Sitting recently in a time-honoured spot in Clonmel within full view of the foothills of the Comeragh mountains, I was approached by an American tourist who asked if I knew the meaning of "Comeragh". I did. It means "abounding in hollows and river confluences", from the Irish, cumarach. The reason he wanted to know was that his house in Louisiana had been named "Comeragh" by a former tenant. The conversation developed and he told me that he wanted to climb the Comeraghs, which was my own intention. That was why I was in Clonmel.
So, the following day, we set off. With 78 years under my belt, I found it easy, early on, but as we climbed through the Nire valley I found the going tough. The American was full of questions. The lore of the Comeraghs? There was plenty, but it had to wait, for mountain-climbing is not conducive to narrative.
Small farms
The Comeraghs, tucked away in the south-east, is probably the least known of the great mountain ranges of Ireland. All the small farms that I knew as a boy are gone, merged into larger units. Gone too are the O'Mearas, the Hallahans, Flynns and Murrays, who raised milch cows on the foothills and sold the milk from door to door in Clonmel. Most of all, the Irish language is gone - when I was a boy there were some Irish speakers left, and their Irish, akin to that of Ring, had words and phrases peculiar to the Comeraghs.
Wisely, we skirted Cnoc an Aifrinn and Cnoc an Phiobaire, both over 2,000 feet high, but we did visit the Crotty country, where the outlaw William Crotty had his abode in giant caves where he frequently harboured cattle stolen from the lowlands. The Comeraghs are as desolate as any of the great mountain ranges of Donegal, Galway or Kerry. I recall families being marooned for days during great snowfalls.
My American friend was keen to hear more about Crotty, but I said that would have to wait until we reached Clonmel. However, I was able to enlighten him about some of the Comeragh lore, notably about Colonel John O'Mahony, head centre of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in America, who died in penury in a New York ghetto. I also told him that, reputedly, the last shots in the Irish Civil War were exchanged in the Nire valley in the Comeraghs.
Rocky corries
Two things give character to the Comeraghs: their rocky corries and the nearness of the sea, so that the climber coming up on to their heights from the west sees far below him of a sudden the gleaming southern coast of Ireland and the pale, bright blue of the sea.
When my American friend and I reached our hotel, it was time after a solid eight hours on the mountain for a hot bath and a hearty meal, over which I was asked to outline all I knew about William Crotty.
Crotty operated during the early days of George III. He was born in Russelstown on the northern border of Co Waterford and headed a gang of desperate associates. He held his stronghold in the fastnesses of the Comeraghs for years until he was finally captured, having been betrayed by one of his own gang named David Norris. Crotty was tried in Waterford on March 8th, 1742 and hanged there. His wife, an accomplice in all his doings, was pursued relentlessly by the military and, cornered in the Comeraghs, dashed herself from a high rock to the plain below.
Old lament
An old lament attributed to Mrs Crotty, and sung for years in Irish by the Comeragh people, ran as follows:
Oh, William Crotty, did I tell you
That David Norris would surely sell you?
He did surround you when you were sleeping
And left me here alone and weeping.
The American was not finished. He chatted at the bar after our meal and my narrative to some locals and could not refrain from asking them if they knew the derivation of "Comeragh". None of them did. The American was surprised. I was not!