The Medlars of Paulstown

Paulstown

Paulstown, formerly Whitehall, is on the main road from Carlow to Kilkenny. It has been the residence of the Medlars for many generations.




This is the current Post Office which is for sale.

The Medlars

Patrick Medlar had two sons, John (b. bef 1863) who went to Dublin and married Ellen Brennan from Ballyellen, and Michael (b. 1866) who remained in Paulstown. Both sons were blacksmiths, following in their father's footsteps.

John's family is documented in the cameo on Patrick J Medlar.

Michael married Mary Farrell and they had a large family. Both families are set out in the Medlar Tree (no pun intended). Of Michael's family, Larry, Martin, Mary Kate and Peggy were all involved with the (old) IRA.

Larry was Commandant of the 4th Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade. He was sentenced to death in 1921 following a raid on nearby Gowran Barracks, when he was found to be in possession of 39 sticks of gelignite. He had also in his possession incriminating documents relating to the No. 4 Battalion. His defence was a combination of an alibi for the barracks raid (supplied by his father), mental incapacity (the doctor said he had a lack in him since a bout of flu two years earlier) and "minding the materiel for others" who had threatened him to silence. The Court was not impressed and Larry was sentenced to death. This was communted to 15 years penal servitude from which he was released on the signing of the Treaty. However, after independence he became an "irregular" and spent much of the few remaining years of his life in internment. He died in 1929 from heart failure.



The map shows the location of the barracks at the top of the main street in Gowran. The building also houses the courthouse.




This is the barracks building as it is today, a private residence.


Martin was involved in a number of attacks and ambushes. He was arrested by Free State Forces when on the run during the Civil War. He went on hunger strike (along with about 1,000 others). He was subsequently secretary of the local Fianna Fáil cumann and became a TD.

Mary Kate was involved with Cumann na mBan and subsequently ran the family shop on the Carlow/Kilkenny Road.

Peggy who had gone to Dublin was arrested there around 1921 but this did not stop her subsequently running a very successful and well known dancing school. When she died in Dublin in 1939 she was buried in the family plot in the old graveyard in Paulstown.

Unfortunately this grave can no longer be accurately identified as a lunatic priest dumped a load of gravestones, including the Medlars', after they were broken.

Michael was a guard and both Peggy and Josephine married guards. Josephine took over the running of the dancing school after Peggy's death.

The Medlar Homestead

The open space here is the site of the original thatched house which stood until around the 1950s when it burned down. That would have been the house from which Larry was arrested in 1921.




The open space on the left is where the original smithy stood.




This is the current Medlar house.

Rest in Peace

This is the graveyard which hosts the original Medlar family plot. It would be somewhere in the foreground of the picture.




This is an example of a gravestone which either escaped the mad priest's attention or was broken since the unfortunate dumping. I gather the dumped stones are in Brophy's field and I may get round to having a look at them some day.




This is the new graveyard on the Carlow Kilkenny road. Martin, his wife Anastasia, his mother Mary, sister Mary Kate and brother John are all buried here.

The Maps

This shows the main features of Paulstown. The church and graveyard (top left) is where Peggy is buried in the old family plot. The post office (opposite where the present one is) is referred to as Whitehall PO. Residents got the name changed back to Paulstown in recent times as Whitehall was a cause of confusion. You can see the Medlar house and smithy bottom right.