There is a long tradition of mills and milling in Clane. The "Civil Survey" of 1654 states that "Upon ye foresaid lands of Clane there were two mills, one of which belonged unto William Sarsfield of Lucan (Co. Dublin) and ye other belonged unto Nicholas Wogan Esqr. of Rathcoffie , both of which mills are now wast."

Early copies of the Leinster Leader of over one hundred years ago carry advertisements for worsted and other fabrics produced at McCracken's Woollen Mills at Clane. The advertisements proclaim that the woollen mills were at that time established for over eighty years. Henry Joy McCracken, a leader of the United Irishmen and a friend of Wolfe Tone, owned a large textile business in Belfast. It is recorded that when Robert Brook's Cotton Mills collapsed at Prosperous, some of the workers found employment at the textile mills in Clane.

Corn milling was carried out on the opposite side of the river and older residents remember Slevin's Mill, then disused when the local amateur group, under the direction of Fr. Hannon, c.c, staged plays there prior to the building of Clane Hall in 1925. It was also the venue for Irish classes run by the Gaelic League early in the century. Rightly or wrongly, Douglas Hyde has been mentioned as having taught there.

Footnote:
William Sarsfield, mentioned above, owned 214 acres of land at "Ballinagappagh", 166 acres at "Betaghstowne" and 236 acres at "Keapock", all in the parish of Clane.

Reproduced from "Le Chéile" by kind permission