For the Governor at Cahir Castle,
24th February 1649’ (1650.)
“Notwithstanding the strength of the place, and the unseasonableness of
the time of the year, this summons struck such a terror in the garrison,
that the same day the governor, Captain Mathews, immediately came to the
general and agreed for the surrender,”--&c.
It was well for Captain George Mathews, or Mathew, as the name is
now generally written, and his garrison too, that he had not the
hot-headedness of an Irishman, or he would probably have set this
“thundering summons” at defiance, and Cahir Castle would not only have
shared the fate of most Irish fortresses at that period, but, what would
have been a far greater loss, the Apostle of Temperance, who has done as
much to regenerate the people of Ireland as Cromwell did to destroy them,
would in all human probability never have existed.
But we are exceeding the limits assigned to us, and can only add a
few words of general description. Cahir Castle is built upon a low
rugged island of limestone, which divides the water of the Suir, and
which is connected by a bridge with the two banks of the river. It is
of considerable extent, but irregular outline, consequent upon its
adaptation to the form and broken surface of its insular site, and
consists of a great square keep, surrounded by extensive outworks,
forming an outer and an inner ballium, with a small court-yard between
the two; these outworks being flanked by seven towers, four of which are
circular, and three of larger size, square. From a very interesting
and accurate bird’s-eye view of the castle, as besieged by the Earl of
Essex, given in the Pacata Hibernia, we find, that notwithstanding its
great age, and all the vicissitudes and storms it has suffered, it still
presents, very nearly, the same appearance as it did at that period; and
from the praiseworthy care in its preservation of its present lord, it is
likely to endure as a beautiful historical monument for ages longer.