Mitchelstown

Mitchelstown () is a town in County Cork, Ireland with a population of approximately 3,740. Mitchelstown is situated in the valley to the south of the Galtee Mountains, 12 km south-west of the Mitchelstown Caves, 28 km from Cahir, 50 km from Cork, 59 km from Limerick and 10 km from Fermoy. The River Gradoge runs by the town into the River Funshion, which in turn is a tributary of the River Blackwater.
The town is best known as a centre for cheese production. Mitchelstown is within the Cork East Dáil constituency.

Name

The name of Mitchelstown originates from the Anglo-Norman family called 'St Michel' who founded a settlement close to the site of the present town in the 13th century. The parish was originally known as 'Villa Michel'. The modern name comes from the Anglicized version of the later Irish derived ''Ballyvisteala'' or ''Ballymistealy''. A nearby earlier settlement was established in the townland of ''Brigown'' (), it was known by this name and had monastic origins being founded in the 7th century by Saint Fanahan (''Fionnchú'' "White Hound"), a warrior monk famed in medieval times for his fiery temper.

History

The town evolved from a huddle of cabins and lane-ways beside Mitchelstown Castle. Evidence would suggest that the castle was built first and that the village and town came later, probably in the late 13th or early 14th centuries. In the 1770s, the medieval town was replaced by the present town which is situated east and south of King Square. It was laid out in a grid pattern of two main streets intersected by a number of smaller streets. The medieval town was demolished, and the then owners of Mitchelstown — Robert, Viscount Kingsborough (later 2nd Earl of Kingston) and his wife Caroline — built a new palladian styled mansion to replace the earlier castle which had stood on the site. Mitchelstown is today regarded as one of the best planned Georgian towns in Ireland. Some of its streets are named after members of the King family, namely Robert, George, Edward, James, Thomas and King (the family name). The other streets of the Georgian town are Church Street, Baldwin Street, Alley Lane, Chapel Hill, Convent Hill, King Square, New Square and Mulberry Lane.

The layout established by the second and third Earls of Kingston between 1776 and 1830 utilised the natural features of the site to give panoramic views of the Galtee Mountains. This is best illustrated by how George Street was designed with Saint George's Arts and Heritage Centre (formerly Saint George's Church) closing the view on the southern end, and the northern view being terminated by Kingston College and Temple Hill on the Galtee Mountains. Mitchelstown Castle was rebuilt between 1823 and 1825 by the third Earl of Kingston. His new house was the biggest in Ireland. During the Irish Civil War in 1922 the castle was occupied by the Republican Army. During six weeks of occupation, its contents were looted and the building was burnt on 13 August 1922 — ostensibly to prevent it from being used by the Irish Free State Army. However, there is no evidence to support that claim. The real motive for the fire seems to have been an attempt to cover up the looting as well as an wanton destruction. The ashlar limestone of the house stood as a ruin until about 1930 when it was bought by the monks of Mount Melleray Abbey who used it to build their new monastery in County Waterford.

Mitchelstown massacre

Between 1879 and 1881, and again between 1886 and 1888, local tenantry, led by John Mandeville and William O'Brien, MP, organised a rent strike on the Mitchelstown Estate, then owned by Anna, Dowager Countess of Kingston and her second husband, William Downes Webber. On 9 September 1887, a protest was held later in the day in New Market Square outside the Market House where Mandeville and O'Brien were being tried. Neither man appeared in court. After the court ended, approximately 8,000 demonstrators paraded into New Square. As the speeches began from a wagon in the square, the police attempted to get an official police notetaker closer to the platform so that he could hear and record what was being said. Their motives were misunderstood, and they were held back by the crowd. They retreated, returning moments later with fifty reinforcements. This time, they fixed bayonets and used the butts of their rifles to hit horses that had been placed around the edge of the crowd to prevent their access to the wagon. In the melee that followed, hand-to-hand combat involving police being beaten with sticks and stones being thrown at them. The police retreated to their barracks, which was on a house that overlooked part of the square. As the last constable arrived at the barracks, he drew his revolver and fired a single shot into the air. This created confusion amongst the police inside the barracks, who by that time had been placed at the upstairs windows with carbine rifles. Several shots were fired into the crowd. Three men were killed and several more injured. The dead men were John Shinnick of Fermoy, John Casey of Kilbehenny and Michael Lonergan of Galbally, County Limerick. The incident generated considerable international attention and became known as the "Mitchelstown Massacre". The phrase "Remember Mitchelstown" (first coined by William Gladstone ) became a rallying cry for Irishmen at home and abroad. The memorial to Mandeville that stands in Market Square was unveiled in 1906 by William O'Brien MP. It also commemorates the names of the three men killed in 1887.

Economy

Streetscape in 1978.

Co-operative

Up to 1989, Mitchelstown was the headquarters for Mitchelstown Co-operative Agricultural Society Ltd, which for over fifty years had been Ireland's largest co-operative. This farmers co-op was founded in 1919. Between 1919 and 1989, Mitchelstown Co-op Creameries became the largest and most important dairy processing business in the island of Ireland. It became highly respected for its processed cheese brands but was better known in overseas dairy industry circles for the high quality and large variety of its natural cheeses which were extensively exported around Europe and for which it earned many international prizes.

In the 1930s the co-op promoted the introduction of intensive pig production in the Mitchelstown area as another source of farm income. A noted agriculturalist, Alexander Aloysius ("Sandy") McGuckian from Cloughmills, near Ballymena, County Antrim was engaged by the co-op to help train local people in modern intensive animal production methods. As a result, several of Ireland's largest industrial pig farms were based in the Mitchelstown area. McGuckians' sons (Alastair and Paddy) subsequently established Masstock International. Masstock became one of the pioneers of the establishment of a modern dairy industry in Saudi Arabia as a result of its minority shareholding (largely disposed of in 1991) in the Almarai Group, a joint venture with majority shareholder HH Prince Sultan Bin Mohamed Bin Saud Al Kabeer.

In 1989 Mitchelstown Co-operative merged with Ballyclough Co-operative