Zero tolerance in old Kilkenny

ceptable in a "civilized" age.

BY JOHN FITZGERALD

e advent of cement streets and pathways made it easier to keep Kilkenny swept clean and to keep litter at bay. But it wasn’t so easy back in 1336 when things were decidedly rotten in Cat City.

In that year, Gilbert Fort was Sovereign- or Mayor- of the town and commons of Kilkenny. He enacted a decree that obliged every citizen to sweep the pavement outside his or her house. is act of cleanliness was to be performed twice weekly: on Wednesday and Saturday. Anyone failing to sweep in accordance with this ruling was ned sixpence, threepence on Wednesday and three pence on Saturday.

Two years later, in 1337, a new Mayor adopted a more e ective get tough policy to keep Kilkenny tidy…if not exactly beautiful. Sovereign John Cross was determined to punish litterlouts, and the Corporation agreed with his sentiments. It banned the washing of clothes or animal entrails in public fountains, a practice that the nobility found obnoxious and totally unac- e Ducking Stool was even nastier. Bound to the stool, the prisoner was lowered into water to receive a ducking, hence the name given to this instrument. With the stool resting on a riverbank, or held over a large bath, the chastiser operated a special lever attached to the stool to subject his prisoner to whatever degree of su ering and humiliation he or she had merited. e ducking stool was also used in Kilkenny to restrain "loud women" and convicted gossipmongers. e logic behind ducking such unfortunate women was to "cool their immoderate heat", according to the Town Sovereign. An English rhymester of later years summed up the popular attitude of men towards the public ducking of women. If jarring females kindle strife, Give language foul, or lug the coif, If noisy dames should once begin

To deter the practice, the Corporation decreed that any such clothes or entrails should be con scated and that the people washing them in the fountains would be placed in either a Tumbrel or Ducking Stool. e Tumbrel generally consisted of a cart on wheels. It was also known as the Scold’s Cart. e culprit was strapped into this, wheeled along public streets, and exposed to the jeers of the people.

To ll the house with horrid din, Away, you cry, you'll grace the stool; We'll teach you how your tongue to rule. Cruel hus- bands could also, legally, be complained by their wives and receive a ducking in the nearest pond or at a suitable spot along the Banks of the Nore, but men ruled and it was the women who mainly su ered. Another instrument used to punish women accused of excessive gossiping was the scold’s bridle. is was an iron cage designed to t around the head. It had a spiked tongue of iron.

When the clamp was placed on the woman’s head, the adjustable iron spike would be positioned directly over her tongue to e ectively prevent speaking. If the clamped woman tried to talk, she su ered an injury and her tongue bled. Women in clamps were sometimes paraded through the streets of Kilkenny, to draw the ridicule of the populace, including other women who, in many cases, were as guilty as their clamped fellow citizens of talking too much. Hefty nes for gossiping in later centuries replaced this cruel form of punishment.

Needless to say, more serious o ences were punished in Kilkenny as elsewhere in Ireland by the application of correspondingly greater penalties. Murderers, armed robbers, burglars, and forgers were among those hanged for their misdeeds.

Treason carried the death penalty with added pain! In addition to being half-hanged and taken down from the scaffold before expiring, you then had your intestines cut out and burned in front of you.

You’d still be conscious but in considerable pain as the re and smoke rose from your extracted insides. To (quite literally) add insult to injury, you’d hear the cheering of the throng amidst your anguish. A public disemboweling drew bigger crowds than a hurling match or bull-baiting. It was a festive occasion.

After all that agony, you were beheaded. Your body was then quartered and perhaps hung in chains for a few weeks as a warning to other would-be traitors.

To prevent them from rotting too quickly, the head and quarters were parboiled. ough the exact details of the punishment varied slightly from one execution to another, this was more or less the norm for treason, whether you were guilty of it or wrongly accused by somebody with a grudge.

To be continued…

Mayor of Kilkenny, Cllr David FitzGerald has said the South East Technological University strategic plan is "very disappointing" from a Kilkenny perspective. Cllr FitzGerald was reacting to the SETU strategic plan which was o cially launched in Kilkenny in the Tírlan o ces in the Abbey Quartre yesterday.

Mayor of Kilkenny Cllr David FitzGerald said Kilkenny was ignored as a key stakeholder.

" e failure to identify the need for a dedicated Kilkenny Campus with full faculty support ignores Kilkenny's role as a key stakeholder in the South East region. Despite the submission from Kilkenny County Council, the plan talks in generalities about the region while failing to address the speci c needs of students in Kilkenny.

If implemented, this plan con rms my worst fears that SETU is simply a "rebranding exercise" for Waterford and Carlow IT. is plan doesn't attempt to deliver the long sought Kilkenny University Campus.’’