placenamesClonmore
Cluain Mhór
The McCall connection with the Clonmore area begins with John of Killalongford, whose recollections preserve a local classroom before his later literary life in Dublin.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Cluain Mhór · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Clonmore · English · main form
Place & story
From Killalongford to Dublin
John McCall was born at Killalongford, near Clonmore, on 16 August 1822. Eddie McDonald’s account in Carloviana follows his departure for Dublin in 1839, aged seventeen, to work for his cousin Mortimer Byrne. After several years in grocery and spirit businesses, McCall bought premises in Patrick Street in 1856. His writing developed alongside that commercial life, drawing on interests formed in the Clonmore countryside. [2]
A classroom in the chapel
McDonald reproduces McCall’s recollection of schooling before Clonmore had a dedicated schoolhouse. Phelim Byrne taught in the women’s aisle of the parish chapel. A later teacher, White, was remembered as a violin player who sometimes accompanied pupils dancing after lessons. This is an individual’s remembered school experience, preserved through his writing; it does not provide an exact building date for the schoolhouse that followed. [2]
The family papers in the national collection
The National Library’s McCall collection includes John’s gathered songs and ballads from the Carlow–Wexford area, historical notes, correspondence and a list of books in his Dublin house. It also holds material compiled by his son, the songwriter P. J. McCall. The catalogue explicitly gives Dublin as P. J.’s birthplace in 1861, preserving a distinction between the son’s birthplace and his father’s Clonmore origins. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Clonmore. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- P. J. McCall and his father John McCall: Carloviana 34 (1986–87), pp 47–48,51 · Eddie McDonald, Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society
- P. J. McCall and John McCall Papers: collection catalogue · National Library of Ireland
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.