Rathkeale History and Heritage

05/06/2026

Any names

04/06/2026

Philip Roche died on this day 4 June 1797, "one of the most extensive merchants in the kingdom". He was responsible for the er****on of the Granary building on what is now Michael Street.

04/06/2026

Can anybody help Michael?

04/06/2026

03/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Fs1W2ZGbE/?mibextid=wwXIfr

We are opening for the 2026 Season starting next Friday 5th June. We will be open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the months of June, July and August from 10.00am to 1.00pm. Arrangements to see the exhibition outside of these hours can be made by emailing [email protected] LiKe Bikes Glin Historical Society Bloomers Restaurant & Delicatessen Rathkeale Askeaton Tourist Office-Civic Trust-Genealogy Centre Askeaton Contemporary Arts Ontario Ancestors - The Ontario Genealogical Society Adare Ballingrane Christchurch Methodist Circuit Limerick Greenway Abbeyfeale Irish Heritage News Newcastle West - Olden Times Cappagh community news Church Street National School St Joseph's BNS, Rathkeale St Anne's National School & Scoil Bhanríon na hEagna Reunion Group Coláiste na Trócaire, Rathkeale

01/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17gHTuBKXo/?mibextid=wwXIfr

At one point in Irish history it was illegal to be Catholic, speak Irish, own land, attend school, hold public office, or carry a sword.
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The Penal Laws introduced by the British government between 1695 and 1728 were among the most comprehensive attempts to dismantle a culture through legislation ever devised. They targeted every pillar of Irish Catholic life simultaneously — religion, education, property, language, and political participation.

Catholic priests were banned. Those who continued to minister did so in secret, using flat rocks in remote fields as altars — the Mass rocks that still survive across the Irish countryside today.

Education was outlawed for Catholic children. The response was the hedge school — secret outdoor classrooms where teachers risked imprisonment to keep Irish children learning.

Irish Catholics could not vote, sit in parliament, serve as lawyers or judges, or purchase land from a Protestant.

The laws were designed to make an entire people invisible within their own country.

They created instead the most stubbornly literate, culturally resilient, and politically determined population in Europe.
Did you know the full extent of the Penal Laws? 👇

01/06/2026

Can anybody help Janet?