Finding the other Lady Fitzgerald who had family roots in Lichfield, who was married three times, and whose life was marked by tragedy

Dam Street, Lichfield, where Lady Fitzgerald’s grandfather Christopher Heveningham was a mercer and draper (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was recalling last night (15 May 2026) the social scandal that became a point of gossip in Staffordshire in the mid-18th century when Sir William Wolseley took his supposed second wife Anne Whitby to court in Lichfield seeking a divorce or annulment. The case involved allegations and accusations of greed, manipulation, cheating, forgery, desertion, perjury, bigamy, adultery, bribery, drugged drinks and corrupt and dishonest clergy.

Quite separately, I wrote some time ago (4 June 2020) about Sir James Fitzgerald who lived decades later at Wolseley Hall and in Lichfield and who managed to convincingly persuade people far and wide – and even Burke’s Peerage – that he was the rightful holder of an Irish title of baronet given to a different branch of the Fitzgerald family in Co Limerick.

Fitzgerald’s wife, Augusta Henrietta Fremantle (1803-1863), was known in polite circles as Lady Fitzgerald. They married in 1826 and lived for some years at Maple Hayes Hall near Pipe Hall and Lichfield. When he died in France in 1839, he was described as living at Wolseley Hall, but his widow continued to live at Maple Hayes and in 1841 she was attending Holy Cross Church, Lichfield. She later moved to Castle Ishen, Co Cork, where she died in 1863.

But there was another Lady Fitzgerald, the wife of a real Irish baronet, who also lived in Lichfield in the 19th century, and who had strong connections with Lichfield through her immediate ancestors, her mother and grandparents, her cousins and her grandchildren, and who was a direct descendant of the Comberford family of Comberford Hall.

Margaret (Warner) Fitzgerald was a direct descendant of Margaret Comberford and William Stanley who lived at Comberford Hall 250 years before she was born (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Margaret Warner (1806-1883), who eventually became the other Lady Fitzgerald in Lichfield, was a cousin of a number of prominent clergy in Victorian Lichfield, she was married three times, and the family of her third husband is still remembered in Ireland for the tragedies that befell successive generations, decade after decade, until the family line died out in 1917. Her life is a sad tale that includes drownings, suicide, a child’s death at play, crushing family debts, being widowed three times and her final days lived out in genteel poverty with fading memories of life among minor aristocracy.

This Lady Fitzgerald was born Margaret Warner in 1806, the daughter of Elizabeth Heveningham (1774-1823) from Lichfield and William Warner (1762-1835). They were married in Saint Philip’s Church, Birmingham, now Birmingham Cathedral.

Her mother Elizabeth Heveningham was born in Lichfield on 18 August 1774, the daughter of Charles Heveningham (1737-1782), a mercer and draper of Dam Street, Lichfield. He may have spent part of his childhood at Pipe Hall, the Heveningham ancestral home near Lichfield, and he was a direct descendant of Charles Heveningham (1540-1574) of Pipe Hall and his wife Dorothy Stanley (1530-1587), only daughter of William Stanley of Comberford Hall and Margaret Comberford (1494-1568). I have written last year (23 July 2025) about the Heveningham family and their links with the Comberford family.

Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, at night … many members of the Heveningham family were baptised and buried from there (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Charles Heveningham’s first cousin Mary married the Revd Daniel William Remington, Vicar of Saint Michael’s (1757-1772) and of Saint Mary’s (1772-1789), Lichfield, and sub-chanter of Lichfield Cathedral; Elizabeth (Heveningham) Warner was a second cousin of two successive Vicars of Saint Mary’s, the Revd William Remington, who founded the first Sunday school in Lichfield, and the Revd Edward Remington; another second cousin Mary Remington married Thomas White, Procurator of the Ecclesiastical Court in Lichfield and a cousin of the poet Anna Seward, the ‘Swan of Lichfield’.

Elizabeth’s daughter Margaret Warner was married three times, and she was 47 and twice widowed when, on 27 April 1854, she married her third husband, Sir John Judkin-Fitzgerald (1787-1860), an Irish baronet, as his third wife.

Margaret was only 20 – perhaps even younger – when she married her first husband, Robert Jones Parry of Aston-juxta-Birmingham and Hendre, Flintshire. They were the parents of three children, a daughter and two sons:

1, Margaret Parry (1827-1894), who married the Revd Evan Pughe (1807-1869); her son-in-law, Major Philip Halliley Carter (1866-1949) of Birmingham, continued the research into the history of the Heveningham family. Some of her descendants returned to live in the Lichfield area.
2, Robert Jones Parry, who died an infant.
3, (the Revd) William Warner Parry, (born 1832), a naval chaplain whose research into the Heveningham family tree is also an important source.

Margaret Warrners’s second husband was Samuel Banks of Rugeley, but he died soon after their marriage.

The Town Hall in Cashel, Co Tipperary … Margaret Warner’s husband, Sir John Judkin-Fitzgerald, was Mayor of Cashel and High Sheriff of Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Margaret was twice widowed and was 47 when she married the widowed 67-year-old Irish baronet, Sir John Judkin-Fitzgerald (1787-1860). He was her third husband and she was his third wife. He was the son of Sir Thomas Judkin-FitzGerald (1754-1810) of Cashel, Co Tipperary, who was given the title of baronet in 1801 as a reward for his role in suppressing the United Irish Rebellion of 1798 in Co Tipperary, his support for the Act of Union, and for his time as High Sheriff of Tipperary (1798-1803).

During the 1798 Rising, he became known as ‘Flogging Fitzgerald’, When he died in 1810, an obituary’ referred to his excessive use of the cat o’ nine tails as a magistrate, saying: ‘The history of his life and loyalty is written in legible characters on the backs of his fellow countrymen.’

Margaret’s husband, Sir John Judkin-Fitzgerald, was born on 27 August 1787. He was 23 when he succeeded to his father’s estates in Cashel and his title as the second baronet in 1810. He lived in Golden, near Cashel, and was the Mayor of Cashel and High Sheriff of Co Tipperary (1819-1820).

Sir John married his first wife, the widowed Elizabeth Moore (née Pennefather), in Cashel Cathedral in 1816. They were the parents of one child, Margaret’s future husband, Sir Thomas Judkin-Fitzgerald (1820-1864). Elizabeth died on 26 April 1835, and Sir John married his second wife, Geraldine Fitzgerald, on 10 November 1837. They were the parents of one child, Geraldine Caroline (1839-1916), and this second Lady Fitzgerald died in childbirth on 11 February 1839.

By the time Margaret Warner married Sir John married on 27 April 1854, he was selling off large tracts of land in furtive attempts to clear his mounting debts. The land he sold between 1852 and 1856 included over 3,800 acres in Co Wexford, Co Waterford, Co Tipperary and Co Cork, and he sold another 1,500 acres in Co Cork in 1857. He was living at Golden Hills, near Golden and Cashel, when that too was advertised for sale in 1858, though it remained unsold.

Less than six years after he married Margaret, and now heavily indebted, Sir John was drowned on 28 February 1860. He was onboard the PS Nimrod, an Irish paddle steamer plying between Cork and Liverpool, when it ran aground at St David’s Head in Wales, smashed into three pieces and sank with the loss of 45 lives, 25 crew and 20 passengers. He was 72, Margaret was 52 and now a widow for the third time.

Sir John’s title, his remaining lands and his crushing debts were inherited by his only son, Margaret’s stepson, Sir Thomas Judkin-FitzGerald (1820-1864), as the third baronet. He was a magistrate and a Deputy Lieutenant for Co Tipperary, and continued to live at Golden Hills, which had not yet been sold off.

Three years before succeeding his father, Sir Thomas’s eldest son and heir, nine-year-old John Judkin Judkin-FitzGerald, died in another family tragedy in 1857 when he accidentally hanged himself in the garden. Two stories try to explain what happened: one account says it was an accident while the boy was playing on a swing; the other version says he was showing his younger siblings how their great-grandfather hanged rebels in 1798 when he slipped and accidentally hanged himself.

Sir Thomas Judkin Fitzgerald drowned himself in the River Suir at Golden on the night of 26/27 April 1864 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

But the family tragedies do not end there. Margaret’s stepson, the boy’s father, Sir Thomas Judkin Fitzgerald, drowned himself in the River Suir at Golden on the night of 26/27 April 1864 when he was only 43.

A letter in the Clonmel Chronicle said reports that he was living in ‘greatly embarrassed circumstances’ and ‘greatly in debt’ were ‘much exaggerated’. But he was living with financial difficulties, finding he was liable for the debts of his father, Sir John Judkin Fitzgerald, totalling £7,000, or about £1.1 million today. Sir Thomas had insured his life for several thousand pounds so his family might not suffer from ever-mounting debts.

The jury reached a verdict of death as a result of temporary insanity. But local people tried to stop him being buried in consecrated ground in Ballygriffin churchyard because of his suicide. On the day of his funeral they packed the graveyard in Ballygriffin, filled the fresh-dug grave with stones, and blocked the priest from continuing with the burial. When he was buried eventually, his funeral was guarded by a large police presence.

By then, his step-mother, Margaret (Warner) Fitzgerald, now a widow for the third time, had moved to Moss Side, Manchester, with her son William Warner Parry and her step-daughter Geraldine Fitzgerald. Geraldine married Dr Walter Bourne in 1870 and they lived in Calcutta and later in Bradford. The Revd William Warner Parry, studied at Oxford, became a naval chaplain, and his research into the Heveningham family tree has been an important source.

Margaret died in genteel poverty in Southsea on 8 September 1883 at the age of 77. By then, her step-grandson, Sir Joseph Capel Judkin-FitzGerald (1853-1917), had succeeded to the Fitzgerald title as the fourth baronet as an eight-year-old in 1864. Golden Hills was advertised for sale again in 1878, when it was described as a ‘large castellated building’ with a drawing room opening into a conservatory, dining room and morning room, eight bedrooms and a servants’ hall. Most of the house had disappeared by the early 1940s, or was incorporated into a modern farmyard.

Sir Joseph Capel Judkin-Fitzgerald was the last and final baronet in his family. He lived a sad and dissolute life in England, accused of stealing jewellery, defrauding gullible divorcees, defaulting on loans and debts, leaving unpaid hotel and restaurant bills in London and Paris, and working as an unlicensed cab driver. He was threatened with imprisonment and was eventually declared bankrupt. He outlived his two sons, and when he died in 1917 his family title of baronet died out.

Saint Michael’s Church, Greenhill, Lichfield … many members of the Heveningham family are buried in the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Meanwhile, some of Margaret Warner’s descendants through her first marriage to Robert Jones Parry would return to live in Lichfield and some of them had interesting roles in Church and academic life.

In 1847, her daughter Margaret Parry (1827-1894) married the Revd Evan Pughe (1807-1869), Vicar of Bangor, and later Rector of Llantrisant. Their large family included: Margaret Constance Pughe (1862-1930), whose family returned to live in Lichfield; and Alice Gertrude Pughe (1869-1892), whose husband Major Philip Halliley Carter (1866-1949) of Birmingham, continued the research into the Heveningham family history.

Margaret Constance Pughe (1862-1930) married the Very Revd Charles Walter Carrington (1859-1941) in Cambridge in 1890. He became the mission chaplain to the Bishop of Lichfield, and some of their children were born in Lichfield before the family moved to West Bromwich and then to New Zealand, where he was the Dean of Christchurch.

Margaret and Charles Carrington were the parents of a large family, including Philip Carrington (1892-1975), who was born in Lichfield and became Bishop of Quebec (1935-1960) and Metropolitan of Canada (1944-1960). Another son, the historian Charles Edmund Carrington (1897-1990), was Professor of History at Cambridge and the biographer of Rudyard Kipling and Graham Greene.

According to Margaret’s great-grandson, CE Carrington, writing in 1966, Lady Fitzgerald had ‘brought up her family to believe that they were the last survivors of one of the most ancient families in England, the Heveninghams of Heveningham, from whom she had inherited some old documents and a great deal of family pride.’

The two women known as Lady Fitzgerald had strong family links with Lichfield in the 19th century and both married Irish baronets. I sometimes wonder whether their paths ever crossed either in Lichfield or in Ireland, whether they knew each other, and whether they were ever confused with one another.

Most of the remains of the Fitzgerald estate in Golden, near Cashel, Co Tipperary, have had disappeared by the early 1940s and are difficult to find (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Sources and references include:

The Visitations of Staffordshire and Warwickshire.
Michael Greenslade, Catholic Staffordshire 1500-1850 (Gracewing, 2006).

The Heveningham family tree on Geni (last accessed 21 July 2025).
‘The Heveningham Family of Staffordshire’ (last accessed 21 July 2025).
The St. Leger-May Family Home Page (last accessed 15 May 2026).
‘Townships: Wall with Pipehill’, in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, ed MW Greenslade (London, 1990), pp 283-294. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp283-294 (last accessed 21 July 2025).
‘Burntwood: Manors, local government and public services’, in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, ed MW Greenslade (London, 1990), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp205-220 (last accessed 21 July 2025).
Aleyn Lyell Reade, Johnsonian Gleanings, ‘Notes on Dr Johnson’s Ancestors and Connexions’, pp 1-41 (London: 1909).

A deserted castle by the River Suir and tales of a war-like clan

Ballynore Castle, also known as Dove Hill or Duffhill Castle, between Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Going back over my photographs from my ‘road trip’ through the southern counties of Ireland as summer was fading and autumn was still in its early days, I came across some photographs I had taken of Ballynoran Castle in Co Tipperary.

Most people passing by probably pay little attention to this sad, decaying tower house by roadside, and we might have missed it too had we not stopped for lunch at the Meadows and Byrne Village on the way from Carrick-on-Suir to Clonmel.

The Meadows and Byrne Village is a fashionable place to stop, with Blarney Woollen Mills, the Linen Loft and cafés and food shops. But Ballynoran Castle is centuries older, on the opposite side of the road, close to the banks of the River Suir and the border between Co Tipperary and Co Waterford.

Ballynoran Castle is also known as Dove Hill or Duffhill Castle, and it is one of a series of tower houses built in the 15th and 16th centuries and lining the northern banks of the River Suir in Co Tipperary.

This four-storey tower is fighting a losing battle with the encroaching ivy, and it difficult both to see any defining features and to unearth anything about its earlier history. The second storey has a latrine in the north-west corner and a fireplace on the north side, while the third storey has a south-east angle loop.

The tower house is said to have been built by the Mandeville family on land once controlled by the O’More family. It was garrisoned by Sir Thomas Butler of Cahir Castle in 1542, but a century later was noted in the Civil Survey as being ‘a small castle wanting repaire.’

Ballynore Castle was ‘a small castle wanting repaire’ by 1542 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The de Mandeville family came to Ireland with the arrival of the Anglo-Normans. Robert de Mandeville and others murdered William de Burgh, the ‘Brown’ Earl of Ulster, in 1333. The murder reflected the disintegration of Norman rule and triggered a resurgence of Gaelic strength and power in Ulster.

Edmund Curtis repeated the claim that the de Mandeville family had prudently adopted an Irish surname, MacQuillan, in the face of the Gaelic rebellion. The story claimed that the McQuillan family is descended from Hugelin de Mandeville, with the name McQuillan derived from the Irish Mac Uighilín, meaning son of Hugelin.

Edward MacLysaght perpetuated this myth in the 1950s and 1960s in his series of Irish Families books. However, this notion has since been challenged by historians, drawing on sources that show clearly that the McQuillans and de Mandevilles were two different families.

Dunluce Caste, Co Antrim … once the seat of the Clan McQuillan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Clan McQuillan originally claimed descent from Fiacha MacUillin, youngest son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The family was associated mainly with the north Antrim coast, where they once lived at Dunluce Caste and engaged in many battles with the Scottish McDonnell clan.

Another account says the McQuillans came from Scotland in the 1200s as hired mercenaries, and were the Lords of Route from the late 13th century. According to the Annals of Ulster, a bloody feud between the MacQuillan and the O’Cahan clans started in 1442.

By the 1460s, with the earldom of Ulster near its end, it is said the surviving de Mandevilles of north Antrim deserted their manors in Twescard and sold their interests to the MacQuillans who were already established there.

The MacQuillans renamed Twescard the Route, after their ‘rout,’ a common term then for a private army. Their principal residence in the Route was at Dunluce Castle, near the mouth of the River Bush.

They built their castle on the cliffs around 1500, and the earliest written record of the castle dates from 1513. The earliest features of the castle are two large drum towers about 9 metres (30 ft) in diameter on the east side, both remains of the castle built by the McQuillans after becoming Lords of the Route.

The feud between the MacQuillan and the O’Cahan clans came to end in 1559, when the MacDonnells of the Glens, once allies of the MacQuillans, turned on them. Sorley Boy MacDonnell, with the aid of levies from Scotland, launched a mass assault on the Route against the MacQuillans. The final battle of this assault was at Aura, and saw the end of the MacQuillans and the conquest of the Route by the MacDonnells.

The bloodletting, warrior lifestyles of the MacQuillans of the Route was abandoned by later generation of the family when their direct descendants became Quakers.

In Wexford in the early 20th century, Edward McQuillan claimed to be The McQuillan or head of the Clan McQuillan. He bought Slaney View in Westgate, once the Wexford townhouse of the Perceval family of Slaney Manor, and renamed the house Dunluce.

Edward McQuillan was one of the prominent Quakers in Wexford in his day and died in 1941. The former Quaker Meeting House in High Street, Wexford, dating from 1657, had closed in 1927 following the departure from Wexford of the three remaining Thompson families.

Dunluce at Westgate, Wexford … renamed by Edward McQuillan, a prominent Quaker (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Mall: an elegant terrace of Georgian houses in Cahir

The Mall is a a terrace of elegant Georgian houses by the banks of the River Suir in Cahir, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Cahir is best known for Cahir Castle and the buildings designed by the Regency architect John Nash. But when we returned to Cahir after this summer’s ‘Road Trip,’ there was an interesting variety of heritage buildings to enjoy last weekend.

Between Saint Paul’s Church in Cahir and the bridge on the River Suir below the Cahir Castle, the Mall is a terrace of Georgian houses by the riverbank that adds to the architectural beauty of this town in south Co Tipperary.

When the Butler family was restoring Cahir Castle in the early 19th century, the town was also transformed in a short period through an unprecedented building and rebuilding programme initiated by Richard Butler (1794-1858), 2nd Earl of Glengall.

Lord Glengall became personally involved and he personally bore many of the costs. He poured money into the Cahir estate in the 1820s and 1830s, giving his more important tenants long leases on strict conditions that they build according to his plans.

Michael Burke built most of the East Side of the Square; John Cusack built Old Church Street; John Egan built parts of Castle Street; Michael Blake built the Parish House; John Chaytor built the current AIB bank; and Dr Thomas Beale, John Chayotr’s brother-in-law, built the houses on the Mall. There was an unprecedented amount of building and rebuilding activity, and the town was transformed in a short space of time.

The Mall is a terrace of four, three-storey over basement houses close to Cahir Castle. The land on which they stand was leased by Lord Glengall to Dr Thomas Beale in 1820s, with specific purpose of building an hotel and a row of townhouses.

The first three of these houses were completed by 1830, and initially two of them served as the Cahir Castle Hotel. However, the Famine in the 1840s put paid to the completion of this scheme and other similar developments planned for the town. During the great famine in 1847, the Cahir estate was declared bankrupt, and the remaining six of the 10 houses planned on the Mall were never completed.

The Mall House is the first house on the left or north end of this elegant terrace, and was built ca 1830. A railed area to the basement provides privacy from the street, and access by a flight of steps creates an air of grandeur. High quality craftsmanship can be seen in the fanlight and sidelights.

This is an end-of-terrace, two-bay, three-storey over basement house, with a lower lean-to addition at the rear. Its features include a pitched slate roof, a rendered eaves course, a rendered chimney-stack, cast-iron rainwater goods, square-headed windows with stone sills, timber sliding sash windows, and decorative wrought-iron box window guards.

The elliptical-headed entrance is in a slightly concave opening with stone steps, a timber panelled door, cobweb fanlight and sidelights with decorative glazing. There are 12 ft high ceilings, sash windows with window shutters, ornate cornicing and coving, and original fireplaces and doors. This five-bedroom Georgian century family home retains many of its original features, with the original walled garden.

The first resident of the Mall House was James Barry, solicitor and seneschal to the Manor of Cahir. Later in the 19th century, the tenants of the Mall House included a variety of military and gentry figures. From 1900, it was home to Ned Smith, local millers and bank officials. It was bought by Paddy Walsh in 1969 and renovated. The house was sold in 1983 to Nora Curling, mother of the equine artist Peter Curling, and was later bought by Carmel Kerins.

The full-height bowed south gable and a round-arched carriageway enhance the house on the south end of the Mall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The end house at the right or south end of the terrace has a full-height bowed south gable and a round-arched carriageway on the south side of house, making it the grandest house on the Mall. A railed area to the basement provides privacy from the street, and access by a flight of steps creates an air of grandeur.

Once again, high quality craftsmanship can be seen in the fanlight and sidelights. The arched carriageway on the south side gives access to Mall Lane, with mews buildings at the rear of the terrace.

The details of this two-bay, three-storey over basement house include the red-brick chimneystack, cut sandstone quoins, a smooth rendered plinth at the south side, acting as a buttress to each side of bow, square-headed windows with limestone sills and timber sliding sash windows, the recessed timber panelled door, cobweb fanlight and half-length sidelights with decorative glazing, the limestone steps.

Remodelling Cahir cost Lord Glengall in the region of £75,000. However, with this lavish spending on the eve the Great Famine, Cahir’s owner became heavily indebted. Despite his marriage to a wealthy heiress, Margaret Lauretta Mellish, the family’s fortunes never recovered from his spending on Cahir, and he was declared bankrupt in 1849.

On the instructions of the Encumbered Estates Court, an estate of almost 30,000 acres was advertised for sale in November 1853. The sale included lots in the towns of Cahir and Clonmel, the Manors of Cahir, Rehill and Castlegrace, all in Co Tipperary and Redmondstown and other property in Co Waterford. He remained a bankrupt until he died on 22 June 1858, and much of the land was later bought back by the family.

However, the Mall continues to form a significant part of the architectural heritage of Cahir and the quadrant arrangement of this formerly gated street remains intact.

Cahir Castle and the River Suir seen from The Mall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Swiss Cottage in Cahir, a cottage orné designed by John Nash

The Swiss Cottage in Cahir, Co Tipperary, a cottage orné designed by John Nash (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Returning to Cahir at the weekend, I wanted to see more of the Regency buildings designed by John Nash for the Earls of Glengall, including Saint Paul’s Church, the Erasmus Smith School and the Swiss Cottage, which was once part of the Cahir Castle estate.

The Swiss Cottage, 2 km south of Cahir, Co Tipperary, is a notable example of a cottage orné – an ornamental cottage or fanciful realisation of an idealised countryside cottage. Cottages like these were used for picnics, small soirees and fishing and hunting parties. They were also designed as peaceful retreats for the family who lived in the nearby ‘big house.’

The cottage orné or decorated cottage style dates back to a movement of ‘rustic’ stylised cottages in the late 18th and early 19th century, when there was a fashion to discover a more ‘natural’ way of living as opposed to the formality of the baroque and neo-classical architectural styles.

The Swiss Cottage in Cahir … a style developed in the late 18th and early 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

As with the earlier Petit hameau de la Reine at Versailles in France, these picturesque cottages were popular with aristocrats and gentry families in the early 19th century as places to ‘play at being peasants’ and to entertain guests, and as places for picnics, card games and theatricals.

English Heritage defines the term as ‘a rustic building of picturesque design.’ These cottages often feature well-shaped thatch roofs and ornate timberwork. Many were inspired by Strawberry Hill House – often known simply as Strawberry Hill – the Gothic Revival villa in Twickenham built by Horace Walpole (1717-1797) in 1749-1776.

Some cottages in this style I have visited recently include Martinstown House, Co Kildare, designed by Decimus Burton (1800-1881) for the Dukes of Leinster, and Laurelmere Lodge in Marlay Park, Rathfarnham, designed for the La Touche family, later known as Tamplin’s Cottage and known to generations of children as ‘Goldilocks Cottage.’

There are similar buildings at Burrenwood (Co Down), Derrymore (Co Armagh), and Glengarriff (Co Cork).

The Swiss Cottage in Cahir … commissioned by the Earl of Glengall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Swiss Cottage in Cahir was built around 1817 for Richard Butler (1775-1819), 1st Earl of Glengall and 10th Baron Cahir. He married Emily Jeffereys from Blarney Castle in 1793. Milady Cahir is referred to by Napoleon’s Josephine in connection with the Château de Malmaison.

Lord Glengall persuaded the Regency architect John Nash (1752-1835) to design the Swiss Cottage on his estate. At the same time, he also commissioned Nash to design a number of other buildings in Cahir, including Saint Paul’s Church and the Erasmus Smith schoolhouse.

The Swiss Cottage, standing on an elevated perch above the River Suir at the top of stone steps, was designed as a ‘fantasy’ cottage to entertain guests. At first, it was simply known as ‘The Cottage,’ but it later acquired its present name because it was thought to resemble an Alpine cottage.

A glimpse of the timber spiral staircase in the Swiss Cottage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The cottage is laid out in a T-shaped plan, and has three bays to the front, timber-work verandas on several sides, and an ornate thatched roof. The external woodwork was designed to resemble branched trees.

Although the cottage is closed because of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, we could peek inside and see the timber spiral staircase and the parquet floor designed in the style of a spider’s web.

A concealed basement below the cottage provided a separate servants’ entrance and kitchen and catering facilities.

Some rooms still have the original wallpapers designed by Joseph Dufour in Paris. This was reputedly among ‘the first commercially produced Parisian wallpaper.’

The stone steps leading up to the Swiss Cottage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

After the Cahir estate was sold off in the 1960s, a caretaker continued to live at the cottage. As children, we could see the Swiss Cottage, but were never able to gain access.

After some years of neglect, restoration work began at the cottage in 1985. The restoration was overseen by a partnership of the Irish Georgian Society, the Port Royal Foundation and the fashion designer Sybil Connolly, who was responsible for the interiors. Some of the original wallpaper was saved during the restoration project.

The restoration was largely funded by an American philanthropist, Sally Aall.

The Swiss Cottage opened to the public as an historic house museum in 1989. It is managed by the Office of Public Works and during normal times it is open to the public.

The Swiss Cottage offers a picturesque view across the River Suir in summer, attracting migrant birds such as swallows, sand martins, house martins and swifts. A tree beside the house is said to be over 1,000 years old.

A tree beside the Swiss Cottage is said to be over 1,000 years old (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Swiss Cottage is 2 km south of Cahir Castle and is easily reached along the Coronation Walk, running between the two, along the banks of the River Suir.

The walk, named for the coronation of King George IV in 1821, is surrounded by native broadleaf woodland planted from the 1790s on, including mature beech, oak, Spanish chestnut, sycamore, laurel, rhododendron and elder. It is also full of wildlife such as swans, duck and cormorants as well as red squirrel, pheasant and woodcock.

The bridge across the River Suir leading from the Coronation Walk to the Swiss Cottage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Erasmus Smith School in Cahir and the Ha Ha that separates it from the church

The former Erasmus Smith School in Cahir, Co Tipperary … designed by the Regency architect John Nash (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

I was back in Cahir yesterday to look at three buildings designed by the Regency architect John Nash (1752-1835) that I had noticed last week during part 2 of my late summer ‘Road Trip.’

Nash designed Saint Paul’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Cahir, in the Gothic Revival style, and he also designed the Erasmus Smith schoolhouse, beside Saint Paul’s Church, and the Swiss Cottage.

Cahir Castle, Saint Paul’s Church and the Swiss Cottage are the three main historical and architectural attractions in this Co Tipperary town.

Saint Paul’s Church and Nash’s schoolhouse stand side-by-side and complement each other, and with the Swiss Cottage, they illustrate the unique contribution of Nash to one provincial town in Ireland, and the role of a benevolent landlord in developing the aesthetic aspects of a town.

The Erasmus Smith schoolhouse was built for children of all denominations in Cahir, and was commissioned by the Earl of Glengall. It was completed in 1818 at a total cost of £1,034, making it the most costly school built in Co Tipperary at the time. The Erasmus Smith Trust provided £600 and Lord Glengall paid the balance.

The school is built of hewn limestone, with ornate embrasures and pinnacles. Each gable has a large blind Gothic window. The central part, designed as the teacher’s residence, consists of three floors and is flanked on either side by two large classrooms.

The teachers were William and Mary Wilde, a married couple, as was common at the time. In I824, the teachers had a combined annual salary of £60, as well as a house, garden and two acres of land. That year, the school had 131 children, of whom 90 were Roman Catholics and 41 from the Church of Ireland. Numbers continued to grow rapidly, and two extra classrooms were added by the 1830s.

In all, there were 17 or 18 Erasmus Smith Schools in Co Tipperary, and the best-known was probably Tipperary Grammar School.

Later in the 19th century, the building became the National School in Cahir ca 1860 and remained so until 1963. The building was later used as a sawmill and steelworks and fell into disrepair. It was thoroughly renovated in the late 1980s, and since then it has been used a museum, a school, and the South Tipperary County Council offices in Cahir.

The sites of the school and the church are separated by a curious ‘Ha-Ha’ or sunken stone-lined ditch or fence on the north side of the churchyard. It dates from 1812-1816, and was cut through the land when the site was being prepared to build church and the school.

The site chosen for the church and schoolhouse needed to be artificially elevated, because of the threat of flooding from the River Suir nearby. Two artificial hillsides were constructed, contained within a limestone wall and bisected by this stone-lined ditch or ‘Ha-Ha.’

On many large estates, a Ha-Ha served to prevent deer or cattle coming onto the lawns or into the formal gardens. In Cahir, however, the Ha-Ha probably kept schoolchildren out of the churchyard, although in the 19th century it was also used as a romantic walkway.

After many years of neglect, this central link in the Cahir Town Heritage Trail has been restored to part of its original purpose.

The Ha Ha in Cahir separates the sites of Saint Paul’s Church and the former Erasmus Smith School, both designed by John Nash (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Saint Paul’s Church, Cahir, a Regency Gothic church designed by John Nash

Saint Paul’s Church, Cahir, Co Tipperary, is one of a handful of churches in Ireland designed by the Regency architect John Nash (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Cahir was such a beautiful place to visit last week on part 2 of this year’s ‘Road Trip’ that two of us decided to return there yesterday to walk along the banks of the River Suir and to visit some other important landmarks in the Co Tipperary town, including Saint Paul’s Church, the Swiss Cottage and the Erasmus Smith schoolhouse, all designed by John Nash.

Saint Paul’s Church, in the heart of Cahir, is one of the few churches in Ireland known to have been designed by the celebrated English architect, John Nash (1752-1835). It is acknowledged that, architecturally speaking, Saint Paul’s Church is the next most important building in the town, after Cahir Castle.

The church is just a few paces north of the Square in Cahir, in a picturesque location above the River Suir with Cahir Castle as its backdrop, and its dramatic spire has become a major landmark in the town.

Nash was, perhaps, the foremost architect in Regency and Georgian Britain, and he designed many important buildings in the neoclassical and picturesque styles in London. His work was often financed by the Prince Regent (later George IV) and the property developer James Burton.

Nash’s best-known works include the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, which inspired the gate lodge in Dromana near Cappoquin, and Marble Arch and Buckingham Palace in London, as well as Regent Street, Regent’s Park and its terraces, and Carlton House Terrace.

The mediaeval ‘Old’ Saint Mary’s Church served as the parish church of Cahir until the 1820s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The list of vicars and rectors of Cahir dates back to the mid-16th century, and includes the travel writer and bishop Richard Pococke (1705-1765), who was Vicar of Cahir in 1730.

Until the 1820s, the parish church was the mediaeval ‘Old’ Saint Mary’s, north-east fringe of the square in the town. That church had a nave and chancel joined by a partly built-up arch. The masonry is of local limestone, and a small bell-cote springs from the apex of the gable.

The church is unusual in that is divided by a conspicuous ‘curtain wall’ that was used after the Reformation to allow both Anglicans and Roman Catholics to worship simultaneously under one roof.

To the right of the entrance door is an example of an iconographic headstone depicting scenes from the Passion. This headstone remembers the Jackson family, a prominent family in Cahir in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Bishop Joseph Stock noted during his visitation to the parish in 1811 that some ‘principal parishioners’ had a ‘restless desire’ to replace the church, but he believed the church could be repaired easily and that these parishioners could be resisted easily.

Those restless parishioners included Lord and Lady Cahir, who lived at Cahir Castle. However, a year later, in 1812, the Butlers of Cahir Castle provided a site above the banks of the River Suir for a new church.

Inside Saint Paul’s Church, looking west towards the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Lord Cahir was given the additional peerage titles of Viscount Cahir and Earl of Glengall in 1816. He then commissioned a new Church of Ireland parish church for Cahir, Saint Paul’s Church, and the Butler family vault would become an integral part of the church and churchyard.

John Nash built Saint Paul’s Church in 1816-1818 at a cost of £2,307 – at the time, far larger churches were built for less than half the sum. At the same time, he was working on the Swiss Cottage and the Erasmus Smith schoolhouse on commissions for the Butler family

The Revd John Wallace was the Vicar of Cahir and Grange (1803-1822) at the time Saint Paul’s Church was being built. But the consecration of the new church was delayed by the bishop’s objections, and it was no consecrated by Bishop Richard Bourke until 4 February 1810.

Wallace was succeeded as Vicar of Cahir in 1822 by the Hon Augustus Cavendish, a son of Richard Cavendish, 2nd Baron Waterpark, and he in turn was succeeded by his brother, the Hon Thomas Cavendish, who was vicar in 1825-1839.

Their elder brother of these two vicars, Henry Cavendish (1793-1863), 3rd Lord Waterpark, was MP for Lichfield (1854-1856). Their uncle, the Hon Augustus Cavendish Bradshaw (1768-1832), is still remembered for his role as co-respondent in the Westmeath divorce case of 1796 – but that’s a story for another day.

Inside Saint Paul’s Church, looking east towards the liturgical west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Saint Paul’s Church is a Gothic Revival work and its dramatic spire is a major landmark in the town of Cahir. The decorative smaller spires and pinnacles emphasise the fine tower and spire by drawing the eye up at all points.

This is a cruciform-plan church with a five-bay nave, gable-fronts to all windows, and the external features include high-quality ashlar limestone walls, parapets and crenellations, as well as the hood mouldings and the variety of windows.

The church is oriented on a west-east axis rather than the traditional east-west liturgical axis, to allow easier access from Church Street instead of building steps up to the site from the Mall and the banks of the River Suir.

It is said that one past rector was so uncomfortable with this liturgical arrangement that he insisted on administering Holy Communion from the liturgical west end so that he was standing at the geographical east end of the church.

There are buttresses between the bays, and octagonal miniature tourelles at the corners of chancel and transepts supported on moulded corbels and topped with stepped conical pinnacles. There are engaged octagonal buttresses at corners topped by pinnacles similar to those of chancel and transepts, crenellated parapets and an octagonal spire with a finial.

Saint Paul’s Church was commissioned by the Earl of Glengall, who lived at Cahir Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Saint Paul’s is one of the few Regency churches to retain most of its original interior layout. The surviving interior features include the exquisite plasterwork ceilings, the decoratively-carved pine pews, the timber galleries, the carved timber lecterns, eagle lectern, benches, pulpit and organ.

The timber panelled box pews have trefoil-headed side panels and individual doors. The three carved timber galleries have trefoil and quatrefoil details and Tudor arches below between clustered columns.

The carved heads to the stops of some hood mouldings are an unusual feature.

The organ is an 1896 two-manual instrument (Opus 896) by Peter Conacher and Sons of Huddersfield. It has ten speaking stops and a particularly sweet tonal quality.

The decorative plasterwork at the crossing in Saint Paul’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A plan to enlarge the church in 1835 was abandoned; it would have robbed the building of much of its character and proprortions.

When the original triple-decker pulpit was removed from the crossing, the vestry became the chancel or sanctuary area, and an East window was installed in memory of the Denny family.

A stained-glass window by Sir Ninian Comper depicting a knight in full armour was installed in 1930. Comper designed many windows in Westminster Abbey, but this is one of his few works in Ireland. The window is in memory of William Smith of Duneske, who died in 1926 in his 93rd year. Above the figure are the words Scior enim quod redemptor meus vivat (‘I know that my redeemer liverth’)

The church has a vast array of memorials including some from the Butler, Archer-Butler, Charteris, Denny, Franklin, Going, Grubb, Hutchinson, Jellicoe, McCraith, Pepper, Pnnefeather and Smith families.

The stained-glass window by Sir Ninian Comper depicting a knight in full armour was installed in 1930 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The only tomb in the churchyard is the mausoleum of the Glengall Butlers, who commissioned the church. The Glengall mausoleum and vault is made from a mix of marble and Aberdeen granite and was erected by Margaret Lauretta, Countess of Glengall, when her husband Richard Butler, 2nd Earl of Glengall, died in 1858. Her mother-in-law, Emily (Jefferyes) Butler, Dowager Countess of Glengall, had died in London some years earlier in 1836 and was brought back to be buried in Cahir.

Only four people are buried there, all in decorated coffins, including those of Margaret Lauretta and her youngest daughter, Lady Matilda Butler, who died at the age of 24.

Richard Butler Charteris, grandson of the 2nd Earl Glengall, continued to live at Cahir Castle until he died in 1961, ending a 600-year association between Cahir and the Butlers. He was buried in Kilcommon, outside Cahir.

The family mausoleum of the Earls of Glengall in Saint Paul’s Churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2000)

Some sources claim Saint Paul’s Church in Cahir is one of only two known churches designed by John Nash. However, other Nash churches in Ireland may include: Saint John’s Church, Kilmore, near Knightstown, Valentia Island (1815), although other sources say this was designed by his pupil James Pain; Saint John’s Church Caledon, Co Tyrone (1808); Saint Luran’s Church, Derryloran, Cookstown, Co Tyrone (1822); and Saint Beaidh’s Church, Ardcarne, Co Roscommon; as well as the Quaker Meeting House in Tramore, Co Waterford.

Most areas of the church and grounds are disabled friendly with disabled parking at the church gates. During normal times, tea, coffee and cakes are available with the guided tours.

Windows in one of the transepts in Saint Paul’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Cahir is part of the Clonmel Group of Parishes in the Diocese of Lismore. This group includes Old Saint Mary’s Church, Clonmel, Holy Trinity Church, Fethard, Tullameelan Church (Knocklofty), and Saint Patrick’s, Inislonagh. The rector is Canon Barbara Fryday, who generously gave tow of us time yesterday afternoonas she showed us around the church.

The Sunday service in Saint Paul’s Church, Cahir, tomorrow (13 September 2020) is Holy Communion with Harvest Thanksgiving.

Saint Paul’s Church, Cahir, seen from the Mall and the banks of the River Suir (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Cahir Castle, a childhood ‘pit stop’ and a Butler stronghold for 600 years

Cahir Castle, Co Tipperary … one of the largest and best-preserved castles in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

When we were children, Cahir was the first of the ‘pit stops’ on the road between Cappoquin and Dublin. There were others too, including Thurles and Castle. But, with ice creams in hand, we often stood on the banks of the River Suir admiring Cahir Castle, one of Ireland’s largest and best-preserved castles.

During those childhood years, Cahir Castle was acquired at auction by the Irish State, but it was not open to the public.

During my two-week, late summer ‘Road Trip’ over the last two weeks, partly with sentimental memories of those ‘pit stops,’ but more in hope of getting inside Cahir Castle, despite the present Covid-19 restrictions. During the ‘Road Trip,’ we had already visited two of the great Butler residences in the region: Kilkenny Castle and the Ormond castle and manor in Carrick-on-Suir.

Cahir Castle stands proudly on a rocky island on the River Suir in the centre of Cahir. The castle was built in the 13th century and for centuries it was one of the principal strongholds and residences of the Butler family.

Cahir Castle came into the hands of the Butler family in 1375 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The first castle on the site was built from 1142 by Conor O’Brien of Thomond on or near the site of an earlier, third century fortification known as a cathair or stone fort, that gives its name to the town. Cahir Castle was designed as a defensive castle. It appears to grow from the actual rock on which it stands, and for centuries it has been the scene of sieges and bombardments.

At the time it was build, Cahir Castle was at the cutting edge of defensive castle design and the design of the castle was so effective that it was believed to be impregnable. But later in its history it captured three times.

The castle was granted to James Butler, newly created Earl of Ormond, in 1375 as a reward for his loyalty to Edward III. His son James, 2nd Earl of Ormond, passed the lands around the barony of Iffa and Offa West to his children, and Cahir Castle was enlarged and remodelled by the Butlers from the 15th to the 17th centuries.

The title of Baron Cahir in the Irish peerage was first created in 1542 for Thomas Butler, a descendant of James Butler, an illegitimate son of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond. He was a son of Thomas Butler of Cahir, and when his line of descent died out the title was revived for the descendants of his brother Piers.

The coat-of-arms of the Butlers of Cahir on the walls of Cahir Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

His son, Edmund Butler, 2nd Baron Cahir, died in 1560 without male heirs to succeed him. The title was revived in 1583 for Sir Theobald Butler as 1st Baron Cahir. He was the son of Piers Butler of Cahir and the nephew of Thomas Butler, 1st Baron Cahir, the original title holder. He had already been knighted in Clonmel in 1567.

The title was regranted with the unusual remainder to the heirs general of the first baron, which made his great-nephews, Theobald Butler and Thomas Prendergast, co-heirs. Prendergast ceded the title to Theobald Butler, preferring that the title should remain in the male line of succession.

Theobald Butler, as the new 1st Baron Cahir, ruled much of the Barony of Iffa and Offa West in Co Tipperary. He married Mary Cusack, daughter of Sir Thomas Cusack of Cussington, Co Meath, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He died in Cahir on 28 April 1596. His sons included:

1, Thomas Butler, 2nd Baron Cahir;
2, Piers Butler, father of Thomas Butler, third baron;
3, Edmund Butler of Cloghcullie, Co Tipperary, who married Eleanor, daughter of Pierce Butler of Callan, Co Kilkenny and had a son Thomas;
4, James Butler, who was involved in the rebellion of 1598. He died in 1630 and was the father of the fifth baron.

Cahir Castle had reached its present appearance by 1599 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Theobald Butler’s eldest son, Thomas Butler (ca 1568-1627), was the 2nd Baron Cahir. Cahir Castle had reached its present appearance by 1599, and the only major alterations after that were in the 1840s

Cahir Castle was captured in 1599 after a three-day siege by an army under the Earl of Essex, when heavy artillery was used against it for the first time. For a year, it was under the charge of Sir Charles Blount. Lord Cahir joined the rebellion of High O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in 1601 and was attainted for treason, but he later obtained a full pardon. He had no sons to succeed him when he died on 31 January 1627.

The castle was the scene of a scandalous killing that year, when Cahir’s son-in-law, Lord Dunboyne, murdered his distant cousin, James Prendergast, in a dispute over an inheritance: he was tried for the killing but acquitted.

Thomas Butler, 3rd Baron Cahir, was the son of Piers Butler, nephew of the second baron and grandson of the first baron. During the Irish Confederate Wars, the castle was besieged twice more. It was surrendered without a fight by Lord Cahir’s guardian, George Mathew, to Murrough O’Brien, Lord Inchiquin, in 1647.

Thomas died ca 1648, and the Cahir estates, castle and title passed to his grandson, Pierce Butler, 4th Baron Cahir. During his lifetime, the castle was surrendered again in 1650 to Cromwell without a shot being fired. Thomas recovered the castle after the Caroline restoration, but when he died in 1676 he had no sons to succeed him.

Cahir Castle was recovered by the Butler family after the Caroline restoration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Theobald Butler, 5th Baron Cahir, the son of Edmund Butler, third son of the 1st baron. His wife Margaret Butler was a daughter of his predecessor Piers Butler. He succeeded when the descendants of the second son of the 1st lord died out. He died in 1700. His son, Thomas Butler, 6th Baron Cahir, died in 1744.

James Butler, 7th Baron Cahir, son of the sixth baron, succeeded in 1744 and died in 1746. His brother, Pierce Butler, 8th Baron Cahir, died in Paris on 10 June 1788, ending the line of descent from Theobald.

James Butler, 9th Baron Cahir, was the son of Richard Butler of Ballinahinch who was the grandson of Edmund Butler and a great-grandson of the first baron. He was in India at the time of his predecessor’s death and he never received the news of his new title as he died a month later in July 1788.

Richard Butler (1775-1819), 10th Baron Cahir, was the son of the ninth baron. He took his seat in the Irish House of Lords in 1796. He was given the additional titles of Viscount Cahir and Earl of Glengall in the Irish peerage in 1816.

He commissioned the royal architect John Nash to design Saint Paul’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Cahir, the adjoining Erasmus Smith Schoolhouse and probably also the Swiss Cottage in Cahir. He died at Cahir House of typhus in 1819, at the age of 43.

Richard Butler (1794-1858), 2nd Earl of Glengall and 11th Baron Cahir. Cahir Castle had fallen into ruin in the late 18th century, but it was partially restored by him in the 1840s and the Great Hall was partly rebuilt in 1840.

The titles became extinct when he died in 1858. He was buried at Saint Paul’s Church.

The coat-of-arms of the Earls of Glengall on the wall of a former hotel in Cahir (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Lady Margaret Butler, elder daughter and heir of Lord Glengall, married Lieut-Col the Hon Richard Charteris, second son of the 9th Earl of Wemyss and March. Using a combination of her mother’s trust and Charteris family funds, her family bought back Cahir Town and Kilcommon Demesne, and built Cahir Park, or Cahir Lodge, across the river from the castle, as the family home. It was designed by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon.

Lady Margaret’s son, Richard Butler Charteris, took over her role in 1915 and lived in Cahir from 1916 until he died in 1961 at the age of 94.

Cahir House, Cahir Park, Kilcommon Demesne and much of the estate were sold at auction in 1962, along with 2,000 acres of mountain and forestry and a three-mile stretch of the River Suir. Cahir Park, somewhat ingloriously, was destroyed by fire shortly after it had been sold.

The sale took over a week to conduct, and realised about £250,000, then a fabulous sum. And so, the direct line of Butler ownership in Cahir came to an end after almost 600 years.

Cahir Castle became the property of the Irish state in 1962 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Cahir Castle became the property of the Irish state and in the late 20th century it was named a National Monument. Much of the original structure remains, and the castle retains its impressive keep, tower and much of its original defensive structure. It is now managed by the Office of Public Works, which maintains the castle.

The castle is well preserved, and in normal times guided tours and audio-multilingual audio-visual shows provide a detailed history of the castle, although we walked around the castle unaccompanied and on our own last week.

The castle was a location for a battle scene in the film Excalibur in 1981, and was used as a location for television series The Tudors.

As for the title of Baron Cahir, which was created with remainder to heirs general, it became abeyant with the death of Lord Glengall in 1858, but it could potentially be claimed by descendants of the family if they are identified.

Cahir Castle is well preserved, and in normal times guided tours offer a detailed history of the castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Ormond Castle in Carrick-on-Suir includes Ireland’s Tudor treasure

Ormond Castle in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, is the finest example of an Elizabethan manor house in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

As the late summer ‘Road Trip’ continued west from Wexford, across the dramatic new bridge at New Ross, we stopped at Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, to visit Ormond Castle on the banks of the River Suir on the east side of the town.

Ormond Castle is regarded by many as the finest example of an Elizabethan manor house in Ireland. It was built in 1565 by Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, beside an earlier mediaeval riverside castle in honour of his distant cousin Queen Elizabeth I.

The magnificent great hall that stretches almost the whole length of the first floor of the house, is decorated with some of the finest stucco plasterwork in Ireland, with portraits of Queen Elizabeth and her brother Edward VI and many motifs and emblems associated with the Tudor monarchy.

Two tall towers on the north-east and north-west corners of the bawn date from the 14th and 15th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The castle grounds include the ruins of a mediaeval bawn or fortified walled enclosure, with two tall 14th or 15th century towers on the north-east and north-west corners, while the main manor house building dates to the Tudor Period.

The mediaeval castle secured a strategic position on the River Suir, with access to Clonmel, the port of Waterford and the city of Kilkenny. At one time, the River Suir flowed right up to the gate of the castle, bring people and goods to and from the castle.

Edmund Butler acquired the town of Carrickmacgriffin (now Carrick-on-Suir) in 1315 after it was taken from the Wall family. His son, James Butler, became the first Earl of Ormond in 1328.

Thomas Butler (1531-1616), 10th Earl of Ormond, known as ‘Black Tom,’ succeeded to his family titles and estates in 1546 as a young teenager. He was a child in the court of Henry VIII, shared a tutor with the future Edward VI, and he was made a Knight of the Order of Bath at Edward’s coronation in 1546.

When Elizabeth I succeeded as queen in 1558, she appointed Thomas Butler as Lord Treasurer of Ireland, and is said to have referred to him as her ‘Black Husband’ because of his dark rugged looks. They were related through her mother Anne Boleyn, a great-granddaughter of the 7th Earl of Ormond. Elizabeth later made Thomas a Privy Councillor, a Knight of the Garter, and cancelled all his debts.

The manor house was the first Tudor manor house of its kind in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

By then, ‘Black Tom’ had returned from England at the age of 22 and brought with him a taste for Elizabethan-style architecture. It is said Elizabeth promised to visit her cousin one day, and Thomas Butler added the Tudor manor house to the castle in hope and anticipation of that visit.

It was the first Tudor manor house of its kind in Ireland and it remains the best example of an Elizabethan manor house in Ireland.

The U-shape of the manor house surrounds a small courtyard that abuts the north of the castle’s bawn. The manor has two floors and a gabled attic.

The most notable achievement of recent restorations is the 100 ft long gallery on the first floor, where the ceiling had largely collapsed. This room, once hung with tapestries, has two majestic fireplaces. One chimneypiece bears a large stone over-mantel. Above it is the Ormond coat of arms with a Latin inscription proclaiming it was made in 1565, the seventh year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. There are stucco representations of Queen Elizabeth flanked by Equity and Justice.

A plaster frieze runs much of the length of the gallery, depicting allegorical figures with heads of Elizabeth and her brother, Edward VI, and their family coats of arms. The ceiling plasterwork includes the Tudor Rose and other Tudor heraldic devices as well as the queen’s personal arms.

The decoration has less-than-subtle references to the queen in the plasterwork and paintings, and the initials ‘TO’ (Thomas Ormond) and ‘ER’ (Elizabeth Regina).

The visual impact can be compared with the long gallery (Photograph: Carrick-on-Suir website)

The visual impact can be compared with the long gallery in the Moat House, Tamworth, decorated in a similar fashion a few decades later to boast of a similarly distant kinship between the Comberford family and their guest the Prince of Wales, later Charles I.

A decorative frieze in the state rooms in Carrick-on-Suir incorporates much original material and comprises alternating panels of the Butler coat of arms, and various cartouche panels. Some carry the motto in old French Plus Pense que é Dére (‘To think more than is said’), a quotation from the French poet, Charles, Duke of Orléans.

There is original plasterwork in the ground-floor parlour too. The remains of a plasterwork frieze feature heraldic beasts, the falcon and the griffin, alternating with a device known as the Ormond or ‘Wake’ knot, sometimes called a Carrick knot.

Mullioned windows on the ground floor of the house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The manor house has mullioned windows on both floors to the front and oriel windows in the porch in the centre of the façade.

The U-shape of the manor house surrounds a small courtyard that abuts the north of the castle. The manor has two floors and a gabled attic.

Of course, Elizabeth never visited the castle that Thomas Butler had, apparently, so lovingly created for her. Much of his life was taken up with a fierce feud with Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond. The two sides fought a pitched battle in 1565 at the Battle of Affane south of Cappoquin, Co Waterford, one of the stopping points on the first stage of this ‘Road Trip.’

Butler’s victory and his handling the political fallout helped to spark the Desmond Rebellions. This struggle in 1569-1573 and 1579-1583 desolated Munster for decades.

Near the end of his life, Thomas had fallen out of favour. Old and blind, he returned to his house on the Suir, always his favourite home. He lived to the age of 83, surviving Queen Elizabeth, his three wives and all his legitimate male heirs. He died on 22 November 1614 and is buried in Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny.

In the 17th century, the house was a favourite residence of James Butler, Duke of Ormonde (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

In the 17th century, the house was a favourite residence of James Butler (1610-1688), 1st Duke of Ormonde. He was a grandson of Black Tom’s nephew, Walter Butler (1559-1633), who had succeeded as 11th Earl of Ormond in 1614. During the Duke of Ormonde’s time, the house then stood in extensive parkland and records show there was a deer park, orchards, gardens, a peach house, and a large stable of horses.

However, the Butler family abandoned the manor at Carrick-on-Suir after the first duke died in 1688, and so began a period during which various tenants came and went.

At first, these tenants were prosperous. A Waterford wine merchant named Galwey rented the castle in the 1780s. Later, Wogan, a solicitor, moved in. But Wogan demolished many of the old buildings from 1816 on. As each tenant was poorer than the last, the rooms were subdivided. What had been a seat of wealth and power become a mere shelter for the hungry. Ormond Castle’s decline was dramatic.

Nevertheless, the home remained in the hands of the Butler family until the mid-20th century. When the house was given to state in 1947, it was derelict though still roofed.

The site of the castle once stood on the banks of the River Suir (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The house has been restored in recent decades of the Office of Public Works (OPW). Central to the restoration work has been the revival of the Renaissance plasterwork, which is some places was so badly damaged it required remoulding made from casts taken of the original.

More than 400 years after it was first built, the manor house remains dignified and elegant. A recent addition is a €270,000 interpretation scheme in the exhibition and audio-visual rooms. Two seven-minute animations tell the story from the perspective of both Black Tom and his first wife Elizabeth Berkley.

There is a persistent tradition that the friendship between Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, and young Elizabeth was more romantic than platonic.

This tradition alleges that Elizabeth had secretly given birth to one of Black Tom’s illegitimate sons, Piers FitzThomas Butler of Duiske Abbey. His eldest son, Sir Edward Butler of Duiske, was given the title of Viscount Galmoye in 1646.

Edmund Butler married Anne Butler, and their daughter Elizabeth married Luke Comerford of Callan. Anne was also a sister of Helen Butler who married her second cousin, Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond, and of Eleanor Butler who married Morgan Kavanagh and was the mother-in-law of John Comerford of Ballybur.

In this way, Luke Comerford of Callan had married a daughter of an alleged grandson of Black Tom and Queen Bess. Indeed, by the early or mid-17th century, all the major branches of the Comerford family were intermarried with the Ormond Butlers. But these are the normal rather than exceptional expectations in Irish genealogy, a point than can be made using the projections in a new book by Adam Rutherford that I bought in Wexford before heading on to Carrick-on-Suir.

But I digress. Perhaps I should explore this further in a separate essay later this evening.

A tapestry on the ground floor alludes to the genealogical links of the Butler family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)