The German Palatines of Ireland

Known as the Palatines, the immigrants came to Ireland in 1709 from the Palatinate, a state in the Rhine River valley of southwestern Germany. Still one of Europe’s scenic delights as well as one of the most fruitful wine producing regions, the Palatinate had the misfortune to become what one historian describes as “the stomping ground of Europe” in the 17th century. In the wake of the Reformation, the entire region was devastated by religious and political strife, persecution and war. For decades, armies of several European states marched back and forth across the Palatinate obliterating towns and cities and laying waste to the countryside. Little wonder that a veritable tidal wave of flight was set in motion in 1709, when it was reported that Queen Anne of England was offering to provide German Protestant emigrants with free passage to England and free tracts of land in the English colonies in America. That spring and summer, thousands of Germans made their way down the Rhine to Rotterdam in Holland, the first leg of a journey they hoped would end with rich farmlands in Pennsylvania or Carolina.

In the end, about 13,500 of the Palatines were transported across the North Sea to London where they were kept in tent cities on the outskirts of the city awaiting transportation to America. When passage across the Atlantic could be arranged for only 3,000 of the Palatines, and when English cities refused to take more than a few of them, the English government looked across the Irish Sea for a solution. Ireland, they reasoned, would be an appropriate place to settle the Palatines. They were industrious people who would bolster the economy and at the same time strengthen the Protestant control of Ireland. Eight hundred Palatine families agreed to give Ireland a try. Among them were a number of Catholics, accepted only if they would convert to Protestantism. During August 1709, those families, totaling about 3,000 men, women and children, were transported across England in wagon trains to Chester where they embarked on ships for Dublin. With the help of generous subsidies, a committee appointed by the Irish government convinced 43 landlords to settle some Palatines on their estates.

The largest settlement – 100 families – was on the estate of Sir Thomas Southwell in Courtmatrix, County Limerick. Quickly disenchanted that their journey had dropped them in a land even more poverty stricken than their own, the vast majority of Palatine settlers slipped away from Ireland and returned to England or Germany within a very few years. In 1720, a census of the Palatines revealed that only 185 families remained in Ireland. They included: 103 families in County Limerick, 35 families in Wexford; 19 families in Cork; 11 families in Dublin and a few individual families elsewhere. The Limerick community was the most vibrant. From Courtmatrix, or Rathkeale, groups of Palatines spread out to Ballangrane, Killeheen, Ballyorgan and Pallaskenry, or Newmarket, on the Shannon River, all in Limerick, to Kilnaughtin and Ballymacelligott in County Kerry; and to Newpark and Bawnlea in the Barony of Slieve Ardagh in eastern Tipperary.

Palatine Street:
Located between the Commons and Grange is the area known as the Palatine Street. The name derives from a settlement of Palatines who settled in the area in the 18th century. Originally from Germany, they settled in County Limerick and were invited to the Slieveardagh area by the Baker family in Kilcooley. Descendants of the original settlers still live in the area. A member of the Switzer family established the famous department store of the same name in Grafton Street, Dublin. A Methodist Church used until the 1960s and a former school, which now serves as a community hall, can be seen on the roadside.

KILCOOLEY

1837

a parish, in the barony of Slievardagh, county of Tipperary, and province of Munster, 5 miles S. from Johnstown; containing, with the town of New Birmingham, 3667 inhabitants. Donagh Carbragh O'Brien, King of Limerick, founded an abbey here for Cistertian monks, about 1200, which, at the Reformation, was granted to the Earl of Ormond; the ruins are extensive, and contain a fine east window, and some handsome tombs of the Ikerrin branch of the Butler family: the proprietor, W. Barker, Esq., has lately erected a study, or summer-house, in them. The parish comprises 9052 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which the whole is arable and pasture, except about 300 acres of woodland. Limestone abounds, and coal and culm are found on Mr.. Barker's estate. Kilcooley Abbey, the residence of Mr.. Barker, stands in a well planted demesne of above 1600 statute acres. On its eastern verge is a tower built to commemorate the battle of Waterloo, which, being on a high hill, serves as an excellent landmark. On the hills is a colony of Palatines, brought from the county of Limerick, about 60 years since, by the late Sir W. Barker, Bart. The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Cashel, and in the patronage of the Crown: the tithes amount to 507.13.10 1/2. The church is a handsome modern structure. There is a glebe-house, for the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits, in 1818, gave 350 and lent 450.: the glebe comprises 22 acres, for which 42.12. per annum late currency is paid by the rector. In the R.C. divisions this parish forms part of the district of Gurtnahoe, or Fennor, and has a chapel at New Birmingham. There is also a meeting-house for Wesleyan Methodists. About 280 children are educated in two public schools, to one of which Mr. and Lady Harriet Barker subscribe 20 pounds per annum. There are some ruins of the castle of Grange