Croke Street, Thurles celebrates Local Heritage including Mining Heritage

Croke Street Residents Association started four years ago with the intention of enhancing the appearance of the street for residents and people passing through it. That year they started with seven hanging baskets, this year there are 39  floral displays and this week a new exhibition of panels with images of ‘Our Local Heritage’ has been put into windows along the length of the street.

The Coalmining Heritage of Slieveardagh features in this year’s project. One shop window, just a few doors up from Hanna’s curtain shop has been filled with two huge panels covered in photographs from both the mines and the Tipperary Coalmines website https://www.tipperarycoalmines.ie/

The Heritage theme in this free open air 24 hour a day exhibition also includes panels full of images of The Sugar Factory, The Railway, The Bog, The ESB, and Commercial and Domestic Heritage. Many of these images are not well known, coming from albums and boxes; and some have been taken especially for the project.

This photograph can be found on The Irish Sugar Company panel. Large heaps of culm (brought to the factory by train and in later years by lorry) from the Slieveardagh mines can be seen in the factory yard (top right corner of the image).

The Croke Street Residents Association is registered with the PPN (Public Participation Network) and during the Covid lockdowns they put together their first on-street windows exhibition on the History and Heritage of Croke Street. This year’s exhibition panels have been made by Lion Print, Cashel and the association are grateful to Jon Stapleton and in-house graphic designer Sheila Hackett who sorted through the images and assembled the panels. The Coalmining panels demonstrate her talent!  The projects have also received help and assistance from Eddie Meegan through the CEP (Community Enhancement Programme)and Tipperary County Council.

So if you are in Thurles over the next few weeks and can take time to walk along Croke Street in either direction from Friar Street to Larry’s Pub at the Croke Street/Dempsey Square end there is lots to see including Our Coalmining Heritage.

Thank you and congratulations to the Croke Street Resident’s Association on this great use of the windows in their Street.

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