a military sense as they were the hiding places of the Gaelic Irish. A large amount of wood became available when the trees were felled so as to make room for troop movements and also to deprive the Irish rebels of their places of refuge. In fact, the iron industry was strongly encouraged to minimise the hiding places of those who would not conform to

Tallow Co. Waterford. the colonial system. As opposed to the iron industry in England, which was concentrated in a few localities, the Irish centres appeared in scattering locations at different times, with each prospering and then fading away independently of each other. In general, the Irish iron industry coincided with the start of the English colonial period in Ireland and saw the embedding of industrial and commercial practices on a people who knew very little except the practice of farming and the art of fighting. It also witnessed the bringing in of artisans and craftsmen to

A view of the harbour of Dungarvan, in County Waterford.

operate the furnaces and processors and there was also a deliberate policy of not allowing Irish people to become involved at the highest level. The old name of ‘Tulach an Iarainn’ suggests the ores had been mined there many centuries before invasion forces sailed up the Blackwater and Bride. Richard Boyle, the Earl of Cork, was responsible for the transformation of the Blackwater Valley from a wasteland to one of the greatest centres of iron production in Europe. He was only interested in making money, and he could possibly be considered as the very first Capitalist of all time. He established furnaces at Araglin, Cappoquin and Macollop and forges at Lisfinny and Kilmacow. As well as having abundant supplies of local ore and charcoal, Tallow had the advantage of water transport via the Bride and Blackwater to Youghal, where export links were set up at Drogheda and Sligo as well as Bristol, in England. Boyle produced mainly bar-iron for export and it is recorded that he made a profit of £100,000 from the ironworks at Tallow. His biographer, Dorothea Townshend, records that in 7 years he made 21,000 tons of bar-iron which, at £18 per ton, brought him the enormous sum of £378,000. The type of ore found at Tallow was called rock-mine, this is dark and rusty in colour, the seam was generally 2 to 3 feet in depth with the topsoil being as fertile as any other. Tallow knives became quite famous during this time, on a par with Sheffield in England, and Boyle gave a present of a set to Lady Carew who was a courtier and a ‘good friend‘ of King Henry VIII. In reality, Irish iron manufacture in the early 17th century was a very short-term process. The destruction of the woodlands for charcoal and other uses showed a shameful disregard for the future with very little insight or planning involved. The countryside was violated for a short-term investment and the towns associated with iron working allowed to decline, due to lack of planning and absolute non-respect for the country into which these new arrivals had come to settle. The future of our country, as it was in the 17th century, should not always be through foreign direct investment where decisions affecting us are made in the boardrooms of Los Angeles, New York and London, but on small scale ventures, manned by Irish people, who have an allegiance to their local area and to the country as a whole. If it is possible at this stage we must seek to decrease our dependence on the multinationals and strive to rekindle a greater confidence in ourselves which was so shamefully suppressed for the greater part of our historical past. Seán Lemass and Ken Whittaker gave us a great push in the late 1950’s and set us on our way. We have been whistling a good tune for many years, but we now need to take over the orchestra and start composing our own music.

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