My tenure as chairman of Grange Cross Residents Association (GCRA) spanned almost six years. I was a founder member, elected as the first chairman on 12 November 2012. I stepped down from my chairmanship on 26 September 2018 for personal reasons. It was truly an honour and a privilege to serve Grange over those years and to have been given the opportunity and the trust of parishioners to lead the planning and delivery of several successful community projects over that time. Those 6 years were enjoyable and rewarding for me, even if challenging for the most part - a period when much was achieved by GCRA. My wife, Dolores, and I are very proud of our contributions to Grange, and our wish is to

Grange Electrification Last week's (week 3) suggested article for reading (The Life and Times of Austin Cregan) was about personalities; this week we have chosen an article about a notable event. In February 1952, electrical power was switched on for the Grange locality to much excitement and acclaim, bringing a modern way of living that instantly changed people's lives. In his article titled Grange Electrification, Pa (Patrick) O'Connell of Lower Grange told the general story of rural electrification in Ireland and specifically electrification of the Grange locality. Pa, who spent most of his working life with the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), penned his article with great knowledge

The Life and Times of Austin Cregan Last week's suggested article for reading (The Grange Ambush) was about an event; this week we have chosen an article about personalities. The article titled The Life and Times of Austin Cregan is largely about Austin and his wife, Maureen. Sadly, Maureen passed away in August of 2016. Maureen was a wonderful person. May She Rest in Peace. The article was compiled by Mary Gallagher and Tommy Hourigan following an interview with Maureen and Austin. The following are extracts from the article. "On a December 2014 afternoon, we had the privilege and pleasure of meeting with Maureen and Austin Cregan at their home in Holycross. Before a blazing open fire, in

The Grange Ambush As we come to terms with November (2018) weather after a magnificent summer, we are reminded of a November day in 1920. On the morning of 08 November 1920, IRA personnel gathered near the gated entrance to Lough Gur House (residence of Count de Salis at the time) in Upper Grange, before departing to Lower Grange to engage in the planned IRA ambush of British forces in the vicinity of the Camogue River Bridge. The British contingent was travelling to Limerick on the main road, coming from the Bruff direction. In fact, the IRA had expected the British Military to come from the opposite direction - from Limerick city. This week's (week 2) chosen article from the Grange Par

While the Grange Parish Book of some 700 pages, with more than 80 articles, may be read in its entirety on this website, it may be a daunting task to undertake online over a short period. Therefore, it has been decided to encourage visitors to this site and our Facebook Friends to read just one article every week, if the subject matter will be of sufficient interest. With this objective, we will suggest one article each week over a long timeframe. In the year in which Limerick won the Senior All-Ireland Hurling Championship in magnificent style and Sean Finn of Bruff won an All-Star, it seems fitting that the first article to be suggested for reading should have a strong hurling connection.

Kathy Tiernan is an accomplished artist whose artistic style and paintings are highly regarded, admired and enjoyed locally in the Grange/Lough Gur locality and well beyond County Limerick. Kathy was kind enough to permit two of her paintings to appear in the Grange Parish Book, published in November 2015. An article titled "The Kathy Tiernan Painting Collection" was published some time ago on the Grange Parish Website. The article, which carried several of Kathy's paintings, may be read HERE. Previously, Kathy wrote about herself as follows: "I grew up near the foot of the Hill of Allen in Kildare, where you could see the brown bogland for miles and smell the purple heather and green fer

This blog post is primarily about the Grange-woman, Catherine Gavin, who is remembered in an article compiled by Dianne McGuinness and me some time ago for this website. The article may be read HERE. The summary which appears later in this post may spark your interest. But first of all, it is necessary for me to introduce you or re-introduce you to Dianne McGuinness, who undertook the research for the Catherine Gavin article. You may or may not have read that wonderful article, The Purcell Family of Grange, penned by Miriam Gallagher, which was published in the book Grange Past and Present (2015). You may read Miriam's article HERE, and you may dip into the book HERE as well. You may also r