Cloughjordan, situated in north Tipperary, is reputedly called Cloch Shiurdáin as the Norman crusader, Jordan de Marisco was said to have brought a stone from the river Jordan to put in the walls of the town house he built there in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Signs of much earlier settlement are also evident in the locality including a major ring fort, megalithic burial sites and, in the ecovillage, the remains of fulachtaí fia. Following the Cromwellian invasion, Captain John Harrison was granted lands in the area and he built houses for the soldiers of his regiment, incorporating the old de Marisco tower house into a new building, today’s Cloughjordan House neighbouring the ecovillage. As a result, the town of Cloughjordan has a mix of Christian church communities – Catholic, Anglican and Methodist – that continues to the present day.
In the 19th century the town became a centre for market produce and the location for fairs. In 1864, the railway arrived helping establish it as a major market venue, linking the town to Dublin and Limerick. A signatory of the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic, Thomas MacDonagh, was born in Cloughjordan in 1878 and grew up on the main street. His early poetry reflects the nature around the town. A Heritage Centre named after him was opened by the Minister for Culture, Jimmy Deenehan in 2012 and is a site for commemoration of the centenary of the Easter Rising.
Cloughjordan today is a lively town with a population of around 500 and a host of sporting, cultural and business activities.