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HISTORY OF SIXMILEBRIDGE
Sixmilebridge, or Droichead Abhann í gCearnaigh, derives its name in both languages from the bridge over the O'Garney river which flows through the village. The village developed around a crossing point on the river. William Petty, in his Down survey map of 1585, showed a collection of buildings on both sides of the river. Donough O'Brien, the 4th Earl of Thomond, built the present bridge in 1610, but undoubtedly there was an earlier bridge over the river before this date. From then, up to 1802 when the bridge at Bunratty was built, traffic between Limerick and Ennis had to pass through Sixmilebridge. Although D'Esterres bridge and the Oil Mills bridge are downriver from Sixmilebridge and were built in the late 1700s, they were convenient for local traffic only.

The name of the Roman Catholic parish is Sixmilebridge and encompasses the three Church of Ireland parishes of Kilfinaghty, Kilmurry and Feenagh. Kilfinaghty commemorates St. Finaghta, an 8th century saint who had his foundation in Ballysheen. The present ruined church in Ballysheen dates from the 13th century and that of Feenagh from the 15th century. The church in Kilmurry was located where the present graveyard is, but has now disappeared. It dated from the 14th century. The earliest reference to these parishes is in papal documents dated 1302, when they were taxed to help fund a crusade to capture Jerusalem. In the post reformation period, the reformed or Anglican church inherited the buildings and parishes of the old Celtic Christian church and retained the original parish names. It is appropriate that Kilfinaghty is preserved in the name of the new public library, located in the de-consecrated Church of Ireland parish church.

EARLY HISTORY
A little is known about the early history of the parish. From archaelogical evidence, it is known that people lived in the district in the late Stone age, the Bronze age and the Iron age. Early Christian missionaries visited the area and left their names on blessed wells (St. Mochulla in Rathmore and St. Faoile in Kilmurry) as well as St. Finaghta of Ballysheen. People lived in crannógs, which are man-made or artifically enhanced islands. Rosroe and Mountcashel lakes have examples of these. People also lived in the numerous earthen ringforts, still to be seen in the area. Placenames with the words rath or lios indicate the locations of these ringforts.  Political organisation at the time was tribal, the mass of people living under the protection of a tribal or clan chief.

By the 10th century, the Vikings had a permanent settlement in Limerick. They were certainly in the Sixmilebridge area as they were given a grant of land by the O'Briens, who were the dominant Clare clan at the time, stretching from the city up to into the Cratloe hills. This grant is believed to be the explanation of why the diocese of Limerick now extends into Clare as far as Sixmilebridge village. Three quarters of the village is in the Diocese of Killaloe, while the remainder is in the parish of Cratloe, in the Diocese of Limerick.

ECONOMIC GROWTH
With the Irish leaders and the bulk of the army exiled on the continent as the Wild Geese, the chances of further rebellion greatly diminished. The Earl of Thomond again resumed his policy of attracting Protestant settlers. Numerous leases from this period and from the 18th century attest to his efforts in this area. Sixmilebridge experienced a period of growth which was to last almost 100 years, until the beginning of the 19th century. Moland's maps of the Thomond estates, prepared in 1703, show a number of houses in Sixmilebridge, and also in Newpark and Cappagh. A new church was built, as was a courthouse and bridewell and a police barracks. In 1733, the Ievers, in imitation of the O'Brien efforts on the west side of the river, laid out the east side of the village. The centrepiece of their development was a market house and adjacent square which ran down to the river. The square was named Hanover Square and the streets radiating off were named Henry, Orange and George's Street. George's Street terminated in Frederick square, which is more a triangle, as it is bounded on two sides by buildings and a millpond on the third side. Corn and woolen mills were constructed along the O'Garney, the remains of which remain to a varying extent. The village also contained a brewery and distillery and cider was made. The market house sold a large variety of agricultural foodstuffs, lace and woolen goods. A cattle fair was held in the square beside the market house. Another fair was also held in the D'Esterre lands in Newpark.

Much of the wealth derived from this industry, stayed in the hands of the minority Protestant colonists. The penal laws, which were enacted after the siege of Limerick, ensured that the native Irish were deprived of commercial and political power and religious and educational freedom during much of this period. Little is known of their life but that they existed as tenant farmers, labourers and small shopkeepers. Travellers in Ireland at the time report people living in numerous poor cabins at the sides of the road. There were famines in the 18th century, due to prolonged periods of frost, which killed the potato and corn crops and caused widespread death from starvation and cholera. These famines were minor compared with what was to come. In the second half of the century, it became more profitable to raise cattle rather than have tillage, due to demand from Britain. Fields which were largely open at this time, were enclosed and tenants were evicted. Many of the field boundaries we have today, originate from this period. These enclosures were violently resisted by a secret society called the Whiteboys or Levellers but ultimately to no avail. The Whiteboys were very active in North Clare but apparently less so in the Sixmilebridge area.

A military force called the Sixmilebridge yeomanry was set up to protect the interests of the minority and to ensure that the majority Irish did not rise up as had happened in the previous century. Hanover square's alternative name was the Parade, so called because of drills and displays put on by the militia. A remnant of that time is the ramp to the river opposite Crowe's shop, which was constructed to allow the militia's horses to access the river water. Mount Ievers Court, the residence of the Ievers family, has two sentry positions which were manned by the militia.

Carriage of goods by water directly to Sixmilebridge, rather than off-loading at Limerick port may appear unusual, but it was a reflection of the extremely poor state of the roads at the time. An act of George II in 1733 authorised the construction and repair of a road from Tubber on the Clare/Galway border through Ennis, Ardsollus, Sixmilebridge and Mount Ievers to the North Liberties of Limerick. This road is now the Wood road and the R462 to Sixmilebridge. After Sixmilebridge, the road continued to Ballycar where the present day Crabtree pub was an inn on the route. There had been a roadway of some sort between Limerick and Sixmilebridge from at least the time of the Normans in the 14th century. The pre-1733 road may still be seen to the north and south of Poulawooly bridge. (As a point of interest, Poulawooly is a corruption of Poll an Mhárla, the marl hole. Marl was used a fertiliser and a fee had to be paid to the McNamaras of Ballintlea castle for extracting this marl). Pelham's map of 1787 shows the road network around Sixmilebridge at the time. In addition to the road to Limerick, roads are shown to Bunratty, Rosmanagher, Ballycar, Kilmurry (which crossed the river at Mountcashel and not at Annagore as it now does) and Gallows Hill. The road network was poor at the time and was not substantially improved or extended until the 19th century when existing roads were widened and new roads and bridges were built.

DECLINE AND FAMINE
The 19th century saw a decline in the fortunes of Sixmilebridge. Visitors to the village in 1801, 1837 and 1845 commmented on the poor condition of the village at the time of their visit and contrasted it with its industrious past. This economic decline was nationwide and was attributed, in part, to the defeat of Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Ireland had provided horses, wool and food for the British army and with the advent of peace, demand for these products dropped considerably. However, the decline in Sixmilebridge predated this battle. Contributing factors to the decline were investor unease caused by the 1798 rebellion, the adverse effects of the Act of Union in 1801, trade barriers to Irish imports into Britain, the construction of the road and bridge at Bunratty in 1804 which meant that Sixmilebridge was bypassed, and the indolence of some landlords who absented themselves from their estates and only showed an interest on May 1 and November 1, the"gale" days, when rent was due from their tenants.

The lot of the native Irish did not materially improve. Although the penal laws were repealed, the majority population continued to survive at a subsistence level. Small holders with their own land grew potatoes, kept a pig and purchased milk and other neccessities. Few were willing to invest money to improve their property as their tenancy was not secure. Indeed, few could put money aside to tide them over a lean period. The larger farmers, that is with 15 acres or more, had some cushion. The landless, who made up the majority of the population had no cushion at all. As the population increased, people squatted in the upland parts of the parish and previously uncultivated land was brought into use. The remains of raised potato beds may still be seen in the wet uplands near Oatfield.The network of paths, especially in the Cratloe Hills, attests to a large population density, now of course all gone. Similarly disappeared is the large number of houses in Corlea townland, surveyed in the 1840s and shown on the first edition of the 6" Ordnance Survey map. The table below shows how the population of Sixmilebridge parish changed in the first half of the 19th century. (the figures for 1821 and 1831 are estimates).

Civil Parish 1821  1831  1841  1851

The sharp drop between 1841 and 1851 was of course due to the Great Famine of 1845 to 1850. The disappeared either died from illness or starvation or emigrated, but is not known how many fall into each category. They were mainly from the landless segment of the population and have left little or no physical remains. The houses they lived in were one-roomed cabins, most of which have disappeared with the passage of time. There is also very little folklore about the effects of the famine other than a report of the starving of Cratloe who were reduced to eating grasses. This lack of folklore is paralled in the rest of Ireland and was puzzling to historians for a long time. It is now believed that the survivors of that period suffered from what is termed "survivor guilt" and choose not to talk about that event.

1852 ELECTION RIOT
Compared with other parts of Ireland, Sixmilebridge had been relatively peaceful since the 1690s. In the post-famine period, this changed dramatically and the causes of the subsequent disturbances were tenant rights and land reform. In 1852, a riot occurred outside the courthouse in which 9 locals were shot by a detachment of the British army. The soldiers were escorting a group of 40 farmers from Meelick to vote in the Parliamentary election. They were attacked by a crowd of 200 people, led by 3 local parish priests, who feared they were going to vote for the Conservative candidate (Vandeleur) rather than the Irish Independence candidates (O'Brien and Fitzgerald).

INDEPENDANCE
Some landlords who survived the famine sought to make their land more productive by drainage, for example the O'Garney drainage works of the 1860s, by cultivating upland soils as carried out in Cloghoolia by Thomas Cregan, by straightening field boundaries and reorganising tenancies - known as striping - , as was done in Cloghoolia and Cooleycasey and by providing improved housing for their tenants, for example in the Leconsfield estate in Ballysheen and Moygalla and in the Wilson-Lynch estate in Belvoir. Wilson-Lynch was an exceptional landlord in that he took a genuine interest in the condition of his tenants and built schools for their children, one of which has been reconstructed in Bunratty folk-park. Other landlords were not willing to change or negotiate with their tenants, for example the D'Esterres of Rosmanagher, and these were boycotted in a campaign organised by the Land League. By the end of the 19th century, after a succession of acts of Parliament, and by the extension of the vote, power was effectively transferred to the majority population. The division of the large estates and transfer of land ownership to the majority was not completed until after the new state was founded in 1921. The population decline of Sixmilebridge continued into the 20th century as a resilt of emigration and people not marrying or marrying late in life. The decline of Sixmilebridge as a functioning village was halted in the 1950s due to the arrival of Shannon Airport and its associated industrial zone and improvements in methods of agriculture.  Sixmilebridge is now one of the major population centres of Co. Clare.