WALSH, MICHAEL *

Builder, of Foynes, Co. Limerick.  Michael Walsh, who may have originally been a stonemason by trade, was active as a contractor in Co. Limerick and beyond, from the 1850s onwards.   His building commissions increased during the following decades, the most noteworthy being the contracts for two major churches by JOHN JOSEPH MCCARTHY& JOHN JOSEPH MCCARTHY& #160; in Ballingarry and Kilmallock, Co. Limerick.   He combined his building activities with the development of various commercial and farming concerns in the district.  

Michael Walsh married  Mary Cusack circa 1850.  The couple had nine daughters and a son before Mary's death in September 1872, one month after giving birth to twin girls.  Walsh, who survived her for nearly twenty-three years, died aged 72 at his residence, the Monteagle Hotel, Foynes, on 25 June 1895 and was buried at Askeaton two days later.(1)  All but two of his children predeceased him.  According to a notice of his death in the Limerick Chronicle, he 'carried out extensive contracts, and proved himself a capital business man...who gained the esteem of all that came in contact with him'. (1)

For other works by Walsh, search on 'Executant' field in Advanced Search 

All information in this entry not otherise accounted for is from Dolores Mullins (great-great-granddaughter of Michel Walsh), 'A Legacy in Stone: the architectural heritage of Michael Walsh, a Foynes building contractor' , Old Limerick Journal. No. 54 (Winter, 2019), 5-8, and from additional details supplied by Dolores Mullins in 2016 and 2020.


(1)   A long account of his funeral with a list of all who attended was published in the Munster News, 25 Jun 1895 (information from Dolores Mullins, 2020).
(2)  Limerick Chronicle, 27 Jun 1895 (information from Dolores Mullins, 2020).