Qualla: Carrick-on-Suir

Carrick-on-Suir: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 2ManyCats4Me, CC0. The town sits on both sides of the river, joined by a stone bridge first thrown across in 1447. North of the water is Carrig Mór - the big rock. South of it is Carrig Beg - the small rock. Between them, the River Suir reaches its tidal limit here at Carrick, the place where the salt and the sweet finally meet. For a town its size, Carrick-on-Suir has produced an improbable share of the people who shaped modern Ireland: the first president of the GAA, the Clancy Brothers, an Olympic gold medallist, two cyclists who won the biggest races in the world, and a cardinal who took the same name as the cyclist - though no relation. The shadow of the Butlers, who ran this part of Tipperary for four hundred years, still stretches the length of Main Street.

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Image: 2ManyCats4Me | CC0

Carrick-on-Suir: Carrig Mac Griffin

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Christopher2010xxx, CC BY-SA 4.0. The town began as an island. The original settlement was called Carrig Mac Griffin, and a 1247 charter from the Crown to Matthew Fitzgriffin granted three annual fairs - the first hard record of a community here. The little rivers around the island were diverted in the 18th centu...

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Image: Christopher2010xxx | CC BY-SA 4.0

Carrick-on-Suir: Stones, Songs, and Massacres

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Typhoon, CC BY-SA 2.0. The same Earl Edmond raised two heavy castle keeps - the Plantagenet Castle - on the north bank just east of Main Street. In the 15th century a four-towered castle replaced them; two of those towers were eventually incorporated into Black Tom's Manor House. In 1583, Archbishop De...

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Image: Typhoon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Carrick-on-Suir: Wool, Tannery, Hard Times

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit kevin higgins, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1670 the Duke of Ormond set up a woollen industry in the town that grew through the 18th century. By 1799 Carrick's population had reached an extraordinary 11,000 people; it has never been that big since. That same year a river barge capsized near the bridge and around 91 peop...

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Image: kevin higgins | CC BY-SA 2.0

Carrick-on-Suir: Maurice Davin's Field

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nmwalsh, CC BY-SA 4.0. Carrick gave the GAA its first president. Maurice Davin, born just outside town, was the chairman who stood up at the 1884 founding meeting in Thurles and accepted the role; he led the association through its first three years and shaped much of its rulebook. The 1904 All-Ireland...

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Image: Nmwalsh | CC BY-SA 4.0

Carrick-on-Suir: The Cyclists, the Singers, the Bridge

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Graham Horn, CC BY-SA 2.0. Modern Carrick's deepest reputation may be in cycling. Sean Kelly - winner of the 1988 Vuelta a España, four Paris-Nice titles, a Milan-San Remo and a Liege-Bastogne-Liege - grew up on a farm just outside town and rode for the Carrick Wheelers club. Sam Bennett, a ten-time Grand ...

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Image: Graham Horn | CC BY-SA 2.0