Qualla: Sixmilebridge

Sixmilebridge: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Bogman assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5. The name is a translation problem. Six Irish miles from Limerick, said the traveller Thomas Dineley in 1681, and the bridge took its English name from that distance. An Irish mile was about two kilometres, so the original measurement comes out to twelve kilometres - close enough, but not what you would call a brand. Locals just say 'the Bridge.' The village sits on the Owen O'Garney River in County Clare, halfway between Ennis and Limerick, the kind of place where Bronze Age ringforts and a Bridge United football club share the same parish records.

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Bogman assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 2.5

Sixmilebridge: Cappagh, Ballyarilla, Sixmilebridge

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Clemensfranz, CC BY 2.5. Long before it was the Bridge, the west bank was Cappagh - an anglicising of an Irish word for cultivated field - and the east bank was Ballyarilla, named for a castle that stood there before Mount Ievers Court replaced it. The ancient name of the river was Raite, today anglicise...

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Image: Clemensfranz | CC BY 2.5

Sixmilebridge: The Duel

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the late seventeenth century Dutch settlers had recognised the O'Garney River as good milling water, and the village industrialised. That ended when Henry D'Esterre built a toll bridge across the river - good for his bank account, terrible for trade with Holland. The toll brid...

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Image: Wolfgang Sauber | CC BY-SA 4.0

Sixmilebridge: The Massacre at the Ballot

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Velela, Public domain. On 22 July 1852, eight soldiers of the 31st Regiment escorted eighteen tenants of the Marquess of Conyngham to Sixmilebridge to vote for Colonel Vandeleur, a Conservative candidate opposed to tenants' rights. A crowd gathered near the ballot office. Two Catholic priests were amon...

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Image: Velela | Public domain

Sixmilebridge: Hurling, Ducks, and a Reopened Line

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit C O'Flanagan, CC BY-SA 2.0. Sixmilebridge GAA was founded in 1904, initially for Gaelic football, but hurling is the game the village is now known for. On St Patrick's Day in 1996 the club became the first team from Clare to win the All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship - the kind of result that gets...

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Image: C O'Flanagan | CC BY-SA 2.0