and, although there is no direct proof that this was the case, many
facts tend to support the supposition. In the first place, as De
Courcy settled a colony in Carrickfergus shortly after his conquest
of Ulster, it is most likely that he would provide some means for its
protection. Again, it was for a long time the hereditary property of
the Earls of Ulster, who were descended from De Courcy. The ancient
seal of the mayor of the town bears a spread-eagle, which was the De
Courcy crest, and several coins of Henry II.’s time have been found
near the building. In a preface to State Papers the editors say that
“the oldest fort in Ulster is Carrickfergus, built in the days of De
Courcy, and never out of the possession of the English.”
In 1605, the Lord Deputy applying for means to have it restored,
remarks it was “founded by his Majesty’s ancestors, and much needing
repair.”
[Illustration: CARRICKFERGUS CASTLE
(From an Engraving made in 1838.)]
It is likely King John stayed in the castle during his visit to
Carrickfergus in 1210, and an order is preserved to the Bishop of
Norwich to buy supplies for it that year. It appears to have passed
into the hands of Hugh de Lacy when King John granted him Ulster, but
in 1223 a garrison was to be placed in the castle lest it should be
attacked by De Lacy, who was then plotting against the King.
The following year a band of knights and soldiers were despatched by
the Earl of Pembroke for its further defence. Although it was being
besieged by Hugh they managed to get into the fortress safely, and the
siege was then raised.
Two years afterwards the custody of the castle was granted to Hugh de
Lacy’s brother Walter.
In 1245 an order was issued for its repair, and later (1253) it was
assigned by the King as part of the dowry of Eleanor, Queen Consort.
In 1315 the castle was besieged by Edward Bruce, and Lord Mandeville,
who endeavoured to relieve it, failed to do so. The gallant little
garrison held out for more than a year, and it is said they were
reduced to eating eight Scotch prisoners who had died within the walls.
Upon the arrival of King Robert Bruce to aid his brother, the fortress
was surrendered. After the death of Edward Bruce the castle passed
again into the hands of the English, and it appears to have been the
only place in Antrim not in the possession of the O’Neills after the
assassination of the Earl of Ulster, 1333.
In 1337 the King appointed a constable to the castle under the belief
that he was the owner of the stronghold, instead of holding it only
during the minority of the Earl of Ulster, and as there was a constable
already in office, compensation had to be found for the disappointed
custodian. From this time there was a long list of constables, the
last being Stewart Banks, Esq., of Belfast, who used merely to attend
annually to see the Mayor sworn in the outer yard of the castle. In
1461 an Act of Parliament decreed that none but Englishmen should hold
the office of Governor. The position is now a mere sinecure.
In 1390, in an order for repair, the castle is described as being
“totally destitute and desolate of defence,” and sixteen years later
its state does not seem to have been much improved.
For the next two years it was kept for nothing by Sir James Whyte, who
then (1408) petitioned the Crown to give him aid against the threatened
attack of O’Donnell and his Scots.
After the order for English custodians, James, Earl of Douglas, was
appointed Governor of Carrickfergus Castle in 1463.
At the beginning of the next century Clannaboy Niall, son of Con of
Belfast, was prisoner in the castle on account of a row between his
servants and some soldiers (1507). He exchanged his freedom for sixteen
hostages, but no sooner was he liberated than he returned with his
followers and took the castle and the Mayor, and rescued his pledges.
In 1552 Sorley Boy MacDonnell surprised Carrickfergus and carried off
Walter Floody, the constable of the castle. In consequence of these
disturbances the Earl of Sussex marched to relieve the town in 1555.
Two years later Hugh O’Neill Oge and some other prisoners in the castle
escaped to join James M’Donnell. In 1559 the fortress was walled in and
repaired. The building seems to have been much dilapidated in 1567, and
upon Sir Henry Sidney coming north the following year, he had the keep
roofed and restored. When the Earl of Essex arrived by sea in 1573,
he reports that he discharged the ward of the castle, for it “doth
not serve of any use, having in it very few rooms, and none of those
covered, so as I have no apt place to employ her Majesty’s munition and
other store but in wet vaults.”
From 1583 to 1598 Carrickfergus was the only town held by the Queen
in the district, and in the latter year the castle was but poorly
provisioned.
General Monroe, with four thousand Scotch auxiliaries, landed and took
the castle in 1642, but four years later he was surprised by General
Monk, who occupied the stronghold for the Parliament, being made
Governor of it shortly afterwards.
The next year, but small resistance was offered to Lord Inchiquin, who
then held it for the King for a few months, and it was retaken by Sir
Charles Coote, who appointed a Governor for the Commonwealth.
In 1666, while the Duke of Ormond was at the head of affairs, so
great was the dissatisfaction that the castle was seized by mutinous
soldiers, and a strong force was required to quell the disturbance.
Eight years later the fortress was ordered to be furnished with twenty
cannon.
The adherents of James II. sustained here a siege for six days from the
troops of the Duke of Schomberg in 1689, after which they surrendered.
It was on the 14th of June in this year that King William III. landed
at Carrickfergus from the yacht _Mary_.
In 1711 50 feet of the outer wall fell down, and the tower was roofed
with lead.
The castle was taken by the French Commodore Thurôt with three ships
of war in 1760, but his squadron was captured a few days later by the
English fleet.
In 1797 the United Irishmen laid a plot to seize the castle, which was
discovered by one of the garrison turning informer.
The year after the rebellion State prisoners were confined at
Carrickfergus, having been sent from Belfast. At one time the fortress
was used as a prison for all Antrim.
In 1814 a small square tower on the south side was taken down and
rebuilt.
The castle is now in the possession of the Crown.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
State Papers.
Russell and Prendergast, Preface to State Papers.
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
M. Haverty, “History of Ireland.”
Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club Guide.
S. M’Skimin, “History of Carrickfergus.”
Calendar of Patent Rolls.
Sweetman, Calendar of Documents.
Carew MSS.
“Notes on a Plan of Carrickfergus.”
J. Bell, “Origin of the Name of Carrickfergus”
(_Ulster Journal of Archæology_).
[Illustration: CARRICK-ON-SUIR CASTLE.]
_CARRICK-ON-SUIR CASTLE_
“The court of Carrick is a court well fortified.
A court to which numbers of the noble resort,
A court noted for politeness--a court replete with pleasures,
A court thronged with heroes,
A court without torchlight, yet a court illumed;
A court of the light of wax tapers!
A plentiful mansion--so artistically stuccoed
With sun-lit gables and embroidery-covered walls.”
Translated from Irish by J. O’DALY.
Nineteen miles south-by-west of Kilkenny, in the Barony of East Iffa
and Offa, County Tipperary, stands the old town of Carrick on the left
bank of the Suir. The name Carrick is derived from a rock in the Suir
at the point where the town is built. The castle was erected by Edmond
le Bottiller in 1309, he being created Earl of Carrick six years later.
Upon his son receiving the title of Earl of Ormond the old title fell
into disuse.
The present remains consist of two great towers of the Plantagenet
castle, rising behind the Tudor mansion which was erected by Thomas,
10th Earl of Ormond, in the reign of Elizabeth. Although not now
inhabited it is preserved from further decay.
The two quadrangular towers of the older fortress stand on the river
bank, and are separated by a courtyard which was entered on the north
by an arched gateway from the river front. In one of these towers is
situated the chapel, which is connected with the banqueting hall by a
narrow passage. A strong light from a double window falls upon the
altar, round which is the remains of a carved stone canopy supported by
the figures of angels.
The Tudor house which connects the older buildings is a many-gabled
mansion, and said by O’Donovan to be the most perfect specimen of that
period’s architecture in Ireland.
The ceiling of the Great Hall is a beautiful example of stucco work.
It is divided by richly-moulded ribs enclosing Tudor emblems, and arms
and mottoes relating to the Ormond family. This apartment is 63 feet in
length by 15 feet in breadth, and is lighted by mullioned windows, that
on the north side being large and deeply recessed. It also contains
several handsome chimney-pieces.
The walls were richly hung with tapestry, which was removed at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, some of it being transferred to
Kilkenny Castle.
Little is known of the history of the early feudal fortress. Several
charters granted by the Ormonds as Lords Palatine of Tipperary are
dated from Carrick, showing that the family were occasionally in
residence.
There is a tradition that Anne Boleyn was born in the castle. Thomas,
Earl of Carrick and Ormond, who died in 1515, had two daughters, one
of whom married Sir William Boleyn, a London merchant, and she was
grandmother to the future Oueen. History is uncertain where Anne
Boleyn was born, as several places are mentioned; it is, therefore,
not impossible that at Carrick Elizabeth’s mother first saw the light.
Henry VIII. created Anne’s father Earl of Ormond and Wiltshire, but the
former title afterwards reverted to the Butlers.
In 1571 Perrott visited Carrick Castle during his campaign in Munster,
and it was plundered by the seneschal in the Desmond rebellion of 1582.
In the time of Thomas, 10th Earl of Ormond, it became the chief
residence of the family. Thomas Dubh, or the Black Earl, was the
favourite of Queen Elizabeth, who used to call him her “black
husband,” to the annoyance of his rival the Earl of Leicester. He
was a great statesman and chivalrous nobleman, and enjoyed the full
confidence of his Sovereign during her long reign.
In the latter years of his life he lived almost entirely at Carrick. A
glimpse of his loyal love for England is given by Sir John Davys in the
following observations of his on a journey in Munster in 1606:--
“And because I was to pass by the Carricke, a house of my Lord of
Ormond, where his lordship hath lain ever since his last weakness, I
went thither to visit his lordship and to rest there upon Easter Day;
but because the feast of St. George fell out in the Easter holidays, I
was not suffered in any wise to depart until I had seen him do honour
to that day. I found the Earl in his bed, for he was weaker at this
time than he had been for many months before; so that upon the day of
St. George he was not able to sit up, but had his robes laid upon his
bed, as the manner is. From thence I returned to Dublin at the end of
Easter week.”
Towards the end of his life, Earl Thomas was quite blind, and a quaint
old MS., discovered at Brussels in 1822, gives a graphic account of a
prophecy supposed to have been delivered by him at a Christmas family
gathering in Carrick Castle shortly before his death, which took place
in 1614.
Among those present at the feast were Sir Walter Butler, of Kilcash,
brother to the Earl, and also his son and grandson, James. The latter
was only four years old, and there being no room at the table, he
was let play about, and “being a sprightly boy, entertained himself
with a whipping of his gigg” (a kind of top) behind his great-uncle’s
chair. Black Thomas asked what the noise was, and being told, he took
the child (afterwards the great Duke of Ormond) between his knees and
said:--
“My family shall be much oppressed and brought very low; but by this
boy it shall be restored again, and in his time be in greater splendour
than ever it has been.”
Viscount Tullogh, who was the Earl’s son-in-law and heir, pushed back
his chair angrily from the table, and again the blind Earl asked who
made the noise. Upon hearing, he said--
“Ah! he is a flower that will soon fade.”
Shortly afterwards the Viscount died without children, and later events
proved the strange truth of the prophecy. A long law suit, manipulated
for political purposes, impoverished the earldom, but it was brought
to a satisfactory termination by James Butler of Kilcash marrying
Lady Elizabeth Preston, the other claimant to the estates through her
mother’s rights.
The young couple began their married life at Carrick, where Walter,
Earl of Ormond, joined them, and died in the castle in 1632.
When civil war broke out in 1646, James, then Marquis of Ormond, was
appointed Chief Governor and hastened from France. He landed at Cork,
and proceeded to Carrick. Here a deputation from the Confederate
Assembly of Kilkenny waited on him.
Three years later Cromwell’s troops, under Colonel Reynolds, took
the town of Carrick, and about a hundred of the garrison fled to the
castle, but surrendered the following day. It was well provisioned with
stores, and Cromwell, it is said, intended to winter there. Ormond,
hearing of its capture, despatched Lord Inchiquin to retake it. He was,
however, repulsed with great loss.
In the time of the Commonwealth Carrick Castle, with its demesne,
deer park, and 16,000 acres, were granted to Sir John Reynolds,
brother-in-law to Lord Henry Cromwell. Upon the Restoration it reverted
to its former owner, who was created Duke of Ormond. He spent much time
at Carrick, and did a great deal to improve the trade of the town.
In 1816 Mr. Wogan was the tenant of the castle, and he carried out
some restoration. After he left the place was dismantled, and for many
years was allowed to go entirely to decay. It is now, however, better
preserved.
In 1876, when the present Marquis married Lady Elizabeth Grosvenor,
daughter of the Duke of Westminster, a great feast for the Ormond
tenantry was held in the castle.
The fairy “Leather Apron” is said formerly to have haunted the kitchen
department and chastised servants who did not do their work.
A local legend foretells the fall of the fortress upon the wisest man.
An underground passage is said to connect the building with Edenderry
Castle.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
Mason, “Parochial Survey of Ireland.”
Murphy, “Cromwell in Ireland.”
Bagwell, “Ireland Under the Tudors.”
State Papers.
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
In Journal of _Kilkenny Archæological Society_,
“Panegyric on Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond.”
Graves, “Ancient Tapestry of Kilkenny Castle.”
Graves, “Anonymous account of the early life
and marriage of James, 1st Duke of Ormond.”
In _Journal of Waterford and South-East of Ireland
Archæological Society_, Hurley,
“Was Anna Boleyn born in the Castle of Carrick-on-Suir?”
In _Clonmel Chronicle_, “Carrick-on-Suir and its Ancient Castle.”
CARRIGOGUNNEL CASTLE
“A sort of strength, a strong and stately hold
It was at first, though now it is full old.
On rock alone full farre from other mount
It stands, which shews it was of great account.”
THOMAS CHURCHYARD.
This fortress, sometimes called Carrickaquicy, is situated five miles
west-south-west of Limerick City, in the same county, in the barony of
Pubble Brien. It stands on an abrupt basaltic rock which has forced
itself through the limestone, and is surrounded by low marshy ground
called Corkass land which stretches away to the Shannon.
O’Donovan states that the name signifies “rock of the O’Connolls,”
but it is more popularly believed to mean “rock of the candle,” and
several versions of the following legend are related to account for the
designation:--
The site of the castle was formerly supposed to be inhabited by a hag
of gigantic form called Grana, and every evening she lighted a candle
in her habitation, which from its elevated position was visible for
miles round, and every one who saw its light died before morning.
The great Finn hearing of this scourge ordered a man called Ryan to
go and extinguish the light, and presented him with a charmed cap to
accomplish the mission. This covered his eyes until he had scaled the
rock, seized the candle, and thrown it into the Shannon.
The witch in a fury was about to grasp him when he took a jump of two
miles westward, and she was only able
[Illustration: CARRIGOGUNNEL CASTLE.]
to vent her rage by hurling a rock after him, which is still pointed
out with the marks of her fingers on it to indicate the “Hag’s Throw.”
The castle ruins comprise one or two towers and part of the ramparts.
It was finally destroyed by gunpowder, and huge masses of masonry lie
about in all directions, indicating its once extensive proportions.
A great ash-tree adorns the centre of the pile.
William de Braose had large estates in Ireland when he was driven into
exile in 1210, his wife and son starved to death, and his Castle of
Carrigogunnel granted to Donogh Cairbreach O’Brien for a yearly rent of
60 marks.
This O’Brien had done homage to King John at Waterford, but he seems to
have been shortly afterwards deprived of his land.
In 1535 Lord Leonard Grey marched to Limerick and Mathew O’Brien
surrendered him the Castle of Carrigogunnel on condition it should only
be garrisoned by Englishmen. It was said at this time to have been in
undisturbed possession of the O’Briens for over two hundred years.
The Deputy garrisoned it under the command of George Woodward, “an
honest and a hardy man.”
In the meantime the fortress was given by indenture to Donough O’Brien
to hold for the King. He was son-in-law to the Earl of Ossory, and had
long been fawning on the Government with offers to besiege the castle
for them, if provided with a hundred men and a piece of ordnance.
The governor of the castle, no doubt regarding this arrangement as a
violation of the conditions on which the castle had been obtained,
handed it back to its former owner, Mathew O’Brien, which the State
Papers describe as losing it “by treachery.”
This was in 1536, and the same year Lord Butler appeared before it to
regain it for his relative, Donough O’Brien.
It was garrisoned partly by followers of Desmond and partly by those of
Mathew O’Brien.
A messenger was sent to them offering them their lives, but otherwise
no quarter. They returned no answer, but imprisoned the bearer.
A breach was soon made with a battering piece, and after several
attempts, the castle was carried by storm.
The besiegers lost thirty killed and wounded, while seventeen of the
defenders were killed in the attack, and forty-six were afterwards put
to death.
A few of the principal O’Briens were conveyed to Limerick, tried for
high treason, and executed. Large ransoms were offered for these men
but were refused.
The fortress was then committed to Lord Butler, and he transferred
it to Donough O’Brien, who, it is stated, “became a scourge to the
citizens of Limerick.”
James of Desmond besieged Carrigogunnel in 1538, and the following year
great complaints were lodged about the plundering of the neighbouring
country by the castle garrison.
Towards the close of the year these charges became so serious that
Donough O’Brien was deprived of his possession.
The castle was in the hands of Brien Duff O’Brien, chieftain of
Pobblebrien, in 1590, and is described as being very strong and “a most
dangerous place if the enemy were seized thereof.”
Donough O’Brien is mentioned as of Carrigogunnel in 1607, yet Brien
Duff O’Brien surrendered his possessions and the castle to the Queen
and received a patent for the same. He was knighted, and died in 1615.
Daniel O’Brien forfeited the castle and lands for taking part in the
rebellion of 1641. Charles II. granted Carrigogunnel and four plowlands
to Michael Boyle, Lord Archbishop of Dublin.
In Thomas Dineley’s Journal he states that it belonged to His Royal
Highness, and was at the time rented by the Primate and Chancellor of
Ireland.
Archdale says that it at one time belonged to the Knights Templars.
In 1691, during the second siege of Limerick, after the battle of
Aughrim, it was garrisoned by a Jacobite ward of a hundred and
fifty men. Baron Ginle sent a strong party and four guns, under the
command of Major-General Scravemore, to summon the castle, which was
relinquished without a blow. An historian of the time, commenting upon
this, says: “Which seems to have been rather from want of instructions
what to do than courage to defend it; for, to give the Irish their due,
they can defend stone walls very handsomely.”
The garrison were marched as prisoners of war to Clonmel, and the
following month both the Castle of Carrigogunnel and Castle Connell
were blown up. Dean Story received £160 to purchase gunpowder for their
demolition.
During the Whiteboy disturbances frequent meetings were held amid the
ruins.
Mr. and Mrs. Hall relate at length a sad tradition about the daughter
of a Palatine who was in love with one of the conspirators, and whose
father, having tracked her to the ruins, was only saved from being put
to death by her lover, whom she shortly afterwards married against her
parents’ wish.
Upon returning to bid farewell to them before going into exile with her
husband, who was obliged to fly for his life, her father detained her.
Her husband was unable to come openly to the house, and so she never
saw him again, but gradually pined away, and died under the ash-tree
growing among the castle ruins, where she used to meet him before their
marriage. Since then her ghost is said to frequent the spot after
nightfall.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
J. Frost, “The County of Clare.”
Croker, “Researches in the South of Ireland.”
Croker, “Fairy Legends.”
Ferrar, “History of Limerick.”
Lenihan, “History of Limerick.”
Bagwell, “Ireland under the Tudors.”
Hall, “Ireland.”
State Papers.
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
Shirley (with note by O’Brien), “Extracts
from the Journal of Thomas Dineley,”
in _Journal of Kilkenny Archæological Society_.
_CASTLE BARNARD_
“Where Castle Bernard sees with glad surprise,
At every wish successive beauties rise.”
The former name for this stronghold was Castle Mahon. It is situated
on the River Bandon not far from the town. The present castle is said
to occupy the site of the former royal rath of the O’Mahonys, Kings
of Munster. It was called Rathleann, and the great Saint Fin Barr was
born there. This was much anterior to the English invasion, although an
inquisition held in 1584 states that the O’Mahonys came from Carbery in
1460, and seized the Crown lands, which had been forfeited by the Barry
Oges in 1399.
They were, however, only returning to the country over which they had
formerly ruled. The fortress is supposed to have been built by an
O’Mahony.
Francis Bernard, who succeeded to the estate in 1660, threw down the
ancient bawn walls, and enlarged the windows. His son, Judge Bernard,
rebuilt the castle after it came into his possession in 1690.
A new brick front was added on the river side, the bricks having been
made in the neighbourhood.
He was succeeded by his son Francis (usually known as Squire Bernard)
in 1731, who added an eastern front to the fortress, and planted the
great beech avenue. Smith, who collected his information in 1749,
describes the castle as having two regular fronts of brick, with
Corinthian pilasters and coignes and beltings of Portland stone.
In 1788 Francis Bernard, afterwards the 1st Earl of Bandon, pulled down
the two fronts which had been added by his predecessors, and connected
the old castle by a corridor (some 90 feet in length) with a mansion he
erected a little to the east of the stronghold. This new part has large
rooms, the library being a very handsome oval apartment.
This forms the present beautiful country seat of the Earl of Bandon. It
is situated in a park about four miles in circumference, through which
the Bandon River flows.
The O’Mahonys were not a powerful sept: their regular field force only
numbered twenty-six horse, no gallow-glasses, and a hundred and twenty
kern.
In 1575 the O’Mahony paid his respects to Sir Henry Sidney during his
visit to Cork, of whom Sir Henry writes that he was “a man of small
force although a proper countrie.”
Conoher O’Mahony, of Castle Mahon, threw in his lot with the Earl of
Desmond during his rebellion, in which rising he was killed at the age
of twenty-three.