County Limerick Maps

When there is a number following the townland name, it is only to distinguish it from other townlands with the same name.

Adare Town

Civil Parish: Adare
Diocese: Limerick
Barony: Coshma
Poor Law Union: Croom
Catholic Parish: Adare

As much as any town in Ireland, Adare, in the course of its remodeling, exemplified the power and vision of the landlord. For fully two centuries of the Maigueside village had languished in the shadow of its medieval ruins and in its broken, shrunken state the only houses to be enumerated at the beginning of the nineteenth century were those of James Connolly, cabinet maker; John Saxmyth, shoemaker; Phillip Mills, parish sexton; Matt Hannon, blacksmith; Charles Daly, tailor; Jack Hayes, butcher; Morgan Williams, linen weaver; George Dore, schoolmaster and publican; and Thomas Gleeson, publican. Soon afterwards there was an emphatic change of direction as the idea of creating anew town began to find tangible expression at the hands of the landlord, Windham Quin, 2nd earl of Dunraven...the new Adare as it came to evolve bore a striking resemblance to the full picturesque style that prevailed in contemporary England among landowners...growth and development subsequently proved to be a long drawn out process, and it related to the rate at which existing leases fell...ultimately, landlord inspired change dragged on into the present century under successive earls of Dunraven, but most of the architectural set pieces that bestow character to Adare in our own day had already been in place...in 1850. excerpts from Exploring Limerick's Past by Patrick J. O'Connor

 




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County Limerick Genealogy