Mallow (; ) is a town in County Cork, Ireland, approximately thirty-five kilometres north of Cork City. Mallow is in a townland and civil parish of the same name, in the barony of Fermoy.
Name
The earliest form of the name is Magh nAla, meaning "plain of the stone". In the anglicisation "Mallow", -ow originally represented a reduced schwa sound (), which is now however pronounced as a full vowel . In 1975, Mala—a shortening of Magh nAla—was among the first Irish placenames adopted by statute, on the advice of the Placenames branch of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland.
In the Annals of the Four Masters, compiled in the 1630s, Magh nAla is misrepresented as Magh Eala, the County Donegal-based authors being insufficiently familiar with County Cork places. P.W. Joyce in 1869 surmised that in Magh Eala , Ealla referred to the river Blackwater, and connected the name to the nearby barony of Duhallow. (grid ref: 485 873, Latitude: 52.035818N Longitude: 8.751181W).
The first Mallow Castle was built in 1185 on the orders of King John.
Williamite War in Ireland (1690)
On 16 September 1690, shortly after the failed Siege of Limerick but before the Siege of Cork, Colonel Moritz Melchior von Donop, commanding of the second regiment of Danish cavalry, reconnoitred Mallow and destroyed the bridge. He reported encountering a group of Jacobite raparees in Mallow, perhaps 3000 strong. Following his return Major General Ernst von Tettau and Major General Scravenmore devised a ruse whereby a small force of 100 cavalry and 50 dragoons was detached from the overall force of 1200 Horse, 300 Dragoons, and 2 Companies of Danish Foot. These acted as bait and successfully lured out the Jacobites commanded by Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan and routing them, with 300 raparees dead. Some accounts claim that only Sarsfield and five companions escaped the battle.
Irish War of Independence
During the Irish War of Independence, the town served as the headquarters of the North Cork Militia (also known as North Cork Rifles), a unit in the Irish Republican Army (IRA). On 27 September 1920, IRA commanders Ernie O'Malley and Liam Lynch led the Cork No. 2 Brigade in an attack against the military barracks in Mallow, which was garrisoned by elements of the 17th Lancers. The successful attack saw the IRA capture large quantities of firearms and ammunition, partially burning the barracks in the process. A Sergeant based in the barracks was killed in the attack. In reprisal, angered soldiers from Buttevant and Fermoy went on a rampage in Mallow, burning several main street premises, including Mallow Town Hall and the local creamery, on the next day.
In February 1921, the IRA killed the wife of RIC Captain W. H. King during a botched assassination attempt on her husband near the Mallow railway station. In retaliation, a detachment of the Black and Tans briefly occupied the station, arresting and killing three of its occupants- Patrick Devitt, Daniel Mullane and Denis Bennett, all of whom were railway workers. The killings prompted an industrial action by the National Railworkers Union in Britain and Ireland.
Captain Rubén Ocaña landing
Mallow Racecourse, now known as Cork Racecourse, became an emergency airfield on 18 April 1983, when a Mexican Gulfstream II business jet piloted by Captain Rubén Ocaña made a precautionary landing. A temporary tarmacadam runway of 910 m (3,000 ft) in length which was paid for by the plane's insurers was laid to enable the aircraft to leave five weeks later. In the meantime, Captain Ocaña became a local celebrity. On 23 May 1983 just before the plane departed, the captain said his farewell to the people of Ireland in the Irish language. The F3A World Model Aircraft Aerobatic Championship was held there in 2001. The incident formed the basis of the 2010 film '. Following Ocaña's death in 2009, his family travelled to Mallow in 2023 to scatter his ashes at the racecourse during "OcanaFest", a local event held in his honour. A 2007 reading at one building in the town was one of the highest levels of radon ever found in Ireland, being more than 60 times above the acceptable limit.