Irish newspapers are a valuable source of information for studies of the development of textile industries and their impact on the growth of towns and villages during the first half of the eighteenth century. A search has revealed two advertisements relating to the village of Dunmanway, situated in an isolated location near the source of the River Bandon in County Cork, which in the mid-eighteenth century was an important centre of textile manufacturing. Contemporary descriptions of Dunmanway include the reports of inspectors to the Linen Board, correspondence between Sir Richard Cox, the village landowner, and Thomas Prior, a founder member of the Dublin Society and an essay by Prior which described the characteristics of the Irish linen industry.