11 October 2012

An evening of family stories in Rothe House, Kilkenny

With my cousin Philip Cushen from Graiguenamanagh in Rothe House, Kilkenny, last night

Patrick Comerford

I was in Kilkenny last night to speak in Rothe House, Parliament Street, on the history of the Comerford family. Rothe House was built in 1594 by John Rothe, a wealthy Kilkenny merchant, and his wife, Rose Archer, and is one of the great Tudor houses of Ireland.

The lecture was organised by Callan Heritage Society and Kilkenny Archaeological Society as joint lecture and as part of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society’s lecture and outing programme for 2012.

It was a 120 km, 1 ½ journey from Dublin to Kilkenny, which was made a little longer by the closure of the Dublin-Waterford Motorway from the Paulstown Junction. But, despite the rain and the dark evening, everyone at Rothe House was warmly welcoming and turnout was delightful.

Kilkenny Archaeological Society is the oldest local history society in Ireland, and I was introduced by the president, Peter McQuillan, Philip Lynch, chair of Callan Heritage Society, and Joe Kennedy, the Callan local historian.

Rothe House in Parliament Street, Kilkenny, the venue for last night’s lecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The lecture was entitled: “The Comerford families of County Kilkenny: Identifying their origins and the different branches.”

I looked at the origins of the family, discussed the different accounts of origins in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire, and Quemerford in Calne, Wiltshire.

I then looked at the story of a number of branches of the Comerford family, including the Comerfords of Ballybur, Danganmore, Ballymack and Callan, Castleinch and Waterford, Coolgreany, Bunclody, Urlingford and Galway, Rathdrum, Skerries and Balbriggan, Galway and Cork.

There were stories about a wayward pre-Reformation bishop and his son, exiled bishops, a spurious marriage, a jailed canon, Churchill’s cousin in Galway, a château in France, the wedding-cake steeple of Saint Bride’s, a missionary who found Dodo bones in Mauritius, nuns in California, the German bombing of the North Strand, a Kilkenny footballer who actually won an All-Ireland medal for football, fictional and romantic claims to titles, and even a connection with The Prisoner of Zenda.

The turnout included Comerfords from throughout Kilkenny, people who lived or worked in former Comerford houses, and a large turnout of people from Callan interested in a family that has left its mark on the history of the town and the surrounding countryside.

Three members of the Comerford family of Mount Brown in Kilmainham travelled down from Dublin for the evening. Clare Comerford from Coolgreany, near Castlewarren, brought along a copy of Barney Comerford’s book, and shared her inherited memories of over 350 years of Comerford family history in Coolgreaney, dating back to 1653. Jimmy Comerford was there from Gowran.

My cousin Philip Cushen of Graiguenamanagh – a descendant of the Comerfords of Bunclody – was there too. The last time we met was unexpectedly in Tuscany last month – “six degrees of separation” certainly works within the Comerford family.

Seamus Brennan, a solicitor and former Chairman of the KAS, recalled working for 10 years in the Langton House in the Butterslip, which had been home to a few generations of the Comerford family in the 18th and 19th centuries.

One woman was surprised about the connections with Calne, because her husband is from Wiltshire and had gone to school in Calne. Yet another example of “six degrees of separation” within the Comerford family, I suppose.

The conversations continued until late in the evening. It was midnight before I got back to Dublin.

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