[Illustration: CAHIR CASTLE, COUNTY OF TIPPERARY]
To a large portion of our readers it will be scarcely necessary to state,
that the little town of Cahir is in many respects the most interesting of
its size to be found in the province of Munster, we had almost said in
all Ireland; and that, though this interest is to a considerable extent
derived from the extreme beauty of its situation and surrounding scenery,
it is in an equal degree attributable to a rarer quality in our small
towns--the beauty of its public edifices, and the appearance of neatness,
cleanliness, and comfort, which pervades it generally, and indicates
the fostering protection of the noble family to whom it belongs, and to
whom it anciently gave title. Most of our small towns require brilliant
sunshine to give them even a semi-cheerful aspect: Cahir looks pleasant
even on one of our characteristic gloomy days. As it is not, however, our
present purpose to enter on any detailed account of the town itself, but
to confine our notice to one of its most attractive features--its ancient
castle--we shall only state that Cahir is a market and post town, in the
barony of Iffa and Offa West, county of Tipperary, and is situated on the
river Suir, at the junction of the mail-coach roads leading respectively
from Waterford to Limerick, and from Cork by way of Cashel to Dublin. It
is about eight miles W.N.W. from Clonmel, and the same distance S.W. from
Cashel, and contains about 3500 inhabitants.
The ancient and proper name of this town is _Cahir-duna-iascaigh_, or,
the circular stone fortress of the fish-abounding Dun, or fort; a name
which appears to be tautological, and which can only be accounted for by
the supposition that an earthen _Dun_, or fort, had originally occupied
the site on which a _Cahir_, or stone fort, was erected subsequently.
Examples of names formed in this way, of words having nearly synonymous
meanings, are very numerous in Ireland, as _Caislean-dun-more_, the
castle of the great fort, and as the Irish name of Cahir Castle
itself, which, after the erection of the present building, was called
_Caislean-na-caherach-duna-iascaigh_, an appellation in which three
distinct Irish names for military works of different classes and ages are
combined.
Be this, however, as it may, it is certain that a _Cahir_ or stone fort
occupied the site of the present castle in the most remote historic
times, as it is mentioned in the oldest books of the Brehon laws; and the
Book of Lecan records its destruction by Cuirreach, the brother-in-law
of Felemy Rechtmar, or the Lawgiver, as early as the third century, at
which time it is stated to have been the residence of a female named
Badamar. Whether this _Cahir_ was subsequently rebuilt or not, does not
appear in our histories as far as we have found; nor have we been able
to discover in any ancient document a record of the erection of the
present castle. It is stated indeed by Archdall, and from him again by
all subsequent Irish topographers, that Cahir Castle was erected prior
to the year 1142 by Conor-na-Catharach O’Brien, king of Thomond. But
this is altogether an error. No castle properly so called of this class
was erected in Ireland till a later period, and the assertion of Conor’s
having built a castle at Cahir is a mere assumption drawn from the
cognomen _na-Catharach_, or of the Cahir or Fort by which he was known,
and which we know from historical evidences was derived not from this
Cahir on the Suir, but from a Cahir which he built on an island in Lough
Derg, near Killaloe, and which still retains his name. The true name of
the founder of Cahir Castle, and date of its erection, must therefore
remain undecided till some record is found which will determine them; and
in the meantime we can only indulge in conjecture as to one or the other.
That it owes its origin, indeed, to some one of the original Anglo-Norman
settlers in Ireland, there can be little doubt, and its high antiquity
seems unquestionable. As early as the fourteenth century, it appears to
have been the residence of James _Galdie_ (or the Anglified) Butler, son
of James, the third Earl of Ormond, by Catherine, daughter of Gerald,
Earl of Desmond--whose descendant Thomas Butler, ancestor to the present
Earl of Glengal, was advanced to the peerage by letters patent, dated at
Dublin the 10th November 1543 (34 Henry VIII.) by the title of Baron of
Cahir.
In the subsequent reigns of Elizabeth and the unfortunate Charles I,
Cahir Castle appears as a frequent and important scene in the melancholy
dramas of which Ireland was the stage, and its history becomes a portion
not only of that of our country generally, but even in some degree of
that of England.
It will be remembered, that, when by the battle of the Blackwater in
1598 the English power in Ireland was reduced to the lowest state, and
the queen felt it necessary to send Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex,
with an army of more than 20,000 men--the largest body, as the Four
Masters state, that had ever before come into Ireland since the time of
Strongbow--to subdue the rebels, that unfortunate favourite, neglectful
of the instructions imperatively given to him that he should prosecute
the Ulster rebels, and plant their strongholds with garrisons, marched
into Munster, where the only deed of importance he achieved was the
taking of Cahir Castle, and the forcing of the Lord Cahir and some
other disaffected noblemen of Munster to submit, and accept the queen’s
protection. The only favourable result of this misguided enterprise, as
Morrison acquaints us, “was the making a great prey of the rebels’ cattle
in those parts; he cast the terror of his forces on the weakest enemies,
whom he scattered and constrained to fly into woods and mountains to
hide themselves.” But these weak rebels did not remain long inactive, or
exhibit weakness in attack; and the earl’s journey back to Dublin towards
the end of July was marked by a series of disasters that sealed his doom;
or, as the Four Masters remark, “The Irish afterwards were wont to say
that it were better for the Earl of Essex that he had not undertaken
this expedition from Dublin to Hy-Conell Gaura, as he had to return back
from his enterprise without receiving submission or respect from the
Geraldines, and without having achieved any exploit except the taking of
Cahir-duna-iasgach.”
The taking of Cahir Castle was not effected without considerable trouble,
though it is stated that Essex’s army amounted to 7000 foot and 1300
horse. O’Sullivan states that the siege was prolonged for ten days, in
consequence of the Earl of Desmond and Redmond Burke having come to its
relief; and the Four Masters state in their Annals that “the efforts of
the earl and his army in taking it were fruitless, until they sent for
heavy ordnance to Waterford, by which they broke down the nearest side of
the fortress, after which the castle had to be surrendered to the Earl of
Essex and the queen.” This event occurred on the 30th of May 1599.
As Morrison, however, remarks, the submission of the Lord Cahir, Lord
Roche, and others, which followed on this exploit, were only feigned, as
subsequent events proved. After the earl’s departure, they either openly
joined the rebel party again, or secretly combined with them; and on
the 23d of May in the year following, the Castle of Cahir was surprised
and taken by the Lord Cahir’s brother, and, as it was said, with his
connivance. Of this fact the following account is given by Sir George
Carew in his Pacata Hibernia:--
“The president being at Youghall in his journey to Cork, sent Sir
John Dowdall (an ancient captain in Ireland) to Cahir Castle, as well
to see the same provided of a sufficient ward out of Captain George
Blunt’s company, as to take order for the furnishing of them with
victuall, munition, and other warlike provision; there he left the
eighth or ninth of May, a serjeant, with nine-and-twenty soldiers, and
all necessary provision for two months, who notwithstanding, upon the
three-and-twentieth of the same, were surprised by James Galdie, alias
Butler, brother to the lord of Cahir, and, as it was suspected by many
pregnant presumptions, not without the consent and working of the lord
himself, which in after-times proved to be true. The careless security of
the warders, together with the treachery of an Irishman who was placed
sentinel upon the top of the castle, were the causes of this surprise.
“James Galdie had no more in his company than sixty men, and coming to
the wall of the bawne of the castle undiscovered, by the help of ladders,
and some masons that brake holes in some part of the wall where it
was weak, got in and entered the hall before they were perceived. The
serjeant, named Thomas Quayle, which had the charge of the castle, made
some little resistance, and was wounded. Three of the warde were slaine;
the rest upon promise of their lives rendered their armes and were sent
to Clonmell. Of this surprise the lord president had notice when he
was at Kilmallock, whereupon he sent directions for their imprisonment
in Clonmell until he might have leisure to try the delinquents by a
marshals’ court. Upon the fourth day following, James Butler, who took
the castle, wrote a large letter to the president, to excuse himself of
his traitorly act, wherein there were not so many lines as lies, and
written by the underhand working of the lord of Cahir his brother, they
conceiving it to be the next way to have the castle restored to the
baron.”
Cahir Castle was, however, restored to the government in a few months
after, as detailed in the following characteristic manner by Sir George
Carew:--
“Towards the latter end of this month of August, the lord deputy writing
to the president about some other occasions, it pleased him to remember
Cahir Castle (which was lost as before you have heard), signifying that
he much desired to have that castle recovered from the rebels, the rather
because the great ordnance, or cannon, and a culverin being left there by
the Earl of Essex, were now possessed by the rebels. This item from the
lord deputy spurred on the president without further delay to take order
therein, and therefore presently by his letters sent for the lord of
Cahir to repair unto him, who (as before you have heard) was vehemently
suspected to have some hand both in the taking and keeping thereof. The
Baron of Cahir being come, the council persuaded him to deal with James
Butler (nicknamed James Galdie) his brother, about the redelivering
thereof to her Majesty’s use; but his answer was, that so little interest
had he in his brother, as the meanest follower in all his country might
prevail more with him than himself (for he was unwilling to have the
castle regained by the state, except it might again be left wholly to
him, as it was before the first winning thereof); which the president
surmising, told him, that if it might speedily be yielded up unto him,
he would become an humble suitor to the lord deputy (in his behalf) for
the repossessing thereof; otherwise he would presently march with his
whole army into those parts, and taking the same by force, he would ruin
and rase it to the very foundation, and this he bound with no small
protestations. Hereupon Justice Comerford being dispatched away with the
lord of Cahir, they prevailed so far with young Butler, that the castle,
upon the twenty-ninth following, was delivered to the state, as also all
the munitions, and the great ordnance conveyed to Clonmell, and from
thence to Waterford.”
Notwithstanding these imputed crimes of the Lord Cahir, and the open
treason of his brother, he received the queen’s pardon by patent,
dated the 27th day of May 1601, and died in possession of his castle
and estates in January 1628. His brother James Galdie, however, lived
to take his share in the troubles that followed in 1641, and suffered
accordingly.
From these stories of violence and treachery we turn with pleasure to
record a fact of a peaceful character, in which Cahir Castle appears as
a scene of hospitality and splendid revelry. This occurred in 1626, when
the Lord Deputy Falkland, in making a tour of Ireland, after residing a
considerable time at the Earl of Ormond’s castle at Carrick-on-Suir, in
some time after came to the lord of Cahir, and was entertained by him in
his castle with the greatest splendour.
But if these old walls had tongues, they could probably tell us of many
scenes of a different character from that we have just narrated, and of
which one has been dimly preserved in history. Immediately after the
death of Thomas, the fourth Lord Cahir, in 1628, as already stated, his
property having passed to his only daughter and heir Margaret, who was
married to her kinsman Edmund Butler, the fourth Lord Dunboyne, the
latter, while residing in this castle with his wife, slew in it, or
murdered, perhaps, would be the more correct word, Mr James Prendergast,
the owner of Newcastle, for which he was confined a prisoner in the
Castle of Dublin; and his Majesty having granted a commission on the
4th of June in that year, constituting the Lord Aungier high steward
of Ireland for the trial of his lordship, he was tried by his peers
accordingly, but acquitted, fifteen peers voting him innocent, and one,
the celebrated Lord Dockwra, voting him guilty.
During the troubles which followed on the rebellion of 1641, Cahir
Castle was taken for the Parliament, by surrender, in the beginning of
August 1647 by Lord Inchiquin; and it was again taken in February 1650
by Cromwell himself, the garrison receiving honourable conditions. The
reputation which the castle had at this period as a place of strength
will appear from the account of its surrender as given in the manuscripts
of Mr Cliffe, secretary to General Ireton, published by Borlase. After
observing that Cromwell did not deem it prudent to attempt the taking of
Clonmel till towards summer, he adds, that he “drew his army before a
very considerable castle, called Cahir Castle, not very far from Clonmel,
a place then possessed by one Captain Mathews, who was but a little
before married to the Lady Cahir, and had in it a considerable number of
men to defend it; the general drew his men before it, and for the better
terror in the business, brought some cannon with him likewise, there
being a great report of the strength of the place, and a story told the
general, that the Earl of Essex, in Queen Elizabeth’s time, lay seven or
eight weeks before it, and could not take it. He was notwithstanding then
resolved to attempt the taking of it, and in order thereunto sent them
this thundering summons:--
‘SIR--Having brought the army and my cannon near this place,
according to my usual manner in summoning places, I thought fit
to offer you terms honourable for soldiers, that you may march
away with your baggage, arms, and colours, free from injuries
or violence; but if I be, notwithstanding, necessitated to bond
my cannon upon you, _you must expect what is usual in such
cases_. To avoid blood, this is offered to you by
Your servant,