Of all the buildings for defensive purposes that the Anglo-Normans, or,
more correctly, the Anglo-French, ever raised in Ireland, the castle of
Trim is the largest and most imposing. It has stood many a siege, and it
seems that one wing of it has entirely disappeared; but what remains of it
still is a gigantic structure. No other Anglo-French keep in Ireland had
such an extensive _enceinte_. There cannot be much less than three acres
of enclosed ground round it. The outworks have been, to a large extent,
demolished, but enough of them remains to show that when the castle was in
repair, when its outward defences were perfect, and before the invention
of gunpowder, it could have defied the largest army that ever Irish king
or chieftain led. The place chosen for the site of this castle is
perfectly flat. It is not on a hill. Its builder seems to have known that
its six feet thick walls would be impregnable to any army that could be
brought against it, whether it was on a hill or in a hollow. Its situation
is very fine on the banks of the Boyne, and in the centre of a country
considered by many to be the richest land in Ireland.
[Illustration: TRIM CASTLE.]
Never did any people bring the art of castle-building to such perfection
as did the Anglo-French; and, strange as it may appear, it was not in
England they raised their finest castles, but in Wales and in Ireland.
They must have known almost immediately after the battle of Hastings that
no serious resistance would ever be made against them in England, but they
were not so sure about Ireland and Wales; there do not seem, therefore,
to have been any castles erected by them in England during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries as fine as those they erected in those parts of their
dominions like Ireland and Wales, that were not fully conquered. Conway
and Caernarvon Castles in Wales, and Trim Castle in Ireland, are thought
to be the finest they ever erected. With all the architectural skill the
Greeks and Romans possessed, it is very doubtful if they understood the
art of castle building as well as the Norman-French did. The latter built
buildings that would last almost as long as the earth itself. That part of
the walls of Trim Castle that yet remains is as sound as it was the day it
was built; and if let alone and not overturned by an earthquake it will be
as sound a thousand years hence as it is to-day.
[Illustration: TRIM CASTLE.]
Trim Castle was built towards the close of the twelfth century by Hugo de
Lacy, the greatest castle builder ever the Anglo-French produced. He built
the great castle at Clonmacnois, which has been already described. He
built another fine one in Carlow, and was building the castle of Durrow,
in the King's County, when a young Irishman, who had evidently come
prepared to kill him, struck off his head with a blow of an axe as he was
stooping down to examine the work. If Hugo de Lacy had not been killed, he
would certainly have built many more castles, not only in the English
Pale, but throughout Ireland. But Trim Castle was the finest structure of
its kind that he ever raised. Lewis' Irish Topography says that the Castle
of Trim was built in 1220. This is just such a mistake as one would expect
to find in books like it, Hall's, and others of their kind, which were
written by persons almost wholly unacquainted with the history of the
country about which they wrote, and entirely unacquainted with its
language and native literature. Trim Castle must have been built before
1186, for Hugo de Lacy was killed in that year. The same extraordinary
publication says that Trim was burned by Connor O'Melaghlin in 1108, and
that over two hundred people were burned in the monastery. It would be
interesting to know where Lewis got his information about this matter. He
did not get it from any authentic source, for the annals of the Four
Masters, the annals of Clonmacnois, the annals of Inisfallan, the annals
of Ulster, and the _Chronicon Scottorum_ are all silent about it.
Hugo de Lacy was undoubtedly the greatest of the Anglo-French invaders of
Ireland. Although he was killed, he was not killed for any other cause
except that of his having been an invader; for in spite of his
castle-building propensities, he was in no way prejudiced against the
native Irish. This is proved by his having married a daughter of Roderick
O'Connor, King of Connacht, and nominally, but only nominally, King of
Ireland. For having done so, he was recalled from the nominal government
of Ireland with which he had been entrusted by Henry the Second; but
Henry, probably finding that he could not get anyone else so well fitted
for the office, allowed him to retain it. But Hugo appears to have again
given offence to Henry on account of his leniency to the Irish lords who
were under him, and Prince John, who was afterwards King, was sent to
Ireland by Henry because Hugo did not exact any tribute from the Irish. We
are not told how he got out of this scrape, and he was killed the next
year. He was buried in Bective Abbey, but his body was afterwards removed
to Dublin. Hugo de Lacy seems to have been as friendly to the Irish as it
was possible for one in his position to be, and it is almost certain that
he cherished the hope of bringing the whole island under his rule and
making himself King. It was evidently his ambition, of which Henry appears
to have been fully aware, that caused the trouble between him and his
master. That the Irish petty kings, and the Irish people of the time,
would have accepted the rule of a stranger who had proved himself a strong
man, is very probable, for the country was in the very deepest slough of
political confusion and anarchy. Never, during the worst times of Danish
plundering, had Ireland been in such a state of political chaos as she was
in the twelfth century. The usurpation of the chief kingship by Brian
Boramha was followed by a century and a half of revolution caused by those
who aspired to be chief kings. O'Brians, O'Connors, O'Lochlainns, Mac
Murroughs, all aspirants for the monarchy, made the island, as the Four
Masters so graphically put it, "a shaking sod," and the Irish would have
accepted the rule of anyone who would have saved them from themselves. It
was the state of political chaos into which the country had fallen that
accounts for the slight resistance that Strongbow met in Ireland. The
Northmen were met by the sword, and fought for over two hundred years,
until they were, if not entirely banished, at least reduced to political
powerlessness; but a mere handful of invaders, whose military prowess was
in no way superior to that of the Northmen, became, _de facto_, the rulers
of the country in a few years after they had landed. It is more than
probable that if Hugo de Lacy had lived, he would have risked a war with
Henry, and have tried to make himself King of Ireland; and it is more than
probable that the Irish would have willingly accepted his rule.
If de Lacy's gigantic castle had never been built in Trim, it would still
be an historic place. According to the most authentic annals, St Patrick
founded a church there as early as 432, and Bishop Ere is the first name
that is mentioned in connection with it after that of St Patrick. Trim
continued to be an important place on account of its castle and its Church
of St Mary's, until the time of Cromwell. It was strongly garrisoned by
the Royalists; but after hearing of the taking of Drogheda, and the
shocking massacre committed there, the garrison surrendered. Only one
gable of the old Church of St Mary's remains. Judging by the great height
of the part that remains, the Church must have been a very large one. The
exact date of the building of the church or monastery to which the
still-standing tower or steeple belonged, is not known with certainty, but
it could not have formed part of the original one erected in the time of
St Patrick.
The most celebrated place in the immediate vicinity of Trim is Dangan
Castle, where the Duke of Wellington is said by some to have been born.
When Dangan passed out of the Duke's family, it was inhabited by a person
who let it go partially to ruin. It was burned early in the present
century, and is now an unsightly ruin. It is curious that there should be
such doubt about the birth-place of one who made such a figure in the
world as Wellington. Some say he was born in Dangan Castle; some say he
was born in Dublin; but the people of Trim maintain that he was born in
their town. The last time the writer was in Trim he was shown the house in
which the Duke was said to have been born. He was told by a truthful and
respectable resident of Trim that the Duke's mother had started from
Dangan on her way to Dublin so that she might have the best medical aid
during her expected accouchement, but having been taken ill when she got
as far as Trim, she took lodgings in the town, and that it was there the
Duke of Wellington was born. The exact truth about the matter will
probably never be known.
A curious story is told in Trim about the early boyhood of Wellington. It
is said that he clomb the still standing tower or gable of the old church
so high that he found it impossible to get down, and was in a position of
great danger. All the ropes and ladders in the town were brought out, but
it was found impossible to get him down. A rough tower like that at Trim
might be clomb easily enough, but it might not be so easy to get down. The
afterwards victor of Waterloo was told that he could not be saved, and
that, if he had any will to make, to make it without delay. He is said to
have taken the announcement very coolly, and to have willed his tops,
balls, and other playthings to the boys that were his favourites, and not
to have shed a tear or shown any fear whatever. After having been many
hours in his dangerous and far from comfortable situation, he was at
length, and with great difficulty, rescued.
The country round Trim is most interesting and full of ruined fanes. The
church of Trim was believed to contain an image or picture of the Virgin,
at which we are told many and extraordinary miracles were performed. Trim
was a sort of Irish Lourdes in the middle ages, to which the sick and
suffering used to go in multitudes. There was also the Abbey of Newtown,
the ruins of which still stand on the banks of the Boyne close by Trim. It
was founded in the year 1206 by Simon Rochefort, Bishop of Meath, the
first Englishman that is known to have had so high an ecclesiastical
position in Ireland after the invasion. The ruins of Bective Abbey are
only a few miles up the river from Trim, in a beautiful situation on the
banks of the "clear, bright Boyne," as the old Gaelic poets loved to call
it. Bective was founded for the Cistercian order by O'Melachlinn, King of
Meath, about the middle of the twelfth century. It is a beautiful ruin,
and in a beautiful locality.
There is, perhaps, no part of Ireland more interesting to the antiquarian,
the historian, or the lover of rich landscapes than the valley of the
Boyne. That little stream is the most historic waterway in Ireland. Its
name occurs oftener in Irish history and legend than that of any other
river. On its banks are to be seen the pre-historic tumuli of New Grange
and Dowth, the oldest monuments of pre-historic civilisation that have yet
been discovered on Irish soil. The Boyne may be said to be the river of
Tara, for it flows almost at the foot of that hill so celebrated in Irish
history, legend, and song.