Fethard Town Hall

Municipal building in Fethard, County Tipperary, Ireland

Fethard Town Hall

Halla an Bhaile Fiodh Ard

Fethard Town Hall

Fethard Town Hall

Location within Ireland

General information
Architectural style| Neoclassical style
Address| Main Street, Fethard
Country| Ireland
Coordinates| 52°27′58″N 7°41′42″W﻿ / ﻿52.4660°N 7.6951°W﻿ / 52.4660; -7.6951
Completed| c.1610

Fethard Town Hall (Irish: Halla an Bhaile Fiodh Ard) is a municipal building on Main Street in Fethard, County Tipperary, Ireland. It is currently used as a museum space and hosts the Fethard Horse Country Experience.

## History

[edit]

Following the granting of a new charter by King James VI and I in 1608, Fethard Corporation was directed to build "a tholsel (common hall) for assemblies". The main landowner, Sir John Everard, responded by laying out Main Street and commissioning almshouses for the poor people of the town.[1]

The new building was designed in the neoclassical style, built in rubble masonry and was completed in around 1610. The design involved a broadly symmetrical long main frontage with a central gable facing onto Main Street.[2] There were four doorways on the ground floor providing access to the individual almshouses and a series of cross-windows on the first floor.[3] The coats of arms of Sir John Everard and another local landowner, James Butler, 2nd/12th Baron Dunboyne, whose seat was at Kiltinan Castle, were fixed to the front of the building.[4]

By the mid-18th century, the building was no longer operating as a facility for the poor and an assembly room had been established on the first floor, which was used as a courtroom as well as a meeting place for the corporation.[5][6] The corporation was abolished under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 but the building was soon brought back into use by the town commissioners who were first appointed at that time.[7] The east end of the building was used as library from the late 19th century.[5] For most of the 20th century, the ground floor served as the local fire station, while the assembly room on the first floor was used as a community events venue, hosting dances and theatre performances.[8] Scenes from the film, Stella Days, starring Martin Sheen, were shot in the town hall in 2010.[9]

An extensive programme of refurbishment works, involving the replacement of the cement render on the front of the building as well as the conversion of the interior for museum use, was initiated in October 2014. The works, which cost €1.6 million, were financed by grants from the Department of Rural and Community Development, Fáilte Ireland and Tipperary County Council[10][11] as well as by a series of private donors including the owner of the Coolmore Stud, John Magnier, and the owner of the Watership Down Stud, Andrew Lloyd Webber. The building was officially re-opened by the Minister of State at the Department of Defence, Paul Kehoe, as the Fethard Horse Country Experience in May 2017.[12][13][14] Items in the collection include the skeleton of Sadler's Wells, a 14-time champion sire.[15]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Ball, Francis Elrington (1926). The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). London: John Murray. p. 227\. OCLC 832154869. "[Everard] obtained a charter for almshouses founded by him in Fethard in 1611."
2. ^ O'Keeffe, Tadhg (2003). "Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 13, Fethard" (PDF). Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. p. 4. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
3. ^ "Fethard Town Hall, Main Street, Fethard, County Tipperary". National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
4. ^ "Heritage Week 2017 Walking Tour of Medieval Sculpture and Folk Art in Fethard". Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland. 28 August 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
5. ^ a b "Adaptions over time". Fethard Town Hall. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
6. ^ Barclay, Katie (2018). Men on Trial Performing Emotion, Embodiment and Identity in Ireland, 1800–1845. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1526132949.
7. ^ "Fethard". Bassett's Directory. 1889. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
8. ^ "The building history". Fethard Horse Country Experience. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
9. ^ "Fethard and Killusty Newsletter" (PDF). 2010. p. 250\. ISSN 1393-2721.
10. ^ "17th century Tholsel set to be transformed into tourism hub". The Irish Examiner. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
11. ^ "Town Hall Renovations". Fethard.com. 23 February 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
12. ^ "First Look: Inside Ireland's new high-spec horse country museum". The Irish Independent. 31 May 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
13. ^ "Fethard Horse Country Experience". Melanie May. 17 January 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
14. ^ "New tourist attraction for Fethard". Tipp FM. 3 April 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
15. ^ "Fethard Horse Country Experience Museum Open". Thoroughbred Daily News. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2024.

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