Earliest meeting: Monday 27th March 1848
Final meeting: Thursday 3rd June 1915
The county Tipperary area of Barronstown was once the location of a racecourse which was then replaced by Limerick Junction before progressing to the current Tipperary racecourse. Racing had been held in the vicinity of Tipperary since 1787, but the inaugural meeting at Barronstown was on Monday 27th March 1848 and for the next 67 years the course staged high profile races like the Tipperary Plate and Barronstown Plate. On Thursday 10th June 1909 a race meeting was organised on the Catholic religious holiday of Corpus Christi. The local church was very small and unable to offer mass to the immense crowd which was racecourse bound. Canon Ryan found a unique way of solving the problem by offering mass to the throng on the racecourse. By December 1913 prayers were not enough to save Barronstown; the writing was on the wall when a consortium, fronted by J J Parkinson, gained an option to purchase 190 acres of land and negotiated with the local railway company to build a siding called Limerick Junction. Their objective was to develop a new racecourse on their land, served by its own railway station. The final two day meeting at Barronstown was held on Tuesday 1st and Wednesday 2nd June 1915, at which the Tipperary Plate saw The Cloud beat Master of Light, and the prestigious Barronstown Plate was won by Mr H S Kenny’s Princess. In September 1916 Limerick Junction opened for business. |
| This racecourse is covered in Volume 4 of Racecourses Here Today and Gone Tomorrow. Ordering details shown below. |
| Local Patrons |
Major Dixon |
| Principal Races |
Barronstown Plate, Tipperary Plate |
Wednesday 2nd June 1915
Barronstown Plate over 2 ¼ miles
1. Princess, 6 year old owned by Mr H S Kenny
2. Lady Aldborough, 4 year old owned by Mr S Grehan
3. Dundesert, aged horse owned by Major D Dixon |
| The final meeting took place on Thursday 3rd June 1915. |
| Course today |
On the edge of Barronstown. |
| If you have photos, postcards, racecards. badges, newspaper cuttings or book references about the old course, or can provide a photo of how the ground on which the old racecourse stood looks today, then email johnwslusar@gmail.com |
Much of the information about this course has been found using internet research and is in the public domain. However, useful research sources have been:-
London Illustrated News
Racing Illustrated 1895-1899
The Sporting & Dramatic Illustrated
Northern Turf History Volumes 1-4 by J.Fairfax-Blakeborough
The Sporting Magazine
A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt first published in 1996 ISBN 0 900599 89 8
Racing Calendars which were first published in 1727 |
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ISBN 978-0-9957632-0-3
652 pages
774 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-1-0
352 pages
400 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-2-7
180 pages
140 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-3-4
264 pages
235 former courses |
| Copies of the above books are only available by emailing johnwslusar@gmail.com stating your requirements, method of payment (cheque payable to W.Slusar) or Bank transfer, and the address where the book(s) should be sent. |
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