MATT FOGARTY, AGE 73, DROMINAGH (Part 2)

At Drominagh I met Matt Fogarty at his ancestral home, which he reminded me was a shooting lodge which his grandfather had bought for £1200 in the middle of the 19th century. His grandfather came from Kilcolman, and his father before him came from Castle Fogarty, close to Thurles. Matt’s knowledge of local history was most impressive, and he spoke about the landed gentry who lived around the shores of Lough Derg, and about the intense growing of crops. The threshing carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries kept the local mills in business and Matt informed me that his own father had been Chairman of North Tipperary County Council for 22 years. This ended a wonderful recording of the history of the area.