Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 28 January 2016

Uncategorized

828a. Edmund Spenser, unknown artist, reputed to be early nineteenth century in date

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 28 January 2016 

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 46)

Plantations at Mallow

 

  Early seventeenth-century Mallow was an eventful place. This is shown in the historic maps of the region, in structures such as the ruined building of Mallow Castle and in the complex and surviving documentation from this era. Continuing on from last week Mallow Castle-born and resident Elizabeth Norrey was married to Sir John Jephson. They had four sons and four daughters. Their eldest son William became a major general in the English army and was a MP for Cork in 1656. Sir John had a grant in 1612 from James I to be a court baron or to hold courts regarding disputes on his manor. He also has the privilege of operating a Friday market and two yearly fairs, one on St Luke’s Day and the other on St Philip’s Day. The family also had power to appoint a clerk of the market, and of licensing certain tradesmen such as butchers, bakers, merchants and publican in the town, to appoint a bailiff for return of all writs.

   An inquisition taken in the year 1611 reveals more information about the principal lessees, those who leased lands within the Jephson manor. The enquiry was established to ascertain whether the Undertakers of the Plantation of Munster had performed their duties, and carried out the conditions of settlement laid down for them. The document in question outlines a working relationship with the family of the Spensers, Hydes, Cuffes, and Audleys. They were endorsed as being a part of “Malloe”.

  For four or five years from circa 1584, London-born Edmund Spenser (1552/53-1599), English poet, carried out the duties of an important official position in Ireland, deputising for his friend Lodowick Bryskett as clerk of the Lords President (governor) of Munster. In 1588 or 1589 Spenser became one of the plantation undertakers taking over the 3,000-acre site of Kilcolman, He lived there with his wife Elizabeth and son and daughter. Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle, daughter of Richard First Earl of Cork.

   Through the halls of Kilcoman Castle, Spenser brought his greatest poetry to completion. The Encyclopedia Britannica recalls that his long allegorical poem The Faerie Queene is acclaimed in the English language. The Faerie Queene was written over the course of about a decade. He published the first three books in 1590, then the next four books (plus revisions to the first three) in 1596. It was originally intended to be twelve books long, with each book describing a specific Christian virtue in its central character. When he presented the first three books at the court of Queen Elizabeth, Spenser was looking for the stature, political pose, and monetary compensation he believed the work deserved. However, he came away disappointed by what he deemed the relatively small stipend that he obtained. He attributed his lack of success with Elizabeth to her advisor and Spenser’s political opponent, Lord Burghley.

   The Landed Estate Irish database records that the Hydes were a family who settled in county Cork in Elizabethan times. Lands were given by Queen Elizabeth in 1588-9 AD at Aghacross, Co. Cork to Arthur Hyde, second son of William Hyde, of Hyde, in the parish of Denchwoorth, Berkshire. Advertised for sale in December 1851, the documents present that the Hyde family estate had over 11,600 acres, which comprised the manor, town and lands of Castle Hyde. On addition ownership of lands also existed in the baronies of Fermoy, Condons and Clongibbons and Imokilly, county Cork, and in Counties Limerick, Tipperary and County Kilkenny.

    Castle Hyde became was the home of the Hyde family. There is the ruin of a Norman castle dating from 1301 on top of the cliff just behind the present house. However, the present main block of Castle Hyde house dates from 1760, with extensions designed by Cork architect Abraham Hargraves the Elder some forty years later. Completed in 1801, the house is in the Palladian style of architecture. In 1786 writer, a Mr Wilson described it as “a beautiful house, magnificent demesne, highly cultivated, the seat of Arthur Hyde”. At the time of the sale of Castle Hyde in 1851 the house was occupied by Spencer Cosby Price, the brother-in-law of John Hyde. The house was valued at £115. Post the sale, the house passed through several owners. It was bought by John Sadleir MP in trust for Vincent Scully. Major Chichester was the tenant in 1861. John Wrixon Becher, second son of Sir William Wrixon Becher of Ballygiblin, County Cork, subsequently lived at Castle Hyde in the 1870s. He is recorded as the owner of 1,263 acres in county Cork. He was resident in 1906 when the buildings were valued at £96. The Irish Tourist Association Survey of 1942 indicated that the house was then “occupied by the military”. Castle Hyde is now the home of dancer, Michael Flatley but is currently up for sale.

   On another note in the 1870s, a relative of the main line of Hydes, John Hyde of Cregg, Fermoy, owned 8,919 acres in county Cork. Reverend Arthur Hyde was the owner of townlands in the parish of Ross, barony of East Carbery, at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. His grandson, Douglas Hyde, became the first President of Ireland.

To be continued…

For more on North Cork history, check out Kieran’s and Dan Breen’s new book, North Cork Through Time (2015).

Captions:

828a. Edmund Spenser, unknown artist, reputed to be early nineteenth century in date (source: Encyclopedia Britannica)

828b. Postcard of Castle Hyde House, c.1911 (source: Rev. Hodges, Richard J., 1911, Cork and County Cork in the twentieth century)

 

828b. Postcard of Castle Hyde House, c.1911

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 21 January 2016

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized

827a. Postcard of Mallow Castle, c.1900

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 21 January 2016

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 45)

Stories at the Plain of the Rock

 

     Upstream on the Blackwater from Fermoy and shown on John Speed’s Map of Munster c.1610 (from The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, 1611-12) is the historic town of Mallow. The name is derived from the Irish Magh Ealla (The Plain of the Rock). The original Mallow castle was built by the Anglo-Normans in 1185 AD, after the native O’Keeffe’s had been dispossessed. In 1282, the Desmond Fitzgerald’s built a new castle. Soon afterwards, a Baron of the Geraldines, Thomas Fitzmaurice, traded his land in Kerrylocknaun, Connaught, with the Desmond Fitzgeralds.

   After Thomas Fitzmaurice died in 1298, the land stayed in Geraldine hands until their rebellion in the closing stages of the sixteenth century, when the Earl of Desmond’s brother, Sir John of Desmond took possession of it. However, he and his wife, Ellen, had no children, so the castle was not inherited and left to decay. It then passed through a stream of owners, including Sir William Pelham and Sir John Norreys of Rycote in Oxfordshire. His brother, Sir Thomas Norreys, inherited the 6,000 acre estate in the late sixteenth century.

   The nearby town for centuries also formed part of the territories of the great Fitzgerald family, the Earls of Desmond. This place was one of the centres of the operations of the English forces in North Cork. After the rebellion of the Desmonds in the reign of Elizabeth, the Queen fortified the castle for the defence of the ferry across the river. In 1584, the castle and the manor were granted by the Queen to Sir Thomas Norreys/ Norris, Lord-President of Munster. Today walking around the grounds of the ruinous but impressive structure, information panels by Dúchas, the Heritage Service, detail that the fortified house was built between 1584 and 1599 by the Norreys. The building stone was taken from an older castle on the same site, which had belonged to the Fitzgeralds. The castle is a long building with projecting bays in the centres of the two long walls, with octagonal turrets at the corners of the front of the house. There were four storeys in the main block, including an attic and cellar space. Floors and room partitions comprised of wood, except for one stone wall across the middle of the building. There are small holes below the windows through which the muskets could be fired.

   Thomas Norreys (1556–1599) appears on several occasions in the Annals of the Four Masters and described in the Dictionary of National Biography of Great Britain. He was the fifth son of Henry, baron Norreys of Rycote and Wytham Abbey in Oxfordshire (the latter previously in Berkshire), and his wife, Margery, the youngest daughter of John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame. He matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1571, aged 15, and graduated with a BA in 1576. Sir John Norris (1547?-1597) and Sir Edward Norris were his brothers. In December 1579 he became, through the death of his eldest brother William and the influence of Sir William Pelham, captain of a troop of horse in Ireland. Thomas took an active part in the following year in the campaign against Gerald Fitzgerald, fifteenth earl of Desmond. During the absence of Sir Nicholas Malby, president of Connaught, in the winter of 1580-1, Thomas acted as governor of that province, and fought the Burkes and other Gaelic Irish families. In 1581-2 he was occupied, apparently between Clonmel and Kilmallock, in watching the movements of the Earl of Desmond. On the retirement of Captain John Zouche in August 1582, on account of ill-health Thomas he became colonel of the forces in Munster. He compelled the Earl of Desmond to abandon the siege of Dingle, but, nothing came of it.

   In 1588 Thomas accompanied Sir Richard Bingham in an expedition against Connaught. In 1595 he and his brother John were wounded in a skirmish near Athlone. In September 1597, he was appointed President of Munster in Sir John’s place, having been already Vice-President thereof for some years. His brother John was appointed President of Munster in June 1584. In 1589 he was joint commander with Francis Drake in an expedition against Spain. In February 1595 he landed a force of some 2,000 troops to oppose O’Neill and the chieftains of the north. John was mortally wounded in a conflict with the Burkes near Kilmallock in the summer of 1599.

   Around 1610, the date of John Speed’s map, Sir Thomas’s daughter Elizabeth, married an English knight, Sir John Jephson, and they came to live at Mallow Castle. Queen Elizabeth I was her Godmother. In 1612, James I confirmed to Elizabeth Jephson, the castle, manor, lordship and cantred of Mallow, a total of 6,000 acres in surrounding townlands, a fishing weir and two mills on the River Owenmore and Blackwater and a ferry over the latter. John Jephson was the son of William Jephson of Froyle, Hampshire and in 1603, he was knighted by Sir George Cary. He served in the army and became a major-general. In 1621, Jephson was elected Member of Parliament for Hampshire and in 1624, he was elected Member of Parliament for Petersfield and was re-elected MP for Petersfield in 1625.

To be continued…

For more on North Cork history, check out Kieran’s and Dan Breen’s new book, North Cork Through Time (2015).

 

Captions:

827a. Postcard of Mallow Castle, .c.1900 (source: Cork City Musuem)

827b. Mallow Castle, Present Day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

827b. Mallow Castle, Present Day

Update, Blackrock Harbour and Village Renewal Project, 11 January 2016

Kieran's Council Work, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

  In response to a recent question to the Chief Executive of Cork City Council by Cllr Kieran McCarthy for an update on Blackrock Harbour and Village Renewal Project, the reply below was given. The construction tender phase for the renewal project was undertaken in 2015 and a preferred contractor selected. The value of winning tender exceeds the available budget assigned. Consequently additional funding is required to deliver the full scheme. Funding applications have been made to a number of agencies including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the National Transport Authority and the South East Regional Authority. Unfortunately however these applications have not been successful.

   In the absence of additional funding, the Council proposes to split the tendered works into phases and to proceed with that portion of the works that can be executed. It is intended that the first phase will be commenced in early 2016. This will consist of the realignment and widening of Convent Road, Blackrock Road and the Marina including boundaries, footpaths, surfaces, crossing and underground utility works common to phases 1 and 2. The scope of work will be limited to the current level of available funding. Further efforts will be made this year to secure the remaining funding so that work on phase 2 can commence at an early date.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 14 January 2016

Arts, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized

826a. Jarlath Daly’s ‘John Anderson’ at Fermoy Bridge

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 14 January 2016

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 44)

John Anderson: King of the Road

 

    Last week the column explored some of the early history of Fermoy and the importance of its location on the River Blackwater. On the northern side of the bridge is an elegant sculptural piece by bronze specialist artist Jarlath Daly dedicated to John Anderson who developed the town of Fermoy in the early nineteenth century. In 1791, John Anderson, having purchased four-sixths of the ancient manor, erected a hotel and some good houses, and laid the foundation of the town’s future prosperity and growth.

    The Oxford National Biography of Britain denotes that John Anderson (c.1747–1820) was born in western Scotland in poverty, the son of David Anderson, of Portland. He moved to Glasgow, and after making £500 through dealing in herring in 1780 he moved to Cork. Anderson quickly established himself as an export merchant in the provisions trade with a base on Lapp’s Quay. Today Anderson’s Quay is named in his honour. A £500 investment multiplied quickly and by 1789 he could successfully bid for, and set up, the first Irish mail coach service. This proved both reliable and profitable. The mail-coach system was first launched in Ireland in 1789. The initial services were on routes from Dublin to Belfast and Dublin to Cork. The system was gradually extended countrywide. The first service from Dublin to Waterford took place in 1790.

   Anderson’s coaches traversed the new roads of the eighteenth century, which were built under the Turnpike Acts. A very interesting book by David Broderick (2002), entitled The First Toll-Roads: Ireland’s turnpike roads 1729-1858 reveals that up until the Acts roads in Ireland, mainly built in medieval times, were of very poor quality. It was one of the shortcomings of, unlike England, not having been invaded by the Romans. The building of turnpike roads was the beginning of an era of the development of transport in Ireland, which would later include canals and railways. The first Irish turnpike act, entitled An act for repairing the road leading from the city of Dublin to Kilcullen-Bridge, in the county of Kildare, was introduced in 1729. It began a system, which was to last 129 years and which provided the basis for the national trunk road system in existence today. The acts commenced a planned system of road-building in Ireland to accommodate the sizeable increase in passenger and coach traffic. The turnpike roads were seen as directly benefitting the lands close to their routes; rents on these lands could be greatly augmented and commerce grew in the adjacent towns and villages.

   The emergence of the post office pressurised the development of mail-coach roads and the payment of tolls. The awarding of mail contracts resulted in the contractors developing an interest in the repair and maintenance of the turnpike roads. This in turn developed into a need to control the actual roads so that any profits would amass to the contractor. Research by Martina Clancy in Limerick Civic Trust on toll pike roads (2011) reveals that the origin of the privatisation of the roads was a petition by John Anderson and William Bourne, partners on the Naas-Limerick mail-coach contract. The petition resulted in both Anderson and Bourne being given full control over the management of the Naas-Limerick section of the road. They also granted a loan of £27,000 to the trustees, for repairs, in exchange for the right to all tolls collected for the subsequent thirty years. In addition Anderson and Bourke were also given the power to levy a fine of five shillings per horse on any vehicle which was carrying more than nine passengers. The vital achievement of the time was getting from Dublin to Cork within 24 hours.

   John Anderson pioneered cheap passenger travel and had a monopoly on it. The mail coach was drawn by four horses and had seating for four passengers inside. Other passengers were later permitted to sit outside with the driver. The mail was kept in a box to the rear, where a Royal Mail post office guard stood. The mail coach was quicker than the stage coach as it only stopped for delivery of mail and generally not for the comfort of the passengers. They were slowly phased out during the 1840s and 1850s, their role being replaced by trains as the railway network expanded. Many of the mail coaches in Ireland were also eventually out-competed by Charles Bianconi’s country-wide network of open carriages, before this system in turn succumbed to the railways as well.

  In 1791, borrowing £40,000, John Anderson purchased a large County Cork estate, including the town of Fermoy. The town, which Anderson largely rebuilt, became the centre of his mail coach organisation. Later he had an involvement in the construction of a prominent military barracks for 1,400 men. In 1800 Anderson opened the Fermoy Bank. Later he reputedly declined a baronetcy, though the title was subsequently bestowed on his son. In 1807 he purchased, in partnership, the nearby Barry estates. However, this investment ultimately proved disastrous. The property was heavily mortgaged, and land values fell. He also lost £30,000 in a Welsh mining investment. In 1816 the Fermoy Bank closed and its Anderson was bankrupted. He died in reduced circumstances in 1820.

To be continued…

For more on North Cork History, check out Kieran’s and Dan Breen’s new book, North Cork Through Time

 

Captions:

826a. Jarlath Daly’s ‘John Anderson’ at Fermoy Bridge (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

826b. Jarlath Daly’s ‘mail coach’ at Fermoy Bridge (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

826c. Fermoy Bridge, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

826b. Jarlath Daly’s ‘mail coach’ at Fermoy Bridge

826c. Kent Bridge at Fermoy Bridge, present day

E.4m spent on City’s Homeless?

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

 

    Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Cork City Council, has raised the question of value of money for the e.3,909,500 invested in tackling homelessness in the city. Figures releases at last Monday’s City Council meeting also revealed that e1,457,890 was spent in Cork City on emergency accommodation during 2015 with e.270,000 on private B&B rooms, e.202,800 to Edel House, e.310,000 to Cork Simon on Anderson’s Quay, e.529,370 to St Vincent de Paul – St Vincent’s House, and e.145,900 on the Rough Sleeper initiative.

     Cllr McCarthy noted; “Much has been said in the media that the Council is doing a limited amount of work in tackling homelessness; the figures show an investment in Cork City of near e.4m to tackle homelessness. The big question I have is are we getting value for this money, that it’s not being overly spent on staffing costs of the agencies we work with but is it getting to the people who most need it?

   He continued; “it is startling to see in October 2015, 304 single people and 14 families in temporary emergency accommodation managed by Good Shepherd Services, plus a further 14 families, and a further 314 people supported in transitional long term and residential accommodation.

    From receiving emails from some of those living in emergency accommodation, it is no bed of roses, a crammed family of 4/5 in a travel lodge with quality of life really, just surviving, not conducive to raising a family and worried sick about the future. Many are a victim of the housing shortage, the rises in rent – so when you weigh up the figures, there are probably over 500 people in the city, adults and children respectively who are the most vulnerable on our emergency housing list and housing list; many probably don’t have enough years on our waiting list and who are in a very precarious position, who not only need future hope but also financial and HSE support to get them back on track. They are part of the group of people who are falling through the cracks at the moment. I am not happy with that. There is also an average 27 individuals to be found on our streets on any given week – HSE supports in particular need to be strengthened to give them a better quality of life“.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 7 January 2016

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

825a. Section of North Cork from John Speed’s Province of Munster map

Kieran’s Our City,  Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 7 January 2016

 Cork Harbour Memories (Part 43)

 The Men of the Free Plain

 

    Further upstream from Lismore Castle on the beautiful River Blackwater on Speed’s map of the province of Munster (c.1610), Fermoy is depicted. A castle like structure is shown on the map. Historical panels in the town note that the settlement is said to have originated in 1170 through a foundation of a Cistercian abbey by the Roche family. On Speed’s map, the lands of the Roches are demarcated west of Fermoy and the lands of the Condons to the North.

    The Roche family manuscripts are located in the Cork City and County Archives (PR28). Of Anglo-Norman descent, the Roches held one of the great lordships of Munster and from the thirteenth century were especially prominent in the Fermoy / Castletownroche area of north Cork (referred to as ‘Roches Country’). Gaelicised by the fifteenth century, in 1458 the scribe William O’Hickey compiled for Lord David Roche (‘Dáibhidh Mór’) the first part of the ‘Book of Fermoy’ MS. Written in Irish at Castletownroche, by several scribes it comprises a fragment of Lebor Gabála, a compilation of poems and material relating to the Roche family, poems of Gearóid Iarla, “lives of saints, historical tracts, genealogies, mythological tales and fragments of medical treatises”. It can be viewed in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin (MS23).

  The manuscripts of the archives detail the lineage of the Roche family. A wealthy and influential branch of the Roche family had a long association with Cork City, with several Roches being Mayor from 1488 onwards. Dominick Roche, Alderman, was Mayor in 1609 and MP for Cork County in 1639. Following the 1641 rebellion, they were expelled as well as other Irish Catholic inhabitants of the city, including Richard, Maurice and John Roche, Aldermen, and Sherriff James Roche. Maurice had his claim for restoration admitted in 1692, but the family never re-established their power structures. Other seats of the Roches include Trabolgan in east Cork and Dunderrow, near Kinsale and Kilpatrick near Ringabella. One of the Lords of Fermoy, Maurice, joined the Catholic insurgents in 1641, being eventually defeated and outlawed along with 31 other Roches, and eventually having his property confiscated.

   Cloghleigh castle translated as Castle of the Greystone, was the principle stronghold of the Anglo-Norman family of Condons. The structure still stands on the lands of Moorepark, An Teagasc, Research and Innovation Centre. Fast forward in time and the castle was sold with the Cork estates by Henry Fleetwood to Stephen Moore in 1684 and passed in time to the British War Department. By 1915, Moorepark was one of the main centres of military training for the 16th Division. World War I training trenches and hundreds of temporary cabins were erected to form a greatly expanded training facility. The presence of soldiers gave an enormous boost to local trade. Everything from fodder for horses to bread and porter for the soldiers had to be supplied from the locality. Today around 4,500 members of the Irish defence forces are assigned to nearby Kilworth for training every year, including the Naval Service and Ranger Wing.

  The abbey at Fermoy was dedicated to Our Lady de Castro Dei or Our Lady of the Camp of God. On what is now Ashe Quay; the monks built the town’s first weir somewhere by Ashe Quay/Abbey Street. A settlement extended around the abbey. From then the area was known as Mainistir Fhearmuí (the Monastery of the Men of the Free Plain).

  Queen Elizabeth granted the Abbey lands of Fermoy to Sir Richard Grenville, a cousin of Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1591. Having campaigned against the Turks as a soldier, and in Ireland, in 1576 Grenville became sheriff of Cornwall and was knighted. Grenville was much involved, both as MP and man of action, in transatlantic settlement, especially during 1585–6 at Roanoke Island (North Carolina). In 1588 he fitted out ships against the Spanish Armada, and in 1591, under Lord Thomas Howard’s command, Grenville sailed to the Azores to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet. Detained at Flores, with many sick, Grenville, in the ship Revenge, confronted several Spanish warships. Grenville died of his wounds.

  In 1621, Sir Bernard Grenville, Sir Richard’s eldest son, sold the lands of Fermoy to Sir Lionel Cranfield, a London merchant and financier (later the earl of Middlesex and Lord Treasurer of England). In 1624, Sir George Harvey purchased the lands of Fermoy on behalf of Sir Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. A timber bridge was constructed over the Blackwater in Fermoy in 1626 by Boyle at a cost of around five hundred pounds. The Cistercians operated a ferry prior to the building of the bridge and the Earl possessed an income from this of twenty five pounds per annum. The timber bridge was swept away in 1628 following a flood. There was no immediate replacement and while provision was made in the Earl’s will in 1642 for the erection of a new bridge, it was not until 1687 that the provision could be put into effect. The present day bridge dates to 1865. By the eighteenth century, there was little more than a few cabins and an inn in Fermoy.

To be continued…

For more, check out Kieran’s and Dan Breen’s new book, North Cork Through Time

 

Captions:

825a. Section of North Cork from John Speed’s Province of Munster map, from his The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, c.1610-11 (source: Cork City Library)

825b. Fermoy Bridge, c. 1900 (source: North Cork Through Time)

825c. Ruins of Cloghleigh Castle, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

 

825b. Fermoy Bridge, c. 1900

825c. Ruins of Cloghleigh Castle, present day

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 23 December 2015

Cork History, Landscapes, Uncategorized

824a. The impressive Lismore Castle from a mid nineteenth century drawing

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 

Cork Independent, 23 December 2015

 Cork Harbour Memories (Part 42)

 Landmark histories at Lismore Castle

 

    The setting for the construction of the Boyle legacy was the impressive Lismore Castle and beautiful town of Lismore. A building of national importance, the castle incorporates the framework of various building projects dating primarily to the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The National Inventory of Architectural Inventory records that the vestiges of medieval fabric in some of the towers confirming the archaeological significance of the site. The castle forms a principal landmark feature in the centre of Lismore, the range to north overlooking the broad River Blackwater. The various battlemented towers and turrets ornament the skyline and are visible from a distance.

    Historical interpretative panels around the town record that the name Dungarvan is said to have originated from an old fortification to the east of the town. St Carthage is said to have founded a monastery, a celebrated seat of learning and the head of a diocese in the vicinity. Such was the fame of the place that not less than 20 churches were founded in its vicinity. In 812AD it was plundered by the Danes, who over a period till 915, ransacked the monastery five times. In the year 1095 the town was destroyed by an accidental fire, and in 1116, 1138, and 1157 both the town and the monastery suffered from fire.

    The Anglo-Normans, after landing at Waterford, marched to Dungarvan and secured it by erecting a fortress for its defence in 1185. Four years afterwards it was taken by the Irish, who put Robert de Barry, the commander, and the whole of the garrison to the sword. The fortress, however, soon afterwards was rebuilt by the Anglo-Norman garrison in the area, and for many ages continued to be the residence of the bishops of the see. In 1518 McGrath, Archbishop of Cashel and Bishop of Lismore granted the manor and other lands to Sir Walter Raleigh. In time, these with the rest of Raleigh’s lands were purchased by Sir Richard Boyle. The castle was greatly strengthened and improved by Boyle, who built three other forts in the neighbourhood. Boyle also obtained a charter of incorporation for the town in 1613, and a grant for a market and fairs. The surrounding lands within a mile and a half round the parish church were made a free borough. The charter also invested the corporation with the privilege of returning two members to the Irish parliament. At the commencement of the Confederate war in 1641, the castle was besieged by a force of 5,000 Irish under Sir Richard Belling. It was defended by the Earl’s son, Lord Broghill, who compelled them to abandon the attempt.

   On the death of Richard, third Earl of Burlington, and fourth Earl of Cork, the most considerable part of that nobleman’s estates, both in England and Ireland, devolved upon his daughter, Lady Charlotte Boyle. She married in 1748, William Cavendish, fourth Duke of Devonshire, in the possession of whose descendant, the present Duke, the castle now remains. The Lismore Castle papers held in the National Library of Ireland record the mid-eighteenth century estate supported a diverse range of urban and rural communities and comprised agricultural land of variable quality, about 70 per cent of it in the valleys of the rivers Bride and Blackwater in west Waterford and east Cork. This comprised considerable holdings at Lismore and the Manors of Tallow, Lisfinny, Curraglass and Mogeely, and Conna and Knockmourne in County Waterford. The remainder lay fifty miles to the west in and around Bandon, with smaller portions of Spittal lands in the south of County Tipperary and detached portions near Cork, Youghal and Dungarvan.

    The present detached multiple-bay rubble stone Gothic castle at Lismore was reconstructed in 1849, on a complex quadrangular plan about a courtyard incorporating fabric of earlier rebuilding of 1812, and the original castle, 1612. The historic gardens at Lismore Castle are divided into two very different halves. The Upper Garden is a complete example of the seventeenth century walled garden first constructed by Richard Boyle, in about 1605. The outer walls and terraces remain and the plantings have changed to match the tastes of those living within the Castle. The Lower Garden was mostly created in the nineteenth century for the 6th Duke of Devonshire, Joseph Paxton’s patron. The garden is informal with shrubs, trees and lawns. The stately Yew Avenue is where Edmund Spencer is said to have written the Faerie Queen. This avenue is much older than the garden itself, probably seventeenth century.

    Nearby is the impressive Saint Carthage’s Cathedral, which traces its origins back to an enclosed early monastic settlement.  The present building, however, incorporates an early seventeenth-century chancel and a late seventeenth-century nave to which the tower and spire were added in 1827 by the Pain brothers George (1793-1838) and James (1779-1877).  Among the treasures of the cathedral are four memorial stones dating to the ninth century; the tomb of the McGrath family (1557) with its carved figures of Saints Gregory the Great and Catherine of Alexandria amongst others; funerary monuments of Classical and Gothic design including one (ob. 1805) signed by Thomas Rickman (1776-1841) of Liverpool; and the celebrated Currey Memorial Window (1896), a pre-Raphaelite masterpiece executed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98).

To be continued…

Happy Christmas and happy new year to all readers of the column, many thanks for the continued support.

Captions:

824a. The impressive Lismore Castle from a mid nineteenth century drawing (source: Cork City Library)

824b. The beautiful Lismore Castle Gardens, September 2015 with members of the Irish Post Medieval and Archaeology Society (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

824b. The beautiful Lismore Castle Gardens, September 2015