Editing Buttevant

{{short description|Town in County Cork, Ireland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=September 2021}}
{{More citations needed|date=April 2008}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name          = Buttevant
|native_name            = {{lang|ga|Cill na Mullach}}
|native_name_lang       = ga
|nickname               = 
|settlement_type        = Town
|motto                  =
|image_skyline          = Buttevant Main Street Intersection with R522 2012 09 08.jpg
|imagesize              = 
|image_caption          = Main Street 
|image_map              =
|mapsize                = 
|map_caption            = 
|pushpin_map            = Ireland
|pushpin_label_position = bottom
|pushpin_map_caption    = Location in Ireland
|subdivision_type       = Country
|subdivision_name       = [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]
|subdivision_type1      = [[Provinces of Ireland|Province]]
|subdivision_name1      = [[Munster]]
|subdivision_type2      = [[Counties of Ireland|County]]
|subdivision_name2      = [[County Cork]]
|subdivision_type3      =
|subdivision_name3      =
|government_footnotes   =
|government_type        =
|established_title      =  
|established_date       = 
|area_magnitude         = 
|unit_pref              = Metric 
|area_footnotes         =
|area_total_km2         =
|area_land_km2          = 
|population_as_of       = [[2022 census of Ireland|2022]]
|population_footnotes   = <ref>{{Cite web|url = https://visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/ima/cop/2022&boundary=C04160V04929&guid=3a3063e9-a807-4b2a-b3d6-95827d431ac8 | publisher = Central Statistics Office | title = Census 2022 - Small Area Population Statistics (SAPMAP Area) - Settlements - Buttevant | work = Census 2022 }}</ref>
|population_note        =
|population             = 1,080
|population_density_km2 =
|timezone1              = [[West European Time|WET]] 
|utc_offset1            = +0
|timezone1_DST          = [[Irish Standard Time|IST]] ([[Western European Summer Time|WEST]]) 
|utc_offset1_DST        = -1
|coordinates            = {{coord|52|13|59|N|8|40|1|W|region:IE|display=inline}}
|elevation_footnotes    = 
|elevation_m            = 100
|postal_code_type       = 
|postal_code            =
|area_code              = 022
|blank_name             = Irish grid reference
|blank_info             = {{Oscoor|R540092}}
|website                =
|footnotes              = 
}}
{{Historical populations|state=collapsed
|1831|1536
|1841|1524
|1851|1530
|1861|2372
|1871|1756
|1881|1409
|1891|1580
|1901|979
|1911|1754
|1926|834
|1936|881
|1946|793
|1951|769
|1956|1027
|1961|981
|1966|978
|1971|1045
|1981|1161
|1986|1133
|1991|1125
|1996|1070
|2002|987
|2006|914
|2011|945
|2016|970
|footnote=<ref>[http://www.cso.ie/census Census for post 1821 figures.]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.histpop.org  |title=Histpop - The Online Historical Population Reports Website |date= |website=www.histpop.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507023856/http://www.histpop.org/ |archive-date=7 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census |title=Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency - Census Home Page |access-date=2011-11-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217095720/http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census |archive-date=2012-02-17 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book
|last=Lee|first=J. J.| author-link =J. J. Lee (historian)|editor-last=Goldstrom|editor-first=J. M.|editor2-last=Clarkson
|editor2-first=L. A.|title=Irish Population, Economy, and Society: Essays in Honour of the Late K. H. Connell
|year=1981|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford, England
|chapter=On the accuracy of the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Pre-famine]] Irish censuses}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal  | last1 = Mokyr  | first1 = Joel
  | author-link = Joel Mokyr  | last2 = Ó Gráda  | first2 = Cormac
  | author2-link = Cormac Ó Gráda  | title = New Developments in Irish Population History, 1700-1850  | journal = The Economic History Review  | volume =  37  | issue =  4
  | pages = 473–488  |date=November 1984
  | url = http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120035880/abstract  | archive-url = https://archive.today/20121204160709/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120035880/abstract  | url-status = dead  | archive-date = 2012-12-04  | doi = 10.1111/j.1468-0289.1984.tb00344.x
| hdl = 10197/1406  | hdl-access = free  }}</ref>
}}

'''Buttevant''' ({{Irish place name|Cill na Mullach|church of the summits}}; {{langx|la|Ecclesia Tumulorum}}) is a medieval market town in [[County Cork]], Ireland.

The town was incorporated by [[charter]] of [[Edward III of England|Edward III]] in the 14th century. While there are reasons to suggest that the town may occupy the site of an earlier settlement of the Donegans, Carrig Donegan, the origins of the present town are distinctly [[Normans|Norman]], and closely connected with the settlement of the [[De Barry Family|Barrys]] from the 13th century onwards.<ref>[http://www.cork-guide.ie/buttevant/ Buttevant: from ''Cork-Guide'']</ref>  Here they built their principal stronghold in north Cork.

Buttevant is located on the [[N20 road (Ireland)|N20 road]] between [[Limerick]] and [[Cork (city)|Cork]] and the [[R522 road (Ireland)|R522]] [[Regional road (Ireland)|regional road]]. The Dublin&ndash;Cork [[rail transport in Ireland|railway line]] passes by the town, but there was a station (now closed) from which at the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in 1914, newly raised battalions of the [[Royal Munster Fusiliers]] and the [[The Royal Dublin Fusiliers|Royal Dublin Fusiliers]] who had completed their training at the local military barracks, set out for the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]. The town is in a [[townland]] and [[Civil parishes in Ireland|civil parish]] of the same name.<ref name=logainm>{{cite web | url = https://www.logainm.ie/en/707 | title = Cill na Mallach/Buttevant | work = [[Placenames Database of Ireland]] | access-date = 1 November 2024}}</ref> Buttevant is part of the [[Cork East (Dáil constituency)|Cork East]] Dáil constituency.

==Etymology==
The [[De Barry Family|Barry]] family motto is ''Boutez-en-Avant''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BPC-LWgzbQ8C&pg=PA572&dq=carrig+donegan#PPA489,M1 " A History of the City and County of Cork"] 1875</ref> ''Rotulus Pipae Cloynensis'' (1364) makes ten references to ''Bothon'' in its Latin text. The ''Lateran Registers'' record the name ''tempore'' [[Pope Innocent VIII]] as ''Bottoniam'' (7 March 1489) and ''Buttumam'' (3 June 1492); and ''tempore'' [[Pope Alexander VI]] in various forms: as "Bothaniam" (14 February 1499), "Betomam" (12 March 1499), and "Buttomam" (15 January 1500). [[Edmund Spenser]], in ''[[Colin Clouts Come Home Againe]]'' (1595), gives an early example of the modern name and associates it with ''Mullagh'', his name for the river Awbeg:<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6GQNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA363&dq=buttevant+history#PPA338,M1 "Historical and Topographical Notes, Etc. on Buttevant, Castletownroche, Doneraile, Mallow"], 1905</ref>

:"Old father Mole, (Mole hight that mountain grey
:That walls the Northside of Armulla dale)
:He had a daughter fresh as floure of May,
:VVhich gaue that name vnto that pleasant vale;
:Mulla the daughter of oldMole, so hight
:The Nimph, which of that water course has charge,
:That springing out of Mole, doth run downe right
:to Butteuant where spreading forth at large,
:It giueth name vnto that auncient Cittie,
:VVhich Kilnemullah cleped is of old:
:VVhose ragged ruines breed great ruth and pittie,
:To travellers, which it from far behold"

[[File:Buttevant c.1900.jpg|thumb|St Mary's Church, Buttevant ca. 1900]]
[[File:Buttevant Convent c. 1879.jpg|thumb|Buttevant Convent 1879 by architect G.C. Ashlin]]
[[Image:St John's Church, Buttevant.jpg|thumb|right|St. John's Church, Buttevant]]

The ''Bibliothèque Royale'' in Brussels contains the manuscript of Father Donatus Mooney's report on the Irish Province of the Franciscans compiled in 1617/1618 in which he notes that the place "is called 'Buttyfanie' and, in Irish, 'Kilnamullagh' or 'Killnamallagh'". [[Philip O'Sullivan Beare]] in his ''Historiae Catholicae Iberniae'', published in Spain in 1620, gives the name 'Killnamollacham' for the town and translates it into Latin as 'Ecclesia Tumulorum'. [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde]] refers to "Buttiphante" in a letter of January 1684 ([[Carte Manuscripts]], [[Bodleian]], 161, f. 47v), while Sir John Percival, progenitor of the [[Earls of Egmont]], recorded in his diary for 16 March 1686 that the troopers "being att Buttevant Fair this day took Will Tirry and his wife and brought them hither and I examined them".

The Irish denomination for Buttevant has reached such a degree of confusion as to make it almost unidentifiable. The oral tradition of the area consistently gives ''Cill na Mullach'', or 'Church of the Hillocks', for Buttevant. When the area was still largely Irish speaking, that tradition was recorded by O'Donovan in the field books of the General Survey of Valuation, [[Griffith's valuation]], which was taken in the Barony of [[Orrery and Kilmore]] ''ante'' 1850. [[Peadar Ua Laoghaire]] confirms the tradition in his ''Mo Scéal Féin''. That notwithstanding, several other names have insistently been assigned to Buttevant by Irish Government officialdom: ''Cill na mBeallach'', ''Cill na Mollach'', and more recently ''Cill na Mallach'' by the Placenames Commission, explaining eruditely that it may signify ''The Church of the Curse'', for which, the general public can be excused for thinking the commission were referring to nearby ''Killmallock''. [[P.W. Joyce]] in his ''The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places'', published in Dublin in 1871, dismisses as erroneous and an invention of later times, the theory that the Irish name for Buttevant meant the Church of the Curse, and cites the [[Annals of the Four Masters|Four Masters]] noting that a Franciscan Friary was founded at ''Cill na Mullach'' in 1251.

The name Buttevant is reportedly a corruption of the motto of the [[de Barry family]]. On the Barry coat of arms the inscription is "Butez en Avant" - Strike/Kick/Push Forward—or, more colloquially, "Bash your way forward."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/translation/topic52600.html |title=Famity motto translation - Irish Translation Forum |access-date=2013-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071835/http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/translation/topic52600.html |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[[De Barry]]</ref>

==History==
[[Henry III of England]], by grant of 26 September 1234, conceded a market at Buttevant to David Og de Barry to be held on Sundays, and a fair on the vigil and day of [[St. Luke]] the Evangelist (17 October and 18 October), and on six subsequent days. This was done to further the economic prosperity of the borough and connected with a widespread network of such markets and fairs which indicate "an extensive network of commercial traffic and an important part of the infrastructure of the growing agrarian and mercantile economy". The most important markets and all fairs were associated with the major boroughs and can be used as a gauge of their economic and social significance as also the 1301 [[quo warranto]] proceedings in Cork at which [[John de Barry]] "claimed the basic baronial jurisdiction of [[gallows]], infangetheof, ''vetitia namia'' and fines for shedding blood (where 'Englishmen' were involved) in his manors of Buttevant, [[Castlelyons]], [[Rathbarry]] and [[Lislee]]".{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

The town of Buttevant accumulated a series of such grants over several centuries. Fairs and markets were held at Buttevant for cattle sheep and pigs on 23 January, 30 April, 27 May, 27 August and 21 November. Cattle and sheep fairs were held on 27 March, 14 October, 17 December. Pig markets were held on 11 July. Fairs falling on Saturdays were held on Mondays. Fridays were devoted to egg markets. Horse fairs were held on the Fourth Monday in October. [[Cahirmee Horse Fair]], the only surviving fair, is held on 12 July.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

The development of the settlement followed a pattern frequently repeated in the Norman colonies of North Cork and [[Limerick]]. The original nucleus of the town consisted of a keep situated on an elevation on the south side of the town. Opposite the keep, on a pre-Norman site, was built the parish church, dedicated to St. Brigit, sister of [[Colman of Cloyne|St. Colman]] of Cloyne. A mill, another characteristic element of Norman settlements, was located on the river, to the north of the keep. In addition, a hospice for lepers was established about a mile to the North East outside of the town wall. This basic structure was repeated in nearby [[Castletownroche]], where it is still clearly to be seen, in [[Glanworth]], [[Mallow, County Cork|Mallow]], and in [[Kilmallock]] and [[Adare]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

A further feature of Norman settlements in North Cork was their concomitant religious foundations. Early colonial sites, such as Buttevant and Castletownroche, saw the introduction of the more traditional monastic communities which were housed in foundations outside of the town walls. The [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] priories of [[Bridgetown]] (''ante'' 1216) and [[Ballybeg Priory|Ballybeg]] (1229) being respectively founded by the Roches and the de Barry contiguous to the settlements of Castletownroche and Buttevant. With the rise of the new [[mendicant orders]], essentially urban in character and mission, the Norman settlements saw the foundation of mendicant houses within the town walls as with the [[Franciscans]] in Buttevant (1251), and the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] in Kilmallock (1291) and Glanworth (c. 1300).{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

The [[burgage]] of Buttevant developed to the north of the keep and eventually increased in size to about {{convert|50|acre|m2}} enclosed by walls for which [[Murage]] grants had been made by the crown in 1317. The native inhabitants were excluded from residence within the walled area and confined to a quarter of their own to the north west of the walled town.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

A bridge, still extant, was built over the river [[Awbeg]] around 1250.

In 1317, the 11th. of [[Edward II of England]], John fitz David de Barry requested and obtained from the [[exchequer]] a grant of £105 for the commonality and town of Buttevant for its walling. A further grant was made on 6 August 1375, the 49th. of Edward III, to the provost and commonality of the town together with the customs of its North Gate.

The [[steeplechase (horse racing)|steeplechase]] originated in 1752 as a result of a horse race from the steeple of Buttevant Protestant church to that of [[Doneraile]], four miles (6&nbsp;km) away.

==Ecclesiastical sites==
{{Main|Ballybeg Priory|Buttevant Franciscan Friary}}
[[Ballybeg Priory]] is a 13th-century Augustinian priory which is located to the south of the town.

[[Buttevant Franciscan Friary]] is a Franciscan friary which is situated beside the church on Buttevant's Main Street and is near the [[River Awbeg|Awbeg river]].

==Events==
{{further|Cahirmee Horse Fair}}
The Cahirmee Horse Fair is an annual [[horse fair]] held in Buttevant. Originally held outside the town at Cahirmee, it has been held in the town itself since the 1921.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Browne |first1=Bill |title=Cahirmee Horse Fair set for a return to the streets of Buttevant in North Cork next Wednesday |url=https://www.independent.ie/regionals/cork/news/cahirmee-horse-fair-set-for-a-return-to-the-streets-of-buttevant-in-north-cork-next-wednesday/a1507194479.html |access-date=16 June 2024 |agency=The Corkman |publisher=Independent News & Media |date=4 July 2023}}</ref>

== Buttevant military barracks ==
[[File:Buttevant_Barracks,_c.1840s._jpg.jpg|thumb|271x271px|Captain Henry Craigie Brewster. Buttevant Barracks, c.1840s]]
Buttevant barracks was a 19th-century military barracks.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last=Trimm |first=Francis |title=Buttevant Military Barracks |journal=Mallow Field Club Journal |issue=32 |pages=69–74}}</ref> The barracks is listed in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.<ref>{{Cite web |title='Barrack Place, Creggane, Buttevant, Cork' |url=https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/20803030/barrack-place-creggane-buttevant-co-cork |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=National Inventory of Architectural Heritage}}</ref>

Buttevant military barracks was built in 1812, when the owner of [[Buttevant castle]], John Anderson gifted 23 acres of land in Buttevant to the British Army for the purpose of the construction of a military barracks. Construction of the barracks took nearly three years to complete.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |title='Buttevant Heritage Trail' |url=https://www.abartaheritage.ie/buttevant-heritage-trail/ |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=Abarta Heritage|date=5 June 2020 }}</ref> The barracks was divided into three quadrangles and hosted an extensive range of buildings and facilities, including a gymnasium, training field, church, school, stables and a parade ground.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title='Barrack Town' |url=https://www.buttevant.ie/barrack-town/ |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=Buttevant.ie}}</ref> At any one time the barracks was home to hundreds of soldiers and could accommodate up to 800 soldiers and staff.<ref name=":22" /> The main gateway to the barracks was made from limestone and was constructed in the Neo gothic style. A guardhouse which was placed inside this gateway controlled access into the barracks.<ref name=":12" />

Michael Myers Shoemaker visited Buttevant barracks in 1908 and writes of his visit in his book, ''In Wondering in Ireland'' (1908). He wrote, '...these barracks at Buttevant are spacious and as barracks go, very comfortable.... The campus or compound, a great green square surrounded by the quarters....often with lawn tennis and cricket going on in its centre and there are always the officers wives and children giving the scene a touch of charm'. He continues by writing, 'on top of the entrance arch are the offices, on the right of the guardhouse and beyond it a large gymnasium. On either side of the green and running at right angles to the entrance are the officers' quarters. While a large barracks for the men forms the fourth side of the square. Back of this is another square, surrounded by a large barracks, while the married man have a separate building beyond these and the colonel lives in a retired pleasant house off in one corner'.<ref name=":02" />

Support required for the everyday running barracks was immense. The barracks provided important commerce for the town and it is estimated that up to the 20th century it is estimated that up to 70% of the towns income came from the barracks.<ref name=":22" /> Throughout [[World War I]] thousands of men were processed through the barracks before being sent elsewhere. Later, during the [[Irish War of Independence]] the barracks was an important staging point for British forces.<ref name=":12" /> With the departure of British forces at the end of the Irish War of Independence, the barracks was abandoned. It was later temporarily occupied by both anti-treaty and pro-treaty parties and was eventually burned and destroyed during the [[Irish Civil War]].<ref name=":22" />

Today, evidence of the barracks is all but gone, with only an incomplete perimeter wall and the entrance to the barracks still remaining.<ref name=":22" /> The area where the barracks stood is now divided into three sections, one is occupied by [[Buttevant GAA]] and the two others are occupied by local businesses.<ref name=":02" />

==Literary history==
Buttevant also has many literary associations: Edmund Spenser, from his manor at Kilcolman,<ref>Black's Guide to Ireland, 1906, [https://books.google.com/books?id=tVgPAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA101&dq=buttevant#PRA1-PA102,M1 "Buttevant"]</ref> referred to it and the gentle Mullagh (the [[Awbeg River]]) in ''The Faerie Queen ''; [[Anthony Trollope]] passed through in his novel ''Castle Richmond''; [[James Joyce]] played a game of hurling there in his ''Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man''; the revered [[Patrick Augustine Sheehan|Canon Sheehan of Doneraile]] mentions Buttevant in several of his novels, not least in ''Glenanaar'' in the setting of the fatal events of the Fair of Rathclare; and [[Elizabeth Bowen]] mentions it in her elegiacal family history ''Bowen's Court''.

Buttevant was the setting of the "''[[Bunworth Banshee]]''", a supernatural occurrence documented in [[Thomas Crofton Croker]]'s ''Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825–1828)''.

Clotilde Augusta Inez Mary Graves, otherwise [[Clotilde Graves]] (1863–1932), the daughter of Major W.H. Graves and Antoinette Dean of Harwich, was born at Buttevant Castle on 3 June 1863. She was cousin of [[Alfred Perceval Graves]], the father of the poet [[Robert Graves]]. Convent educated in [[Lourdes]], she converted to Catholicism and had some success in London and New York as a playwright. In 1911, under the pseudonym of [[Richard Dehan]], she published ''The Dop Doctor'', which was made into a film in 1915 by [[Fred Paul]].{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In the [[Irish language]], [[Peadar Ua Laoghaire|Peadar Ó Laoghaire]] makes unflattering mention of garrisoned Buttevant in ''Mo Scéal Féin.''  The 18th-century Irish antiquarian, [[Séamus O Conaire|Séamus Ó Conaire]], one-time member of the [[Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland|Royal Society of Antiquaries]], is buried westward facing outside of the friary portal.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

==Transport==
{{further|Buttevant Rail Disaster}}
Buttevant and Doneraile railway station opened on 17 March 1849, but finally closed on 7 March 1977.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Buttevant and Doneraile station | work=Railscot - Irish Railways | url=http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf | access-date=2007-09-13}}</ref>

The station was the site of the [[Buttevant Rail Disaster]] on 1 August 1980. At 12:45 a [[CIÉ]] express train from [[Dublin]] to [[Cork (city)|Cork]] entered Buttevant station at {{convert|70|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on}} carrying some 230 Bank Holiday passengers. It careered into a siding and smashed into a stationary ballast train. The carriages immediately behind the engine and goods wagon [[jackknifing|jack-knife]]d and were thrown across four sets of rail-line. Two coaches and the dining car were totally demolished by the impact. It resulted in the deaths of 18 people and over 70 people were injured. The scale and impact of the accident meant that CIÉ, and the government, came under pressure to improve safety and modernise the rail fleet. A subsequent review resulted in the elimination of the wooden-bodied coaches that had formed part of the train. On the 25th anniversary of this accident, a commemorative service was held and a plaque in memory of the dead erected at Buttevant station.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

==Sport==
[[Buttevant GAA]] hosted Munster football championship games on and off until 1962.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

== Notable people ==
{{See also|Category:People from Buttevant}}

==See also==
{{Commons category}}
* [[List of abbeys and priories in the Republic of Ireland#County Cork|List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Cork)]]
* [[List of towns and villages in the Republic of Ireland|List of towns and villages in Ireland]]
* [[Market Houses in the Republic of Ireland|Market Houses in Ireland]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{County Cork}}

[[Category:Buttevant| ]]
[[Category:Towns and villages in County Cork]]
[[Category:Townlands of County Cork]]
[[Category:Civil parishes of County Cork]]
[[Category:De Barry family]]