History of Carloviana

 

"Carloviana" first appeared in January 1947 and the issues for 1948 and 1949 were also published in January of the year. No issue appeared in 1950 - of which more anon -and the issue for 1951 did not appear until November 1951.

These four issues were published in the small academic A3  size and each ran to 48 pages. The page numbers in each issue ran sequentially as follows:

1947 pages 1 to 48
1948 pages 49 to 96
1949 pages 97 to 144
1950 pages 145 to 192


The print run for 1947 was 400 and was reported by Rev. PJ. Brophy, the editor, as being "entirely adequate to demand."

Each issue carried an average of six or seven articles all of which were based on lectures given to the society in their winter series. The issue of 1951 contains a list of the winter lectures which had been given by that date and all can be identified with articles published in the years 1947 - 1951. In fact, other than the reprint of old almanac material no article was published which had not been the subject of a lecture.

The issue of 1947 carried advertisements - some ten pages were given over to them - which were taken out by eleven businesses,  all of which operated in Carlow town. Subsequent issues of 1948, 1949 and 1951, however, carried no advertisements.

The sale price of the journals of 1947 and 1949 were printed as 1/- each. No price was given for the 1948 issue but presumably it sold at the same figure. However when the journal for 1951 appeared there was a massive increase in the sale price. It went up by 250% to 2/6.

Despite Rev. PJ. Brophy's initially encouraging remarks it appears that Carloviana was not a financial success. No journal appeared in 1950 and the reason was made very clear when T.P. Walsh wrote in his editorial in 1951 that "financial worry has caused the society to withhold this volume of Carloviana over the past two years." No doubt it was this financial worry which pushed the society to increase the price to 2/6. This price hike may not have cured the Society's financial worries as the journal was completely revamped for it's 1952 issue.


1952

The Carloviana which appeared in 1952 represented a radical departure from what had gone before in every area of its presentation - its appearance, content, and most significantly of all price. This went back to the 1/- of 1947.

This departure was deliberate and was emphasised by the designation of the issue of 1952 as New Series Issue 1.

There were two reasons given for the change - one philosophical and on financial. The new joint editors Liam D Bergin and Aidan Murray referred to both in their first editorial entitled "The reason why."

"Our greatest test is to obtain a view of the social life of the year gone by and to link up the information about the origins of life in this district with the developments that are taken for granted by these who made the history of our own time.

In compiling this magazine in a new format we are attempting to include a picture of the present and the recent past which will not only interest those around us but also provide material for the historians of tomorrow.

We want to make this journal a financial success. We have provided our advertisers with a medium which we can justifiably claim, has more than a passing value."

In appearance the journal was very different from it's predecessors. Gone was the academic sized A3 publication with its unchanging cover bearing the arms of Carlow, to be replaced by the magazine size we are more familiar with. The arms logo was replaced with a cover photograph of Carlow Cathedral, taken from the grounds of St. Patrick's  College.

In content the most immediately noticeable difference was that advertising was back - out of thirty four pages in the journal twelve were devoted to advertisements -  from forty one business in and around Carlow town. In fact the only business to advertise which was not located in the town was Rathcrogue Guest House.

The number of articles also increased - to eleven - and several photographs were included. The influence of the newspaper editor, Liam D. Bergin, is also seen in the reprints from Carlow newspapers of the 19th century. New contributions like John Monahan appear as does Carloviana's first book review. This was a review of "Carlow in '98", the autobiography of William Farrell of Carlow, edited by Roger McHugh.

In setting the price at the old level of 1/- the editors were no doubt assisted by the revenue which the new advertising brought in. In fact the society was able to maintain the price at which the journal sold at this level for the next twelve years before raising it to 2/- in 1965.

The re launch succeeded and the editors were able to report in their editorial of 1953:

"A Year of Progress"

"The decision to publish Carloviana in a new format last year was taken with some diffience. A society concerned with the preservation of tradition does not lightly break with its own, and three excellent journals had already been published.

The aim of the old Carlow society, however is to interest all the people of Carlow and country in their storied past. Many people fought shy of a journal which they thought could only have a specialist appeal. Last year's issue dispelled that erroneous idea and won for the society very many friends. It was realised that the society's approach to history was far removed from the dusty answers carried over from the schoolroom.

Within a few weeks of publication not a copy of last year's Carloviana was left unsold"

Main Street Hacketstown

Advertisers & Sponsors

Advertisers and sponsors have been essential to the survival of Carloviana since 1952. Without this revenue it it would not have been possible for the journal to continue publication.

But there is another aspect to advertising, and one which Liam D. Bergin and Aiden Murray referred to in their editoral of 1952. Amoung their ambitions for Carloviana was to "provide material for the historians of tomorrow." They realised that the creation of advertisements by the business of the town and county was in fact the creation of an historical record of those businesses and this record might outlive many of them.

Of the eleven businesses which advertised in the first issue of January 1947 only three survive in 2007 - Doyles of the Shamrock, Haddens and the Nationalist & Leinster Times.

Of the forty two who advertised in the relaunched journal of 1952 only twelve survive:

 

Index of Articles:

In the three issues 2004, 2005 and 2006 we have produced an index of all the articles which have been published since 1947. Our sincere thanks is due to Dermot Mulligan, member of society who compiled this index.

The 2011 issue contains a full alphabetical index to all articles that were published between 1947 and 2010. This Index, compiled by Eileen O'Neill, to whom we are deeply grateful, will, we are sure, be of great assistance to researchers.

2012 edition

Available from the following outlets:

Bagenalstown: The Little Shop, Kilree St.

Ballon: Vivo Supermarket

Borris: Kiernan's Medical Hall

Bunclody: Steemers O'Leary, The Mall

Carlow: Lamberts, Dublin St.; Ned Deane, Barrack St.; Doyles, Carlow Shopping Centre; Centra Supermarket, Potato Market; Centra Supermarket, Closh; BookStation, Tullow St.

Hacketstown: Byrne's Supervalu

Leighlinbridge: Curran's Service Station

Old Leighlin: Lynch's

Rathvilly: Mace Supermarket, Corner House

Tinryland: Jim Deane

Tullow: Centra Supermarket, Bridge St.; Frank Byrne, Cross Keys

                     ***********************

The 2012 edition contains the following articles:

• Message from the President                         
• Winter Lecture series  
• El Greco and the Carlow nexus
• History of Killeshin Parish
• Development and Demise of the Carlow Burgess
• Lewis's Carlow
• Father John Dempsy and the Carlow Town Commission
• Role of the Irish in World War II
• The Ancient Order of Hibernians in Graiguenamanagh
• Drumphea - the Coming of Christianity
• Jonathan Swift's Carlow Connections
• The Remarkable Haughtons of Carlow and Kildare
• Eagle Hill, Hacketstown, its environs and characters
• Cultural Life in Carlow
• The Origin of Carlow's Name
• Ballyhacket, Hacketstown and the Micro-History of Anglo-Norman Colonists in Northeast Co. Carlow
• Garlic is good, but give me scallions
• History of the RTC & ITC contd.
• Gate Lodges of Co. Carlow
• Building on a Legacy - the Archaeological Collection of Carlow County Museum
• The Archaeology of Ballon Hill; a Review and Proposal
• A Museum is Born
• Vallancey's Military Surveys of 1776/77 &1796 as relating to Co. Carlow and its immediate environs
• A History of Brigidine Foundations in Roscrea, Ireland and Kenosha and Titusville, America
• Clonmore, Co. Carlow - its antiquities
• Carlow County Museum - Ireland's newest museum opens
• The "Slashing Parson" of 1798; the Life and Death of Robert Rochford of Clogrennane, Co. Carlow, 1775-1811
• Kavanagh Castles of Co. Carlow
• Going to the Pictures
• Observations on a Flint Leaf-Shaped Arrowhead from Ballintemple, Co. Carlow, and some related finds from the County
• Dictionary of Irish Biography
• Carlow's Olympic Connections
• The Wastegrass and its Mass Rock
• The Tithe war in North-east Carlow
• The History Festival of Ireland
• The Rowing Bunburys of Lisnavagh
• The "Shemus" Cartoons in the Freeman's Journal
• Letters from Clonburrin 1880-1930

2013 edition    

We need articles for the forthcoming 2013 edition. If you would like to write an article on any aspect of Carlow history or archaeology, or if you know of someone who would do so, please contact us.  

We prefer that you email your work in Word format, with illustrations in Jpeg format, but we are happy to accept typewritten or even handwritten material. 

Send your article, by the end of July 2013, to : 

Jim Shannon, Scotland, Hacketstown, Co. Carlow 

or to: jimshannon@eircom.net