A Taste of Old Comber

The Town & its History

Len Ball & Desmond Rainey

Renowned for its spuds and whiskey, and for its great 19th century fairs, the little County Down town of Comber has a rich and eventful history.

This book tells its story from the Stone Age to the present. We read of the forgotten monastery whose graveyard runs underneath the Square. Of the Scots 'invasion', which saw the creation of two rival Combers. Of the inspired local entrepreneurs who turned the 'mean village' into an industrial town. And of the identity crisis that hit the town following its submergence in Belfast's commuter-land.

On the way we meet all sorts of local luminaries, including Fannie McRoberts, the local 'poet laureate', Major General Robert Rollo Gillespie, whose statue adorns the Square, and the legendary Cummer Ann, utterer of the immortal line, 'I come from Comber, and I pish where I like'.

Book Details

ISBN 1 870132 06 8

Paperback 128 pages, 90 illustrations

Book Reviews

'a model and very professional local history' Books Ireland

'an entertaining and readable journey through the history of Comber... written in an entertaining, colloquial style' Due North

'a grand job' Ulster Archaeological Society Newsletter

Other local history books

• Portavo: an Irish Townland and its peoples Part one: earliest times - 1844
• Portavo: an Irish Townland and its peoples Part two: the famine to the present
• Two Centuries of Life in Down, 1600-1800
• Newtown, A History of Newtownards
• The Most Unpretending of Places A History of Dundonald, County Down
• Donaghadee: An Illustrated History
• Yes, Matron