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Buttevant is an old market town in North Cork located between
Cork and Limerick. Buttevant holds a very old horse fair each year
called the Cahirmee Horse Fair, and it is claimed that Napoleon's
horse, Marengo, was bought at this fair from a Kerryman named O'Connor.
The ruin of Buttevant's old Friary can still be seen in Buttevant.
Barry is a very common Cork name nowadays but the first Barrys
were Anglo-Norman de Barry, who established in here on MacCarthy lands about the 13th
Century. 'Boutez-an-avant' was their war cry, and some say that the name of the town came
from that. More sober historians primly explain that it comes from
botavant, Norman-French
for an advance rampart.
The first ever steeplechase took place here in the year
1752, from the Steeple of Buttevant Protestant Church to that of
Doneraile, 4.5miles (7km) away.
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