the tholsel

Tholsel which stands at the junction of West Street and Shop Street. This is a fine builiding of local limestone, surmounted by a tower, which houses a large four-faced clock. Erected in 1770 on the site of the old mediaeval wooden Tholsel, it was for almost 130 years the centre of municipal authority, until the Corporation moved its offices and Council Chambers to the then newly-erected Courthouse in Fair Street in 1889. It is now occupied by the Bank of Ireland Group, who keep the building in excellent condition. The Tholsel has been for countless generations a local trysting place, and before the advent of radio and television, with their constant time checks, Drogheda's clocks and watches were set by its dependable old time-piece. Barnaby Gooche's "Map of Drogheda 1574" shows a market cross standing in the open space before the Tholsel, no doubt that same cross which the Corporation ordered to be pulled down in 1666.