LARRY ROCHES DROMIN – FACTION FIGHTING, WWI AND OLYMPIC MEDALS IN POWER’S NEW BOOK
Seemingly never idle, prolific Mitchelstown writer, Bill Power is adding a new book to his name, Larry Roche’s Dromin, a book that delves into the fascinating history of Dromin, a small village in Co Limerick, and one of the notable families in the village, the Roches.
The book details faction fighting in the 1800s, accounts of WWI and even Olympic medals won by family members in various disciplines through the years.
“Dromin is a small place in Co Limerick and this chap called Larry Roche was a major in the British Army in WWI. In 1932 he wrote a history of Dromin that was never published. I discovered it a few years ago when I was doing a project for Ballyhoura Development and this was shown to me as information on the village,” Mr Power told The Avondhu.
Along with information on faction fighting in the 1800s, Mr Roche described in his copybook the big markets that Dromin was famous for.
“We were able to build on that because a number of his close family won Olympic medals in athletics mostly, hammer throwing and running between 1890 and 1920. They were taking part for America and Britain, where they emigrated. Larry himself was captain of the first Limerick team to win an All-Ireland; so there is a whole other story there that comes into it. Fortunately someone had really nice photographs of a lot of these people in a collection and we’ve been able to use them for the book,” explained the writer.
The book is due to be published by Easter and proceeds will be directed to charitable purposes.
Published:
Thursday 6th May 9:13pm
