The chapel ruins at Askeaton Castle and a link with a Cambridge college

The ruins of Askeaton Castle, Co Limerick … the castle dominates the skyline in every part of the town (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

The ruins of Askeaton Castle, also known as Desmond Castle, dominate the skyline of Askeaton, and its pinnacles can be seen from most parts of the town. The castle, which is undergoing extensive restoration works, stands on a rocky islet surrounded by two branches of the River Deel.

The castle was built in 1199 on top of a rocky outcrop that secured its defence. At first, the castle was the manor of Hamo de Valoines, who was the Justiciar of Ireland, a forerunner of the Lord Lieutenant or Viceroy, in 1196-1199.

The castle was granted by King John to William de Burgo in 1203. The original castle was rebuilt in the 13th century and parts of this foundation still remain.

Hugh de Neville had custody of the castle later in the 13th century, and by 1287 the castle had been granted to Thomas de Clare, a younger brother of Edward I’s son-in-law, Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hereford.

Thomas de Clare had married Juliana FitzGerald, daughter of Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Baron Offaly and ancestor of the Earls of Kildare. Thomas de Clare died in 1287, and King Edward II granted the castle to de Clare’s son-in-law Robert de Welle in 1307. However, this may have been merely a matter of custody, and Askeaton Castle was in the possession of Thomas de Clare’s son, Richard de Clare, in 1315.

Richard was also held Bunratty Castle in Co Clare. Against all the odds, he was defeated at the Battle of Dysert in 1318 and was killed by Conor O’Dea.

When her husband was killed, Lady de Clare set fire to Bunratty Castle and fled to England with her household. However, she retained possession of Askeaton Castle, and it was granted to de Clare’s son and sister, Matilda de Welle, in 1322, when it was valued at £14 1s 1½d.

The banqueting hall at Askeaton … one of finest examples in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Within a generation, the Earls of Desmond had made the castle their main seat of power by 1348, possibly even earlier. The castle was rebuilt and fortified by successive earls, including Gerald FitzGerald (1335-1398), 3rd Earl of Desmond, and James FitzGerald FitzGerald (1380-1462), 7th Earl of Desmond, in 1420-1440.

Most of the castle date from rebuilding in the 15th century. These buildings include the banqueting hall, built in 1440 by the seventh earl. It is one of Ireland’s finest examples of a banqueting hall and has a fine groin-vaulted chamber on the ground floor that is part of an earlier hall built on the same site.

With its Gothic windows, its high gables and its elevated place, it could easily be mistaken for a mediaeval church on the site.

Although it is now in ruins, the banqueting hall is one of the finest mediaeval secular buildings in Ireland, with elegant windows and architectural features.

The ruins of the small chapel or church beside the banqueting hall at Askeaton Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A small, mediaeval church or chapel is attached to the rear of the hall. Unlike the banqueting hall, this is a largely featureless building with only one window remaining.

I wonder, at times, whether this church merely served as a domestic chapel for the castle household. Or did it serve as a parish church for the ville or mediaeval township within the castle compound?

I wonder too who the clergy were who served this small chapel. Were they domestic chaplains in the retinue or private household of the Earls of Demond? Were they Franciscan friars from the friary in Askeaton founded in 1389 by Gerald FitzGerald, 3rd Earl of Desmond? Were they priests in the convent of the Knights Templar, who arrived in Askeaton in 1298, or the parish priests at Saint Mary’s Church?

There is even a remote possibility that the chapel within the castle compound was served by the priests of Toomdeely, a parish that served the west bank of the River Deel until it was united with Askeaton parish on the east bank of the river.

None of these questions are relevant after the castle was attacked in 1579 during the Desmond rebellion. Indeed, the chapel may long have ceased to serve a church within the castle compound long before the Reformations in the mid-16th century.

Lady Elizabeth de Clare depicted in a window in the Chapel of Clare College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

But I am interested in another link between Askeaton Castle and the de Clare family. Richard de Clare, who was killed at the Battle of Dysert in 1318, was a first cousin of Lady Elizabeth de Clare, who gives here name to Clare College, Cambridge, where I stayed in 2016.

Clare College is the second oldest of the 31 colleges in Cambridge, the oldest being Peterhouse. It was first founded as University Hall by Richard de Badew in 1326. But it was soon in financial difficulties and was generously re-endowed a few years later by Lady Elizabeth de Clare (Lady de Burgh), a granddaughter of King Edward I.

She was the heiress to large estates and tracts of land in Ireland, including Co Limerick and Co Clare, through her descent from Strongbow and her marriage into the de Burgo family, Earls of Ulster and ancestors of the great Burke families.

The black border with tear drops on the coat-of-arms of Clare College is a sign of her mourning: Lady Elizabeth had three husbands who all died before she was 28.

King Edward III granted a licence ‘to his cousin Elizabeth de Burgo’ to establish a collegium that was refounded in 1338. It was known as Clare Hall as early as 1339, but the present simplified title, Clare College, dates only from 1856.

The original endowment provided for the maintenance of 15 ‘scholars’ or fellows, of whom no more than six were to be in priestly orders, and for 10 ‘poor scholars.’

In 1359, a year before her death, Lady Elizabeth de Clare provided a set of statutes for the new college, and these have guided the college for almost seven centuries.

The college fought legal battles to remain independent of the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely, and this independence was eventually settled in 1430. In 1439, a generous bequest by William Bingham provided for a chaplain and 24 scholars living in what was called ‘God’s House,’ beneath the present Old Schools.

Religious debate was fierce in early 16th century Cambridge was fierce and Hugh Latimer (1485-1555), one of the principal leaders of the English Reformation, was elected a Fellow of Clare in 1510 while he was still an undergraduate.

Clare Hall continued to grow in the 16th century. The present college buildings that surround the ‘Old Court’ were built over 77 years, from 1638 to 1715. These beautiful buildings look across the lawns of King’s College.

The bridge linking the Fellows’ Garden and Old Court is the oldest bridge now crossing the River Cam in Cambridge, and was the first in the classical style. Thomas Grumbold was paid three shillings for his designs in 1638. The bridge had 14 stone balls, seven on each side. It is said one has a segment missing as Grombold’s supposed revenge for poor payment, his way of ensuring the bridge was never actually completed.

During the 19th century, the name of the college changed from ‘Clare Hall’ to ‘Clare College,’ and the college choir was established in 1866. Memorial Court, where I stayed four years ago, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in the 1920s and was dedicated in 1926. Recent students who graduated from Clare include the composer John Rutter, who read music at Clare.

Clare was one of three Cambridge colleges to admit undergraduate women in 1972. Perhaps it was appropriate that this decision was taken by a college that had been founded by a woman.

The missing segment on one of the had 14 stone balls on the bridge at Clare College is said to be Thomas Grombold’s revenge for poor payment (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Sunday intercessions on 19 July 2020 (Trinity VI)

‘You encompass me behind and before and lay your hand upon me’ (Psalm 139: 4) … ‘Healing Hands,’ a sculpture by Shane Gilmore in grounds of the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Ennis, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Let us pray:

We pray for the universal Church of God;

We pray for the bishops of the Church of Ireland
and the staff of the diocese and the Representative Church Body,
who have continued to work throughout this crisis,
monitoring guidelines and regulations,
and working towards the day when our churches reopen.

We pray for our own bishop, Kenneth,
for our two cathedrals, in Limerick and Killaloe,
and their deans, Niall and Rod.

In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer,
we pray for the Episcopal Church in the Philippines,
and Most Revd Joel Atiwag Pachao, Prime Bishop of the Philippines.

We give thanks for the prayers being said throughout this diocese
this week in the Diocesan Cycle of prayer
for this group of parishes, for our four congregations, and for our people.

We pray for our neighbouring churches and parishes.

Lord have mercy,
Lord have mercy.

We pray for the nations of the world:

We pray for our own government and all governments
that have tried to find ways of dealing with this crisis,
thanking God for the blessings of wise decision makers and advisers …

We pray for the local community:

We give thanks for frontline workers,
essential services that have kept working …
for our schools … the gardai …
for community volunteers who keep in touch with the housebound …
for those who return to work … those who wait to return to work …
those who no work to return to …
for business owners who try to keep going …
for those who still live with fear …

In this time, known in the Church as Ordinary Time,
we give thanks for all the ordinary things
we have taken for granted …
including the chance to meet grandchildren and friends …

Christ have mercy,
Christ have mercy.

We pray those in need:

In our hearts, we name individuals, families, neighbours,
care homes, hospitals, voluntary groups …

We pray for those we have offered to pray for …

We remember, and give thanks for, the faithful departed ...
May their memories be a blessing to us …
We pray in particular for all who grieve and mourn at this time …
the Doherty and Moloney families …
the family of Margaret (McKeown) Henihan, formerly of Drumlohan …

Lord have mercy,
Lord have mercy.

A prayer at the end of lockdown from Bishop Kenneth Kearon:

God of Light and Life,
as we look to the end of this period of lockdown,
we thank you for all who have sustained
and protected us as individuals and communities,
especially those in front-line services
in healthcare and food supply and distribution.
We remember before you those among us
for whom this has been a worrying time,
those who have been ill,
and those who are bereaved.

We look forward to the opportunity to worship you again together in church,
to renewing contacts and friends,
and we ask you to keep us ever mindful of the needs of others.
As we have appreciated our dependence on each other,
so remind us always of our dependence on you,
as we make our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Merciful Father …

These intercessions were prepared for Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick, and Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin (Tarbert), Co Limerick, on Sunday 19 July 2020 (Trinity VI)

‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field’ (Matthew 13: 24) … fields near Bunratty, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A crumbling old house near Rathkeale is a reminder of an extended clerical family

The gates into the former Elm Hill estate near Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

One of the houses I pass regularly in this parish is Elm Hill, a mid-18th century house on a difficult bend on the road between Rathkeale and Ardagh in west Limerick. This once elegant house, built by Maurice Studdert, a volunteer captain and magistrate, has an interesting link with a large clerical family and with the Studdert family who once owned Bunratty Castle, Co Clare.

The Studdert family traces its origins to Yorkshire, Suffolk and Cumberland in England. But the Studdert families of Rathkeale and Bunratty were descended from Canon George Studdert (1652-1738), who was born in Armagh and educated at Trinity College Dublin.

George Studdert was ordained deacon in 1678, and while he was still a deacon and not yet ordained priest, he was appointed Prebendary of Kilpeacon in 1678. He was ordained priest in 1679, and went on to become Vicar of Crecoragh (1680-1692), Chancellor Limerick and Rector of Rathkeale and Kilscannell (1687-1738).

During the Williamite wars, he was a chaplain to William III and preached before the him before the Siege of Limerick in 1690 from Psalm 45: 4-5:

In your majesty ride on victoriously
for the cause of truth and to defend the right;
let your right hand teach you dread deeds.
Your arrows are sharp
in the heart of the king’s enemies;
the peoples fall under you.

Later, George Studdert married Millicent Rose, a sister of the Chief Justice, and he was granted large tracts of land at Ardlaman (Alemond) in Co Limerick.

His eldest son, Thomas Studdert, acquired Bunratty Castle and was High Sheriff of Co Clare. A younger son, Maurice Studdert, married Anne Hewitt, an heiress, and was the first member of the family to live at Elm Hill, outside Rathkeale, held on a lease from Lord Southwell of Castle Matrix, Rathkeale.

Maurice Studdert’s youngest son, Canon George Studdert (1759-1813), was the curate in Rathkeale in 1792 and later became Prebendary of Kilpeacon in Limerick. George married Elizabeth Massy of Stoneville, near Rathkeale, and died on 21 December 1813 after an accidental fall into an unprotected area of a new building.

Canon George Studdert was a brother of William Studdert who married Elizabeth Dowdall, and they were the parents of one of my predecessors as Precentor of Killaloe in the 19th century, Canon John Studdert, a grandson of Maurice Studdert of Elm Hill, Rathkeale, Co Limerick.

Another brother, Canon Lancelot Studdert (1809-1873), was Chancellor of the Diocese of Killaloe. Their sister, Anne Studdert, married the Very Revd Robert Mitchell Kennedy, who later became Dean of Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert, Co Galway (1850-1864).

Maurice Studdert’s eldest son, also Maurice Studdert of Elm Hill, donated the site for Saint Molua’s Church in Ardagh, Co Limerick, on 2 April 1813, to the parish priest of Ardagh, Father James Corbett, along with a subscription of £10 to the building fund. The neighbouring landowners followed his example, and building was completed before the end of 1814. This Maurice Studdert was the father of Ion Studdert (1788-1860), who inherited Elm Hill and was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Co Limerick.

The Great Famine brought the Studdert family to the brink of bankruptcy and forced the sale of Elm Hill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Ion Studdert was living at Elm Hill in the mid-19th century, when the buildings were valued at £27. The Great Famine had taken its toll on the family and the estate, and they were bankrupt by 1855.

The house and the estate of about 1,500 acres were advertised for sale in June 1855. A lithograph of the house was included with the rental, when Elm Hill was described: ‘The Mansion House of Elm Hill stands on this lot, and contains a spacious and lofty parlour, drawing room and hall; nine capital bedrooms, large kitchen and servants’ hall, besides larder, dairy, closet and cellars of a superior description and in thorough repair.’

Outside, there was stabling for 15 horses, a forge, coach house, laundry, barn, and fowl and cow houses, a walled garden with fruit trees and vegetables, paddocks, and a demesne with valuable timber, including oak, ash, elm, beech and larch.

Ion Studdert of Elm Hill died in 1860, and by the 1870s his son George Studdert was living at Elm Hill, with an estate of 423 acres. Elm Hill was advertised for sale once again in June 1877 and again in January 1884.

Elm Hill then passed through the Wandesforde and Magner families, and was bought in 1931 by the Woulfe family, who moved to Elm Hill around 1932.

A member of this family, Catherine Woulfe, married Thomas Griffin. They were first cousins and eloped and went to the US. Their son, James A Griffin (1883-1948), was Bishop of Springfield, Illinois.

Two brothers, Dick and John Woulfe, lived at the Elm House until Dick died in 2000 and John went into a nursing home.

Elm Hill House is now in a sad, neglected state (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Elm Hill House is now in a sad, neglected state, with a large hole in the roof. It is fast becoming derelict, with rain pouring in through the roof, and the floorboards rotting. Who knows what has happened to the plastered ceilings?

Yet, looking at this once-imposing house, it is possible to imagine its former grandeur. A high level of technical and artistic skill went into its design, including its tooled limestone doorcase, the carved timber door and the slate-hung elevations.

Inside, the house had many interesting features, including the spoked fanlight, slate fireplaces, plastered ceilings, sliding sash windows, slate-hung walls and terracotta ridge tiles. The outbuildings included a coach house with a carriage arch, a red-brick dovecote and a walled garden. One of the outbuildings was said until recently to retain a pencil inscription dating from 1911 with the signatures of farm workers.

Local lore talks about a ghost outside the old house. Several people reportedly claim to have seen a ghostly little girl run up the front stairs and tug at the door as if she is trying to get in. Legend says the girl was run over by a carriage in the drive in front of the house.

As for the extended Studdert family, many members of the Bunratty and Elm Hill branches were Anglican priests in Ireland, England, and further afield. The Revd Thomas de Clare Studdert (1870-1948), whose father was from Co Limerick, was a missionary in Fuzhou in China (1897-1912) before returning to parish ministry in Co Limerick. Some of his children were born in Fuzhou, including Archdeacon Augustine John de Clare Studdert, whose ministry included being curate of Saint Martin in the Fields, London, an assistant chaplain in the British embassy in Paris, and Archdeacon of Surrey; and Canon Charles Studdert, Precentor of Leighlin (1962-1978) and Precentor of Ossory (1968-1978).

The Revd Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy (‘Woodbine Willie’) was descended from the Studdert family of Elm Hill and always regarded himself as Irish

As for Dean Kennedy of Clonfert and his wife Anne Studdert, they were the parents of William Studdert Kennedy, vicar of Saint Mary’s, Quarry Hill in Leeds, and grandfather of the Revd Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, MC (1883-1929), the Anglican priest-poet who was known as ‘Woodbine Willie’ for giving cigarettes along with spiritual pastoral care to injured and dying soldiers in the trenches in World War I.

‘Woodbine Willie’ always regarded himself as Irish, and studied theology and classics at Trinity College Dublin before training for ordination at Ripon College.

As a chaplain in World War I, he was decorated with the Military Cross at Messines Ridge after running into no-man’s-land in 1917 to help the wounded during an attack on the German frontline.

After the war, Kennedy was appointed to the Church of Saint Edmund, King and Martyr, in Lombard Street, London. But he soon moved to work for the Industrial Christian Fellowship, travelling throughout Britain on speaking tours.

He addressed the Anglo-Catholic Congress in London in July 1923, when he said:

‘It is not enough to make the devotional life our main concern, and allow an occasional lecture or preachment on social matters to be added as a make-weight. The social life must be brought right into the heart of our devotion, and our devotion right into the heart of our social life. There is only one spiritual life, and that is the sacramental life – sacramental in its fullest, its widest, and its deepest sense, which means the consecration of the whole man and all his human relationships to God.

‘There must be free and open passage between the sanctuary and the street. We must destroy within ourselves our present feeling that we descend to a lower level when we leave the song of the angels and the archangels and begin to study economic conditions, questions of wages, hours and housing. It is hard, very hard, but it must be done. It must be done not only for the sake of the street, but for the sake of the sanctuary, too. If the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament obscures the Omnipresence of God in the world, then the Sacrament is idolatrous, and our worship is actual sin, for all sin at its roots is the denial of the Omnipresence of God.

‘I have been to Mass in churches where I felt it was sinful – sinful because there was no passion for social righteousness behind it. When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make long prayers I will not hear you; your hands are full of blood … Cease to do evil, learn to do well. Seek judgement. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

‘Remember that medieval ritual was a natural expression of medieval life, which, at any rate, tried to consecrate all things to God – tried to build the Kingdom of God on earth, and dedicated all arts and crafts, all human activities to him. In that setting it meant much; apart from that setting it means nothing, and worse than nothing – it is a hollow mockery. The way out is not to destroy ritual, but to restore righteousness, and make our flaming colours the banners of a Church militant here on earth …’

When he died in Liverpool in 1929, exhausted at the age of 45, it is said the Dean of Westminster refused his burial at Westminster Abbey because, he said, Studdert Kennedy was ‘a socialist,’ although he had distrusted politicians and had never joined a political party. His funeral took place, instead in Worcester, where he had been a vicar before the war, and poor people flocked to pay him their respects.

Every time I pass through Birmingham on my way to and from Lichfield, I recall his poem ‘Indifference’, or ‘When Jesus came to Birmingham,’ written while he was a war chaplain. In this poem, he compares the behaviour of Christ’s contemporaries with our behaviour today towards the stranger and the outcast, and challenges us to consider whether we are following Christ to Golgotha.

Kennedy once wrote: ‘We have taught our people to use prayer too much as a means of comfort – not in the original and heroic sense of uplifting, inspiring, strengthening, but in the more modern and baser sense of soothing sorrow, dulling pain, and drying tears – the comfort of the cushion, not the comfort of the Cross.’

Elm Hill stands at a difficult junction, and the Studdert family is fading from memory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Compass Rose Society visit: 5, Bunratty Castle

Bunratty Castle stands out on the landscape in south Co Clare, close to the estuary of the River Shannon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Bunratty Castle is a large 15th-century tower house in Bunratty village, off the road between Limerick and Ennis, near both airport and Shannon Town. The name Bunratty (Bun Ráite, or Bun na Ráite) refers to either the ‘river basin,’ or the River Ratty, the river that runs alongside the castle and flows into the Shannon Estuary at this point.

The first recorded settlement at the site may have been a Norse settlement or trading camp that is recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters and said to have been destroyed by Brian Boru in the year 977. Local tradition says this camp stood on a rise south-west of the present castle, although there is no evidence to support this claim.

Around 1250, Henry III granted the area to Robert de Muscegros, who cut down around 200 trees in the King’s wood at Cratloe about a year later. He may have used these trees to build a motte and bailey castle that was the first castle at Bunratty, although its exact location is unknown. Later, in 1253, Robert de Muscegros was granted the right to hold markets and an annual fair at Bunratty.

The lands later returned to Henry III, and they were granted to Thomas de Clare, a descendant of Strongbow, in 1276. Thomas de Clare built a second castle that was the first stone castle in Bunratty. This large stone tower stood from about 1278 on or near the site of the present Bunratty Castle.

In the late 13th century, Bunrattty had about 1,000 inhabitants. The castle was attacked several times by the O’Briens and their allies. While Thomas de Clare was away in England, the site was captured and destroyed in 1284.

When Thomas de Clare returned to Ireland in 1287, he rebuilt the castle with a 130-metre fosse around it. The castle was again attacked but it did not fall until 1318, when Richard de Clare was killed at Dysert O’Dea. Bunratty Castle and the village were burned down and Lady de Clare fled to Limerick. The de Clare family never returned to Bunratty and the remains of the castle collapsed, leaving no traces or remains of this second castle.

In 1353, Sir Thomas de Rokeby led an army against the MacNamaras and the MacCarthys, and a third castle was then built at Bunratty, perhaps on the site of the later Bunratty Castle Hotel. However, around 1355, the new castle fell into the hands of Murtough O’Brien while Thomas Fitzjohn Fitzmaurice was the Governor or captain of Bunratty.

The present Bunratty Castle is the fourth castle on the site and was built by the MacNamara family around 1425.(Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The present castle was the fourth castle on the site and was built by the MacNamara family around 1425.

Bunratty Castle came into the hands of the O’Briens family, the most powerful clan in Munster and later Earls of Thomond, around 1500.

In 1558, Bunratty Castle as taken by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Thomas Radclyffe (1525-1583), 3rd Earl of Sussex, from Donal O’Brien of Duagh, the last King of Thomond, who died in 1579.

Meanwhile, Bunratty Castle was given to Donal O’Brien’s nephew, Connor O’Brien. His son, Donogh O’Brien, may have moved his family seat from Clonroad in Ennis to Bunratty, and his improvements to the castle included a new lead roof on it.

During the Confederate Wars in Ireland in the 1640s, the Cromwellian commander Lord Forbes took Bunratty Castle in 1646. Barnabas O’Brien, who tried to play off the royalists against both the Irish rebels and the Roundheads, left for England, where he joined King Charles I.

The defence of the River Shannon and Bunratty Castle gave the forces holding the castle a position to blockade access from the sea to Limerick. The castle was held then by Admiral Sir William Penn (1621-1670), father of William Penn (1644-1718), the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. After a long siege, Penn surrendered the castle to the Irish Confederates and sailed away safely to Kinsale, Co Cork.

After the Civil War in the 1640s and 1650s, Bunratty Castle returned to the O’Brien family, and in the 1680s the castle was the principal seat of the Earls of Thomond. In 1712, Henry O’Brien (1688-1741), the 8th and last Earl of Thomond, sold Bunratty Castle and 191 ha of land to Thomas Amory for £225 and an annual rent of £120. Amory in turn sold the castle to Thomas Studdert who moved in around 1720.

When the Studdert family left the castle, it to fall into disrepair and they moved into Bunratty House, which they built in 1804.

For some time in the mid-19th century, the castle was a police barracks used by the Royal Irish Constabulary. The Studdert family returned to Bunratty Castle at the end of the 19th century, and Captain Richard Studdert was living there in 1894. But the roof of the Great Hall collapsed in the late 19th century.

In 1956, Bunratty Castle was bought and restored by the 7th Viscount Gort, with the support of the Office of Public Works. He reroofed the castle and saved it from ruin. The castle was opened to the public in 1960, decorated and filled with furniture, tapestries and works of art dating from the 17th century.

Today, Bunratty Castle is a major tourist attraction, along with Bunratty Folk Park, and both the castle and Bunratty House are open to the public. The castle and the adjoining folk park are run by Shannon Heritage as tourist attractions.

Bunratty Castle is known for its mediaeval banquets, and Bunratty Folk Park is an open-air museum with an array of about 30 buildings, including traditional farmhouses, churches, schoolhouses and a pub.

By the banks of the Shannon Estuary at Bunratty (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

These notes were prepared for a tour of Co Clare by members of the Compass Rose Society on 12 November 2019

Dublin Airport Church: the airport’s ‘most beautiful’ and ‘best-kept secret’

The Church of Our Lady Queen of Heaven has been described as ‘the most beautiful part of Dublin Airport’ and ‘its best-kept secret’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

The Church of Our Lady Queen of Heaven has been described as ‘the most beautiful part of Dublin Airport’ and ‘its best-kept secret.’

The church is hidden from most people travelling through the airport. Today it is tucked in between the Terminal 1 car park and a traffic hub for airport buses. But it was designed 55 years ago to sit in an open-air precinct in the church, far away from the bustle of taxi ranks, duty-free shopping and continuous announcements.

I have passed it by on countless occasions since it was first built in the 1960s, but only visited it for the first time 10 days ago, when I passed through the airport on way back from Cornwall.

The church is just a minute away from Terminal 1 and the Short-Term Car Park, but now almost inaccessible to passengers using Terminal 2, which is served by a multi-faith room.

The church, with its concrete bell tower and landscaped courtyard, was built in 1964 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

When this church, with its concrete bell tower and landscaped courtyard, was built in 1964, it was one of the first modernist churches in Dublin.

One writer points out that ‘some of Ireland’s most interesting and bold modern movement architecture can be seen in churches, not least because the clients were very committed, the desired result was something monumental and the brief to the architect was specific but also pretty simple compared to other building types: one large, beautiful space and a number of other rooms.’

The church was designed by the Limerick-born architect Andrew Devane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The Church of Our Lady Queen of Heaven was designed by Andrew Devane of Robinson, Keeffe & Devane (now RKD) of Dublin.

This architectural partnership was formed in 1946 when Andrew Devane joined John Joseph Robinson and Cyril Keefe of Robinson & Keefe. Robinson and Keefe both died in 1965. The practice has continued under the same name until it was renamed RKD.

Andrew Devane (1917-2000) was born in Limerick, a doctor’s son, on 3 November 1917. He studied architecture at University College Dublin under Rudolf Maximilian Butler and graduated in 1941. He was awarded the Taliesin Fellowship in 1946 and this allowed him to study in the US under Frank Lloyd Wright until 1948.

Devane had written to Wright ‘I cannot make up my mind whether you are in truth a great architect – or just another phony,’ to which Wright replied, ‘Come along and see.’

When he returned to Ireland in 1948, he re-joined Robinson and Keefe as a partner. After he retired, he devoted much of his time devoted to working with Mother Teresa in India, and he died in Calcutta on 15 January 2000.

Andrew Devane’s work was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

His other churches include: Umtali Cathedral, Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe); the reordering of Ennis Cathedral, Co Clare; Saint Fintan's Church, Sutton, Co Dublin (1973); Manresa House Chapel, Dollymount, Dublin; Saint Patrick’s College Church and campanile, Drumcondra; Gonzaga College Chapel, Ranelagh; and alterations to Saint John’s Cathedral, Limerick.

He also designed Mount Carmel Hospital in Rathgar, Tallaght Hospital, and Saint Vincent’s Private Hospital, Dublin, and the Shannon Shamrock Hotel, Bunratty. His Technical School at Emmett Road, Inchicore (1953-1958) includes a staircase based on Wright’s ‘Falling Water’ house.

The building contractor for Devane’s airport church was Seamus Murphy Ltd of Templeogue. The church opened on 26 July 1964 with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid of Dublin.

‘A remarkable building’ that ‘has been able to survive many attempts to remove it’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

At the fiftieth anniversary celebrations in the church in 2014, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin described it as ‘a remarkable building which I am happy … has been able to survive many attempts to remove it.’

The church is built in brick and concrete, with flat roofs and with a concrete bell tower rising above.

The atrium buffers the church from the airport sound and provides a quiet, contemplative space where people can meet. The peristyle or columned porch around the atrium shelters a generous walkway with benches projecting from the walls.

Imogen Stuart’s sculpture, Madonna Fountain (1969), is in the centre of the atrium landscaping.

Imogen Stuart’s sculpture ‘Madonna Fountain’ in the centre of the atrium landscaping (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Inside, the church is brick-lined, with a timber backdrop to the altar, and quite dimly lit, but the bands of stained-glass Stations of the Cross set into the walls fill the interior with lines of bright colour. The nave is raised above the side aisles and allows for strips of stained glass between the two levels, subtly defining the traditional zones of the church.

The clerestory windows have timber frames and there are tongue and groove timber doors.

A banner in the sanctuary in the Church of Our Lady Queen of Heaven at Dublin Airport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The initiative for building the church came from a group of aviation staff and with the support and cooperation of the then Chief Executive of Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta, JF Dempsey, who allocated the site at what was then the centre of the airport. The new Airport Chaplain became the airport’s sole resident.

Many airport staff members have celebrated their weddings, baptised their children and held their funeral services in this church. The funding and early maintenance of the church was provided by airline and airport staff, enabled through payroll deductions authorised by airport and airline management.

Many Dublin diocesan priestunders have served in the Dublin Airport chaplaincy over the years. They include John Fenlon, Ben Mulligan, Martin Tierney, Tommy McCarthy, Declan Doyle, Jim Kenny and Dermot Doyle. Father Tommy McCarthy is remembered as the pilot priest who also acted as a commercial pilot training instructor during his leisure time.

The annual 9/11 memorial Mass is supported by the Airport Police Fire Service Brass and Reed Band.

One of the high-profile funerals in the church was of murdered journalist Veronica Guerin. A quotation from the homily of the then chaplain, Father Declan Doyle, is engraved on her tombstone: ‘Veronica’s death was one of these events when a nation stops, when time stands still, when we look at ourselves as a society and ask: where are we going? This line of questioning is a special moment of history.’

A stained-glass window and one of the Stations of the Cross in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

At the fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 2014, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said ‘the idea of the architect has been realised: realised in the sense that the complex has become a place where men and women working in the airport or travelling though are able to come aside from the hustle and bustle of work and life and anxiety, and walk through the calm of the courtyard into the quiet and peaceful and prayerful atmosphere of the Church.’

The church remains one of the more unique and beautiful aspects of this airport complex. It is an oasis of silence and contemplation in a world that it so busy with functionality that it finds it hard time to think about the deeper things, the things that give meaning and hope and dignity to people and their lives.

Sunday Mass in the Church of Our Lady Queen of Heaven is normally at 11 a.m.

A banner in the church … it remains an oasis of silence and contemplation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

A return visit to Bunratty Castle and its attractions

Bunratty Castle stands out on the landscape in south Co Clare, close to the estuary of the River Shannon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

For many years, Bunratty, Co Clare, was a favourite venue for a New Year break for an extended, wider family circle.

Earlier this week, while two of us were meeting members of the wider family at Shannon Airport, we stopped on our way back to Askeaton at Bunratty for coffee and to visit Bunratty Castle.

Bunratty Castle is a large 15th-century tower house in Bunratty village, off the road between Limerick and Ennis, near both airport and Shannon Town.

The name Bunratty (Bun Ráite, or Bun na Ráite) refers to either the ‘river basin,’ or the River Ratty, the river that runs alongside the castle and flows into the Shannon Estuary at this point.

The first recorded settlement at the site may have been a Norse settlement or trading camp that is recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters and said to have been destroyed by Brian Boru in the year 977. Local tradition says this camp stood on a rise south-west of the present castle, although there is no evidence to support this claim.

Around 1250, Henry III granted the area to Robert de Muscegros, who cut down around 200 trees in the King’s wood at Cratloe about a year later. He may have used these trees to build a motte and bailey castle that was the first castle at Bunratty, although its exact location is unknown. Later, in 1253, Robert de Muscegros was granted the right to hold markets and an annual fair at Bunratty.

The lands later returned to Henry III, and they were granted to Thomas de Clare, a descendant of Strongbow, in 1276. Thomas de Clare built a second castle that was the first stone castle in Bunratty. This large stone tower stood from about 1278 on or near the site of the present Bunratty Castle.

In the late 13th century, Bunrattty had about 1,000 inhabitants. The castle was attacked several times by the O’Briens and their allies. While Thomas de Clare was away in England, the site was captured and destroyed in 1284.

When Thomas de Clare returned to Ireland in 1287, he rebuilt the castle with a 130-metre fosse around it. The castle was again attacked but it did not fall until 1318, when Thomas de Clare and his son Richard were killed at Dysert O’Dea during the Bruce Wars in Ireland. Bunratty Castle and the village were burned down and Lady de Clare fled to Limerick. The de Clare family never returned to Bunratty and the remains of the castle collapsed, leaving no traces or remains of this second castle.

In 1353, Sir Thomas de Rokeby led an army against the MacNamaras and the MacCarthys, and a third castle was then built at Bunratty, perhaps on the site of the later Bunratty Castle Hotel. However, around 1355, the new castle fell into the hands of Murtough O’Brien while Thomas Fitzjohn Fitzmaurice was the Governor or captain of Bunratty.

The present Bunratty Castle is the fourth castle on the site and was built by the MacNamara family around 1425.(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The present castle was the fourth castle on the site and was built by the MacNamara family around 1425.

Bunratty Castle came into the hands of the O’Briens family, the most powerful clan in Munster and later Earls of Thomond, around 1500.

In 1558, Bunratty Castle as taken by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Thomas Radclyffe (1525-1583), 3rd Earl of Sussex, from Donal O’Brien of Duagh, the last King of Thomond, who died in 1579. Radclyffe’s second wife, Frances Sidney (1531-1589), Countess of Sussex, was a daughter of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst, and was the founder of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, which she endowed in her will.

Meanwhile, Bunratty Castle was given to Donal O’Brien’s nephew, Connor O’Brien. His son, Donogh O’Brien, may have moved his family seat from Clonroad in Ennis to Bunratty, and his improvements to the castle included a new lead roof on it.

During the Confederate Wars in Ireland in the 1640s, the Cromwellian commander Lord Forbes took Bunratty Castle in 1646. Barnabas O’Brien, who tried to play off the royalists against both the Irish rebels and the Roundheads, left for England, where he joined King Charles I.

The defence of the River Shannon and Bunratty Castle gave the forces holding the castle a position to blockade access from the sea to Limerick. The castle was held then by Admiral Sir William Penn (1621-1670), father of William Penn (1644-1718), the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. After a long siege, Penn surrendered the castle to the Irish Confederates and sailed away safely to Kinsale, Co Cork.

After the Civil War in the 1640s and 1650s, Bunratty Castle returned to the O’Brien family, and in the 1680s the castle was the principal seat of the Earls of Thomond. In 1712, Henry O’Brien (1688-1741), the 8th and last Earl of Thomond, sold Bunratty Castle and 191 ha of land to Thomas Amory for £225 and an annual rent of £120. Amory in turn sold the castle to Thomas Studdert who moved in around 1720.

When the Studdert family left the castle, it to fall into disrepair and they moved into Bunratty House, which they built in 1804.

For some time in the mid-19th century, the castle was a police barracks used by the Royal Irish Constabulary. The Studdert family returned to Bunratty Castle at the end of the 19th century, and Captain Richard Studdert was living there in 1894. But the roof of the Great Hall collapsed in the late 19th century.

In 1956, Bunratty Castle was bought and restored by the 7th Viscount Gort, with the support of the Office of Public Works. He reroofed the castle and saved it from ruin. The castle was opened to the public in 1960, decorated and filled with furniture, tapestries and works of art dating from the 17th century.

Today, Bunratty Castle is a major tourist attraction, along with Bunratty Folk Park, and both the castle and Bunratty House are open to the public. The castle and the adjoining folk park are run by Shannon Heritage as tourist attractions.

Bunratty Castle is known for its mediaeval banquets, and Bunratty Folk Park is an open-air museum with an array of about 30 buildings, including traditional farmhouses, churches, schoolhouses and a pub.

A September afternoon close the Shannon Estuary by the river at Bunratty (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Like driving from Dublin to Berlin during a busy weekend in Achill

Bunratty Castle on the banks of the River Raite in Co Clare at the weekend (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

I spent much of this bank holiday weekend on Achill Island, where I was one of the speakers at the 11th annual Heinrich Böll Memorial Weekend. The weekend was focussing on travel writing and travel writers and I arrived in Achill for the opening of the weekend in the Cyril Gray Hall Dugort on Friday night.

On the opening night, the Berlin-based Irish Times journalist Derek Scally spoke about German perceptions of Ireland and Irish perceptions of Germany. Later that evening, the award-winning writer and journalist Dea Birkett, who lives in London and on Achill, spoke on “Women travellers through the ages – difficult journeys by extraordinary women,” and the travel writers and women she introduced us to included the novelist Honor Tracy, who lived in Achill for many years.

I was staying in Gray’s Guest House, and had planned to spend the full weekend on the island. However, a family funeral in Co Cork meant I missed Saturday’s programme, which included readings, talks and workshops by Heinrich Böll’s son, Rene Böll, Hugo Hamilton, Mary Russell, the German writer and novelist Birgit Vanderbeke and Dr Gisela Holfter, Senior Lecturer in German at the University of Limerick.

Early on Saturday morning, two of us left Dugort for the 700 km round trip by car to Millstreet, Co Cork. It was a long journey that took us through Newport, Westport and south Co Mayo, through Headford and the fringes of Connemara to the outskirts of Galway, and on through Ornamore and Gort, into east Co Clare, before we stopped for a late lunch in Bunratty.

By the banks of the river in Bunratty, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Bunratty was once a favoured venue for New Year’s gatherings of friends and extended family for many years, but I had not been there for the years.

We had lunch in Lily Mai’s Café at the Village Mills in Bunratty, looking out onto the banks of the River Raite, Durty Nelly’s Pub, and Bunratty Castle.

The river, which flows into the Shannon nearby, gives its name to Bunratty, and the village thrives mainly because of the touristm industry. The attractions include Bunratty Castle and the Folk Park in its grounds, as well as Durty Nelly’s, which claims it is one of Ireland’s oldest pubs.

Bunratty Castle is a large 15th century tower house, built by the McNamara family. It is the fourth castle here, and stands on the site of an earlier castle built by Thomas de Clare. For generations, the castle belonged to the O’Brien family and in the 1680s it was the principal seat of the Earls of Thomond.

In 1712, Henry O’Brien, 8th and last Earl of Thomond, sold Bunratty Castle and 472 acres for £225 to Thomas Amory who in turn sold the castle around 1720 to Thomas Studdert, ancestor of the great World War I chaplain and poet, ‘Woodbine Willie,’ the Revd Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), author of the poem ‘Indifference,’ best known for its second stanza:

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

The Studdert family left the castle when they built Bunratty House nearby in 1804. Later, the castle was used as a police barracks by the Royal Irish Constabulary, but in 1894 Captain Richard Studdert moved back into the castle briefly until the roof of the Great Hall collapsed.

In 1956, the decaying and crumbling castle was bought and restored by Lord Gort. With financial help from the Board of Works, he reroofed the castle and saved it from ruin. The castle opened to the public in 1960, and remains a popular centre for tourist visits and entertainment.

A procession of vintage and classic cars weaves its way through Bunratty on Saturday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

As I strolled around the village, photographing the castle and the river, a procession of classic and vintage cars began weaving its way through the village as part of a rally organised by the Irish Jaguar and Daimler Club.

We eventually got to Millstreet late in the afternoon. It was good to meet cousins and other family members I had not seen for many years. Although funerals are times of grief and mourning, they are also times for drawing family back together again.

Walking through the streets of Millstreet, Co Cork, on Saturday evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Before the removal on Saturday evening, there was time to admire the Harry Clarke window of the Visit of the Magi in Saint Patrick’s Church, to see the house where my maternal grandparents lived, and to look at lonely tower of the former Church of Ireland parish church, all that is left of a church that closed almost 60 years.

I have some shards of memories of visiting Millstreet in my childhood, but there was no time to recover or reclaim those memories, or to visit Drishane Castle where my maternal ancestors are buried. I had to be back in Achill in time for Sunday morning’s guided walk and lecture.

Dusk was beginning to fade when we left Millstreet to make our way back through Mallow, but it was dark by the time we were by-passing Limerick and crossing the River Shannon. With one brief stop in Kilcolgan outside Galway, we continued on through Headford, Westport and Newport to Achill. We crept into Gray’s Guesthouse quietly shortly before 1 a.m. on Sunday morning.

In a thoughtful but quiet display of caring, the staff had left us a tray of sandwiches and had switched on the electric blanket.

Later, as we counted up the return journeys between Dublin and Achill and Achill and Millstreet it came to 1,300 km – Heinrich Böll might have been amused that the distance we had travelled by road is the same as the distance between Dublin and Berlin.

There was a long and busy day before us on Sunday ... but many memories had been brought to life once again.