Conna Castle
Introduction
Conna Castle was built with the two-fold purpose of
providing a home for a clan chieftain to live in and also to provide solid
protection for the inhabitants from outside invaders.
Many people today
have a romantic view of castles, complete with knights, and non-stop medieval
feasting. In
reality, however, life was tough in Conna Castle. The conditions were harsh and
comforts were few. Allied to this was the constant fear of attack by enemies or
the spread of infectious disease due to unhygienic conditions. There was little
soap and water then and showers and baths and anti-perspirants were unheard of.
Because of this lack of hygiene it is said that an army could be smelled before
it was seen or heard!
Conna Castle was not the most comfortable place to
live in, with only the lord and his family given adequate heat and other
amenities. The windows were little more than slits in the wall. The cold, stone
floors and walls rarely kept in the heat, and water had to be brought by the
bucketful throughout the castle.
Early castles relied on the surrounding landscape to
provide much of the protection. They were made of wood and built on hills of
"mottes". Surrounded by a high, wooden palisade, motte and bailey
castles were used widely until the Norman invasion of 1066. These
fortifications proved too easy to burn, and stone was then used more
frequently.
Generally castles
reigned supreme until the use of gunpowder and artillery made them rather
obsolete in the late 17th century.
Conna
Castle description
Around Conna Castle is a Bawn. This is a defensive enclosure surrounding Irish tower houses. It is the anglicised version of the Irish word bábhún
(sometimes spelt badhún),
possibly meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure".
The Irish word for "cow" is bó and its plural is ba.
The Irish word for enclosure" is dún.
The original purpose of bawns was to protect cattle from attack. They included trenches that
were often strengthened with stakes or hedges. Over time, these were gradually
replaced by walls. The name then began to be used for the walls that were built
around tower houses.
There is
tiny piece of the original bawn wall still standing close to the western side
of castle.
Conna Castle is a tower house and is about 80 feet tall (27
M) and is roofless. The main part of the building stands 5 storeys high. A
higher portion of the east side contains a mural chamber and allowing access to
the wall walks was built as a watch tower giving a commanding view north and
east of the surrounding district. Castles in the locality were visible to each
other for security purposes, Lisfinny Castle, Mogeely Castle, Kilmacow Castle
and Shean Castle. Access is gained to the castle through the ground floor
entrance door on the east wall which still retains a yett hole on its left
side. Inside the door a spiral stone staircase winds its way up to the 4th
floor in a clockwise direction. This is to suit the defenders of the castle who
would normally be right handed. Six narrow slit windows light this staircase. On
ascending the stairs one finds mural on the eastern side and main chambers on
the west. High up over the doorway on the 4th floor is a menacing
hooded machicolation to deter unwanted visitors.
Inside, a fine chamber on the second floor is the
Earl’s Room. There is a garderobe on the north of the building running up to
the top of the building. This was a medieval latrine or toilet and the waste
just dropped down to the bottom.
The link between sewerage and disease wasn't made
until the c18th, and medieval people remained blissfully ignorant about the
health consequences of poor toilet hygiene.
Local peasants worked the land around the castle in exchange
from protection from invaders. They lived in rough huts, probably made out of
wattle and daub.
When war threatened, they would take
refuge in the castle.
History of Conna Castle
To put Conna Castle and its history in
context it is helpful to give a little background information on the overall
situation nationwide.
In early medieval Ireland the country was
prosperous, rural and well-settled.
Irish monasteries were centres for prayer and learning, but also places
of great commerce and wealth.
Ireland was then divided into many small
kingdoms called tuatha. Every man who
owned land, or was a professional, or was a craftsman was a member of a local
assembly called an oenach. These men
created policies, declared war or peace on other groups, and elected or deposed
their kings. The tuath became united
for reasons that benefited all. About 80
to 100 groups were in Ireland at any given time.
Kings of a tuath were considered very
powerful and so were the clergy and also the Irish poets. Laws of organization
were explicit and written in the Brehon Laws between 600 and 900 AD.
From around 800 onwards Ireland was attacked
by bands of Viking marauders. The raids continued right through the 9th century
and a second major wave began early in the 10th century. The monasteries, as
the major centres of population and wealth, were the main target of the
Vikings. They were despoiled of their books and valuables and many of them were
burned. These attacks, and attacks by the Irish themselves, contributed to the
decline of the great monastic tradition at this period.
By the 12th century, Ireland was a
country of divided kingdoms. Power was in the hands of a few regional
dynasties, and these dynasties fought each other for control of all Ireland.
One
king, Diarmid, was exiled by a group of Irish forces. He fled to Normandy. He got permission from Henry II of England to
use his subjects in order to regain his kingdom. Most importantly, he obtained
the support of a Norman called Strongbow.
In
1169 a huge force of Normans, along with mercenaries consisting of Welsh and
Flemish, landed in Wexford. Within a
short time Leinster, Waterford and Dublin
were under Diarmaid’s control
The Norman invasion resulted in the creation
of borough towns, numerous castles and churches, importing tenants, and an
increase in agriculture and commerce.
These changes became permanent. Normans had acquired the Irish language and
customs. On the other hand many Irish,
especially those in Leinster and Munster, have Norman surnames.
Ireland during the period 1536–1691 saw
the first full conquest of the island by England and its colonization with
Protestant settlers from Britain.
This period also saw the transformation
of Irish society from a stateless, clan based Gaelic structure to a state
governed society, more like those found elsewhere in Europe. The period is
bounded by the dates 1536, when Henry VIII of England deposed the Fitzgerald
dynasty as Lords Deputies of Ireland. The new Kingdom of Ireland was declared
by Henry VIII in 1541.
Henry VIII decided to extend his rule over
Ireland as well as England. He did this by either negotiating or fighting with
the independent Irish Kings and lords. This took nearly a century to achieve,
and the re-conquest was accompanied by a great deal of bloodshed, as it led to
the assimilation – sometimes abolition – of lordships that had been independent
for several hundred years.
Conna
Castle owners
Conna Castle was built by Thomas Ruadh
Fitzgerald, son of James Fitzgerald, 14th Earl of Desmond. Work
started on the building of the castle c. 1554 and it took approximately 10
years to complete. This was at the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1
(1558-1603).
Thomas Ruadh should have been in line to
inherit his father’s title but was denied this because Queen Elizabeth 1 deemed
him illegitimate. This was because the 14th Earl rejected his first
wife, Joan, daughter of Lord Fermoy, on the grounds of consanguinity. Thomas Ruadh
was instead assigned the tiny Barony of Kinnatalloon, which takes up much of
the parish of Conna. His half-brother Gerald was declared 15th Earl
of Desmond and heir to the vast Desmond estates.
Gerald was involved in a lot of
infighting with other chieftains and also the English. He and his brother John
were imprisoned in the Tower of London in the late 1560’s. John lived in
Mogeely Castle and his property extended over Mogeely, Curraglass and Kilmacow.
In 1570 Thomas Ruadh Fitzgerald and his
men were in battle with another chieftain called James Fitz-Morris. It is
unclear if this battle was fought in Conna or not. Some of Thomas’ men were
killed. Others were captured of which two of the commanders of the gallow
glasses were hanged. It appears that Thomas Ruadh was fighting on the side of
the English, possibly with a view to recovering his lost inheritance. At one
stage the Queen actually thanked him for his services to the Crown.
On another occasion the rebel Rory
McShane attacked Thomas Ruadh at his castle in Conna. His wife and son were
imprisoned and Thomas Ruadh was driven into exile for a short time.
John Fitzgerald, brother of Gerald, the 15th Earl
of Desmond, was surrounded in a wood in Castlelyons during the Rebellion in 1582. He died of his
wounds. His head was sent to Dublin by the English and his body was hung by the
heels over the North Gate in Cork city, where it remained for three years.
In 1582, Gerald, the 15th Earl
of Desmond, was defeated in battle in Kerry. The following year he and his
followers were traced to a house in a glen near Tralee. A soldier rushed into
the house and killed the old Earl despite his pleas to spare him. His head was
cut off and sent to Queen Elizabeth who had it set on a spike on London Bridge.
Thomas Ruadh Fitzgerald died peacefully
in Conna Castle on January 18th 1596 at an old age. There was a long
funeral procession into Youghal where he was buried. The cortege arrived at the
Franciscan Abbey. The monks had been driven from the monastery by the
Dissolution of Henry VIII.
Thomas Ruadh lived a life full of disappointment,
rebellion and conflict. He backed the English side against the Irish Chieftains
because he probably thought it was his best bet to succeed as Earl of Desmond.
In this he was wrong as the English, instead of restoring his Earldom merely
complained that he was not energetic enough against the insurgents.
The Sugan Earl
James Fitzgerald , son of Thomas Ruadh was born in
Conna Castle. He was dismayed by his father’s rejection and disinheritance.
When he reached manhood he decided to do something about the situation. He went
to London in 1581to make his case to the Queen. He swore allegiance to her and
asked to be made the rightful heir to the Earldom on the death of his uncle
Gerald. She said his case should be taken into consideration and in the
meanwhile he would be given an allowance of one mark a day. However his plea
for restoration was not successful.
Now, upon his father’s death he again
went to London to make another appeal. Again he was rebuffed. It was the policy
of the English government to wipe out all the old Irish and Anglo-Irish Lords
and Gentry. When James found that he could gain nothing by peaceful pleading he
began to consider using force. He noted that the great Irish chieftain Hugh
O’Neill was having considerable success in a rebellion in Ulster.
In August 1598 O’Neill defeated the
English forces at the Battle of the Yellow Ford. The account of this battle
spread like wildfire to the south and straight away James Fitzgerald of Conna
took up arms. O’Neill sent down 4,000 troops to aid James and also bestowed on
him the honorary title “Earl of Desmond”. He was invested as Earl on October 8th
1589 near Ballingarry, Co. Limerick. The English called him the Sugan Earl
(Earl of straw) as the title had not been bestowed by the Queen.
The new Earl and his forces attacked and
defeated the enemy in parts of Limerick and Cork, burning out new English
planters and causing them to return to England. In a few months James Fizgerald
won back much of the territory of his predecessors and enjoyed great
popularity. He was now in charge of 8,000 men and Conna became the centre of
the movement.
James’ pen was almost as sharp as his sword.
He wrote a long letter to the King of Spain saying that “Pharoah was never more
tyrannical as the Queen, that “the English wanted to blot out the remembrance
of our posterity and also our old Catholic religion and to swear that the Queen
of England is the supreme head of the church. Nero was far inferior to the
Queen in cruelty”.
Queen Elizabeth sent over Robert
Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, to quell the rebellion. Essex, however,
was unequal to Hugh O’Neill, even though he had 16,000 men under his command.
He was also defeated by the Sugan Earl. He attacked Conna Castle on June 8th
1599 and partially dismantled it as he had difficulty in taking it. Essex
returned to England in disgrace, against the Queen’s wishes, and was put to
death in 1601.
In
1600 the Queen appointed a new President of Munster, Sir George Carew and set
about capturing or defeating the Sugan Earl. Trickery was used to try to try to
make the Sugan Earl look like a traitor. The plot failed and Dermot O’Connor,
the commander of O’Neill’s forces in Munster, who was bribed by the English was
beheaded.
In October 1600 the English sent James,
son of Gerald, late Earl of Desmond, to Ireland. He had been taken from Ireland
21 years before as a hostage for the good behaviour of his father. He was now
to be set up provisionally as the Earl of Desmond in opposition to the Sugan
Earl by the English in an attempt to pacify Munster. He had been brought up in
England as a Protestant and after he had attended a Protestant service in
Kilmallock the Irish bitterly rejected
him. From that time onwards none of his father’s followers would have anything
to do with him. He became the 1st Earl of Desmond, but soon
returned to England, where he died in London in obscurity in November 1601.
Meanwhile, the tide was turning against
the Sugan Earl and he was being hunted down with £1,000 on his head. However,
no one would betray his hiding place for any money. He was also hoping for help
to arrive from Spain to help him in his battle. At one stage a servant of his
was taken prisoner and promised to lead soldiers to his place of concealment.
One of his men warned him and the the Catholic Bishop of Cork and himself, who
were in a cabin, made their escape. He was barefoot, not having time to put on
his shoes.
In May 1601 he narrowly missed capture
at Garryduff Wood in Ballynoe. He was dwelling with a local harper called
Dermot Duggan but they outwitted their pursuers and hid in the wood.
Eventually the Sugan Earl was traced to
a cave at the foot of the Galtee mountains not far from Clogheen and
Mitchelstown. This was on the lands of Fitzgibbon, the White Knight who was
loyal to the Queen. The White Knight approached the cave and apprehended the
Earl and his companion. James was taken to Kilbehenny Castle. He was later
taken to Cork and delivered up to Sir George Carew, President of Munster at
Shandon Castle. This castle was later replaced by the Dominican Friary.
Carew said of him “He was a man most
generally beloved of all sorts” and that one year before his apprehension he
was “the most potent Geraldine that ever was of any of the Earls of Desmond”.
For his services the White Knight received
£1,000. At a session held in Cork the Sugan Earl was adjudged a traitor and on
August 14th 1601, together with Florence McCarthy was sent to the
Tower of London. He was not executed because the English feared that if he was,
his brother John would assume the title. He died in 1608 and was buried in the
Chapel of the Tower.
John assisted the Spanish landing at Kinsale in
1601. Unfortunately the invasion was defeated by the English and they had achieved their objectives of destroying the old Gaelic
order, ridding themselves of the clan system and the more troublesome
chieftains. The Flight of the Earls, O’Neill and O’Donnell, occurred soon after
in 1607. The subsequent plantation of Ulster, introducing Protestant
settlers from England and Scotland, laid the foundation of today's divided
province of Ulster.
The
aftermath
Queen Elizabeth granted Conna Castle to Sir John
Fitzgerald of Cloyne in 1602. James 1 reversed this on Elizabeth’s death, granting
Conna to James Fullerton in 1605, who immediately sold the estate to Richard
Boyle, later first Earl of Cork. Boyle set about repairing Conna Castle and in
1610 leased it to Robert Wingfield, eventually giving it to his nephew, John
Boyle, in 1639. At the outbreak of the 1641 Rebellion Robert Peach garrisoned
the castle for Boyle and during the Confederate Wars it was taken by the Irish
forces under the command of Lord Castlehaven on June 15th 1645.
Castlehaven’s forces put some of the occupants to the sword and hanged some of
the remainder.
During his Irish campaign Cromwell and his forces
attacked the Royalists in Conna in January 30th 1650. They made a
brave stand and the battle was long and bloody and they suffered great losses.
The few Royalists that survived the onslaught took refuge within the castle
walls. Cromwell then moved his Parliamentary forces to Gallows Hill to the west
where he planted his artillery and opened fire on the castle. The damage that
was done was mainly to the roof and battlements. It appeared that Cromwell
rested in Conna for the night but it is not clear if in fact it was in the
castle.
There was a tragic occurrence in the castle in 1653.
Apparently the castle was burnt deliberately by some enemy and three ladies
lost their lives in the fire. They were named as Avis, Johanna and Jane Jermyn
whose father was a friend of the Boyle family. In nearby Knockmourne graveyard
there was once a tombstone with an inscription reading “They went up to heaven,
like Elijah, in a chariot of fire”. In the ground beneath there was a silver
urn containing calcined bones.
The Earl of Cork’s interest in the castle passed to
Rev Roland Downes Gray in 1740. Sir Thomas Heathcote was listed as owner in
1774. Next it passed to Captain Henry Parker of Greenpark, Youghal in the early
1800’s. It was purchased by Hilary L’Estrange in 1851, passing to his wife Mary
and later to his son Rev A.G.K. L’Estrange in the 1870’s. On his death in 1915,
it was left to the state, the first property to be so willed.
Bygone times
Thomas Ruadh had a secretary and butler
and a number of barelegged servants.
As regards troops, Thomas’ son James
(the Sugan Earl) is said to have 250 foot and 30 cavalry soldiers. The horsemen
were all “gentlemen” and each had three horses and two boys in attendance. They
were armed with spears but rode without spurs or stirrups. The foot soldiers
were called “gallowlasses” and “kerns”.
The “gallowglasses” were the main
fighting force. They were armed with steel conical caps and corselets stuck
with nails and carried long swords and axes, or halberds but had no shields.
(Halberds have three parts that make up the head. There is the bladed for
slicing through armour, the spike for thrusting and the hook that was used to
take down armed opponents on horseback as they rode by, you could just snag
them off. It was like three weapons in one).
The “kerns” were inferior in arms and discipline,
almost a rabble. They had small bows and darts, which with practice, could be
thrown long distances.
The marital music was played on the
bagpipes. L’Estrange refers to such a piper “He has long hair and a short
beard, a sword, armlets and immense bagpipes but scarcely any clothes”.
In Conna Thomas Ruadh had to collect a
considerable amount of “Munsterowne” or money and victuals, for workmen and
builders. There were other dues, such as Coshery, a provision of food and
lodgings for the Lord and his retainers; Shragh, a yearly rent in money and
Mart, a rent in meat.
Email: tomtosh2012
For Conna history photographs see Conna History on Facebook.
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