Cover
About the Book
About the Author
Title Page
Dedication
Preface
Map of Ireland
The Provinces and Counties of Ireland
Connacht
GALWAY
LEITRIM
MAYO
ROSCOMMON
SLIGO
Leinster
CITY OF DUBLIN
CARLOW
DUBLIN
KILDARE
KILKENNY
LAOIS
LONGFORD
LOUTH
MEATH
OFFALY
WESTMEATH
WEXFORD
WICKLOW
Munster
CLARE
CORK
KERRY
LIMERICK
TIPPERARY
WATERFORD
Ulster
BELFAST
ANTRIM
ARMAGH
CAVAN
DERRY
DONEGAL
DOWN
FERMANAGH
MONAGHAN
TYRONE
Gazetteer
Index of People
Index of Places
Acknowledgments
Copyright
Travel on a fascinating journey around Ireland to discover the tales buried deep in the country’s history.
Visit each county of the four provinces of Ireland – Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster – and find out where dreams were inspired, where ideas were born, and where the unforgettable heroes of Ireland’s past now slumber. A treasure trove of fascinating stories, I Never Knew That About Ireland is packed full of legends, firsts, birthplaces, inventions and adventures, and personalities both distinguished and dastardly.
This irresistable book gives a captivating insight into the heritage, memories and monuments that have shaped the character of each county of Ireland, searching out their secrets and unearthing their hidden gems.
Christopher Winn, bestselling author of I Never Knew That About England, is a writer, quiz master and producer for theatre and television. He has written for the Field, Country Life, the Sunday Express, the Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail. He worked for eight years on Terry Wogan’s TV chat show, contributes questions for a number of TV quizzes and has toured the length and breadth of Ireland researching this book. Christopher lives in London with his wife, Mai, whose equisite illustrations grace his books.
For Eben and Themy, whose generosity
and infectious love of Ireland were so inspiring
Tearaght Island Lighthouse
IRELAND IS LIKE nowhere else. Ireland is magnificent, mischievous, moody and misunderstood. It is Europe’s Farthest West, the edge of the known world, a step too far for the Romans, a land wreathed in mist and mystery. In the Dark Ages when Europe was stumbling around in ignorance, Ireland burned bright as a centre of learning and civilisation. From Ireland came forth saints and scholars to spread their wisdom and their knowledge. Celts and Kings, Druids and Wise Men have left their memories carved in stone, on crosses and decorated arches – treasures that in any other land would be scrubbed clean of history, fenced off, subsumed by car parks and gift shops. In Ireland they are just there, left as they were meant to be, majestic, haunting, rooted in their landscape.
Ireland has a landscape to rival anywhere, from Europe’s highest cliffs and wildest shores to the languid, lacustrine plains of the heartlands. The beauty of her scenery and the power of her legends has produced some of the world’s great literature, poetry and music. And all is touched by a turbulent history, with a tinge of melancholy, a frisson of menace, an undercurrent of defiance.
But Ireland is also a modern country, forward-looking, energetic, alive with ideas and inspiration, drawing upon a legacy of innovation and inventiveness second to none. It is this combination that makes Ireland so intriguing, so alluring and so addictive.
This book tries to reflect that splendid, subtle complexity with tales of old and new, of tradition and discovery, nature and science, characters, philosophers, rogues and romantics. Like Ireland itself, there is something here for everyone.
ONE WARNING. IN Ireland, nothing is straightforward. Every name has two or three different spellings and myriad pronunciations. Every story has several endings and every legend a different setting. Where I have been forced to choose I have decided simply on the option that I, personally, like the best. If this offends I can only apologise and blame Ireland – frustrating, friendly, infuriating, unforgettable and forever fascinating, Ireland.
I NEVER KNEW THAT ABOUT IRELAND is divided into the four ancient provinces or kingdoms of CONNACHT, LEINSTER, MUNSTER and ULSTER, and the counties within them. The Irish rejoice in both their provinces and their counties. The provinces are the backdrop to history and legend, to battles between Kings and High Kings, warriors and saints, new ideas and new religions.
The name Connacht is derived from Connachta – the dominant tribal grouping in the north and west of the island during the early centuries AD. Leinster means land of the Laighin, one of the earliest Celtic tribes to arrive in Ireland, who settled in the south and east. The suffix ‘ster’ is Norman French for ‘land’. Hence Munster comes from the land of Mumhain, a derivation of the pre-Christian goddess Muma, and Ulster is the land of Ulaidh.
There were once five provinces, the fifth province being Meath, meaning midh or ‘middle’, which consisted of the modern counties of Meath and Westmeath with part of Offaly. COUNTY OFFALY was known for a while as KING’S COUNTY in honour of King Philip of Spain who was married to Queen Mary of England – whose own QUEEN’S COUNTY is now COUNTY LAOIS (or LEIX).
The counties are where people come from, where they belong, where their loyalties and identities lie. Each is distinctive, with its own character, architecture and landscape. They all have their own stories to tell.
Tuam Protestant Cathedral – rebuilt in 1878 and incorporating the widest Romanesque arch in Ireland (12th-century)
GALWAY, CAPITAL OF County Galway and THE BIGGEST CITY IN CONNACHT, is a seaport and tourist resort with a salty, maritime tang. GALWAY RACES, held in July, are a great Irish occasion, and in September Galway hosts one of Ireland’s premier oyster festivals. The city has a Spanish feel to it, with many of the older houses built around an inner courtyard, Spanish style – a reminder of the days when the city’s chief trading partner was Spain.
LYNCH’S CASTLE, at the junction of Shop Street and Upper Abbeygate, is an interesting early 16th-century tower house, now occupied by a bank, and is THE OLDEST BUILDING IN EVERYDAY COMMERCIAL USE IN IRELAND.
In Market Street, beside the cathedral of St Nicholas, is LYNCH’S WINDOW, which commemorates a legend that has worked its way into the English language. In 1493, the Mayor of Galway, JAMES LYNCH FITZSTEPHEN, was compelled to execute his own son, WALTER, on this very spot. Walter’s sweetheart had been mischievously flirting with a handsome Spaniard, who was staying in the Mayor’s house as an honoured guest, and young Walter was driven by jealousy to run the fellow through. The Mayor had no choice but to condemn his son to death and, since no one would come forward to perform the execution, Walter’s father had to do it himself. This story is thought by many to have given rise to the expression ‘LYNCH LAW’ or ‘LYNCHING’, meaning law administered by a private person, resulting in summary execution. It has also, over time, come to mean mob law.
Whilst on the subject of execution, the man who beheaded KING CHARLES I is thought to have been a Galway man, known only as GUNNING. It was proving difficult to find an Englishman prepared to execute the English King, so Oliver Cromwell sent out into Scotland, Ireland and Wales for volunteers. Two men from Galway, Gunning and DEAN, came forward, and on 30 January 1649, Gunning found himself standing on the scaffolding outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall in London, axe in hand and wearing a black mask so as to remain unrecognisable. He stood poised while Charles uttered his last words, ‘I GO FROM A CORRUPTIBLE TO AN INCORRUPTIBLE CROWN …’, then the King knelt down and placed his head upon the block. Gunning struck and an awful groan went up from the crowd.
Lynch’s Window
On his return to Ireland, a grateful Parliament granted Gunning property in the centre of Galway, where the appropriately named KING’S HEAD pub now stands in the High Street. There is a plaque noting the story on a wall in the bar.
Another possible candidate for the King’s executioner was the Mayor of Galway, COLONEL PETER STUBBERS, one of Cromwell’s generals. Whoever it was that wielded that axe, he came from Galway.
Galway’s CATHEDRAL OF ST NICHOLAS is one of the largest medieval cathedrals in Ireland, and possesses an unusual triple nave and three-gabled west end. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS worshipped here in 1492 before sailing west to discover America.
Close to the cathedral is IRELAND’S SMALLEST MUSEUM, the NORA BARNACLE HOUSE MUSEUM. This was the home of writer JAMES JOYCE’S wife and inspiration, NORA BARNACLE, and contains exhibits, letters and photographs of their life together.
Cathedral of St Nicholas
Ballynahinch Castle
CONNEMARA is wild and moody country in western Galway and one of the most beautiful parts of Ireland. The chief town is CLIFDEN, founded in 1812 by a local landowner in an attempt to tame the wilderness and provide work.
Most of Connemara was once owned by RICHARD MARTIN (1754–1834), whose family held some of the biggest estates in all Ireland. His home, the 18th-century BALLYNAHINCH CASTLE, stands above a small lough some 8 miles (13 km) to the east. As a young man Martin had a reputation as something of a hothead, earning the nickname of ‘HAIRTRIGGER DICK’. Most of his duels were fought over the maltreatment of animals – in 1783 he was seriously wounded in a pistol duel with ‘FIGHTING FITZGERALD’, a Mayo landlord who had shot dead a dog. Martin believed that all animals had feelings and awareness and that abusing them was akin to abusing humans so, in 1822, he put through Parliament THE WORLD’S FIRST ANIMAL RIGHTS BILL. Two years later he founded the SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS, which became the RSPCA. In recognition of this he was renamed ‘HUMANITY DICK’. He died broke, but much admired, in France.
A later owner of Ballynahinch Castle, from 1927 to 1933, was HH THE MAHARAJAH JAM SAHIB OF NAWANAGAR (1872–1933), known as ‘RANJI’. One of the world’s most brilliant batsmen, he played in fifteen Test Matches for England. Later in life he did much good work for the LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
A little to the south of Clifden, off the coast road and down a rutted lane that peters out into bleak, brown DERRIGIMLAGH BOG, there are some concrete blocks and a length of rusty chain – the sparse remains of THE WORLD’S FIRST PERMANENT TRANSATLANTIC RADIO STATION. Here, on the shores of a small lough, almost as far west as it is possible to go in Europe, the radio pioneer GUGLIELMO MARCONI built a huge complex to house capacitors, receivers and accommodation for 150 staff. Having proved that radio waves could travel beyond the horizon by sending a message to Newfoundland from Poldhu in Cornwall, Marconi moved here to Galway, where there was no land mass to interfere with the signals from his directional aerials. The station opened in 1907, and for nine years forwarded messages across the Atlantic from London and Dublin. It must have been an extraordinary place, with sparks and flashes like lightning bolts, hums and crackles that could be seen and heard for miles across the barren landscape.
There are few clues left to indicate that this remote bogland was once at the forefront of technology – the station was burned down in the Troubles and the introduction of new, more powerful transmitters meant that radio stations did not need to be located so far west. Marconi moved back to England, although it was apposite that his first proper radio station should have been established in Ireland – his mother was Irish, ANNE JAMESON of the celebrated whiskey family.
Close to the remains of the Marconi radio station, a white, beehive-shaped cairn marks the spot where, at 8.40 am on 15 June 1919, JOHN ALCOCK and ARTHUR WHITTEN BROWN nose-dived into DERRIGIMLAGH BOG after completing THE FIRST NON-STOP FLIGHT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. They had set off the previous evening from ST JOHN’S in NEWFOUNDLAND in a converted VICKERS VIMY bomber biplane, powered by twin Rolls-Royce engines and with a cruising speed of 90 mph, and completed the 1,900-mile (3,000-km) journey in 16 hours and 12 minutes.
Alcock and Brown’s Vickers Vimy biplane
The flight had been hazardous – their transmitter froze not long after take-off, and for long periods they had to fly at no more than 300 FEET (90 m) above the ocean to keep ice from forming. Several times Brown had to climb out on to the wings to chip the ice away. On spotting the aerials of the Marconi radio station, they came in to land, in somewhat spectacular style, on what they thought was firm ground but turned out to be soft bog. It was all worth it – they had joined the immortals, won £10,000 in prize money from the Daily Mail and were both knighted. They had also brought with them a mailbag containing letters for delivery in England – THE FIRST TRANSATLANTIC AIRMAIL. Alcock tragically died in an air crash later that year while Brown lived until 1948. Their airplane is housed in the Science Museum in London.
As you gaze across this empty, sea-swept bog today it seems inconceivable that two of the most influential events of the 20th century occurred right here, putting Derrigimlagh Bog at the vanguard of the modern world.
A couple of miles north of Gort, there is a tumbledown stone gateway leading to a dark avenue that winds out of sight through deep woods. As you enter, the trees seem to close in and muffle out the rest of the world, time stops and a drowsiness descends. A shaft of light appears up ahead, you step through a hidden gap in the pink stone wall and, suddenly, sunlight blazes and there, laid out before you, is a secret garden paradise of spreading green lawns, shady bowers, riotous flowerbeds and noble trees. To one side is a glorious copper beech that speaks of romance, and if you fight your way under its branches to the trunk, you will see why. Carved into the bark are the initials of some of Ireland’s greatest writers, artists and thinkers, a living memorial to the days when WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE and SEAN O’CASEY all wandered along these walkways and dreamed of wit, great thoughts and poetry. You can feel their spirit still.
Coole Park
Autograph tree
This is the magical walled garden of COOLE PARK, beloved home of AUGUSTA, LADY GREGORY (1852–1932) from 1880 until her death. She was a friend of many of the great figures of the Irish literary revival and they were often drawn here to stay. Lady Gregory recalls George Bernard Shaw singing and playing the piano and the poet JOHN MASEFIELD, shy and in awe of Yeats, giving impromptu readings at tea. Along with Yeats, EDWARD MARTYN and GEORGE MOORE (see Mayo), in 1899 she founded the Irish Literary Theatre, which in 1904 became Dublin’s ABBEY THEATRE.
The house was pulled down in 1941, and all that is left are the foundations roofed with grass, a fate predicted by Yeats:
When all those rooms and passages are gone,
When nettles wave upon a shapeless mound
And saplings root among the broken stone …
Amongst those who have initialled the autograph tree are:
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW Playwright
JOHN MASEFIELD Poet
AUGUSTUS JOHN Painter
DOUGLAS HYDE Playwright and First President of Ireland
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Poet
SEAN O’CASEY Playwright
JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE Playwright
GEORGE RUSSELL (Æ) Writer
GEORGE MOORE Writer
Edward Martyn (1859–1923) lived at nearby Tullira Castle and was a descendant of Richard ‘Humanity Dick’ Martin (see Ballynahinch Castle). In 1905, along with Arthur Griffith, he co-founded Sinn Fein, a political party dedicated to the creation of a united republican Ireland, and became its first president. Sinn Fein means ‘we ourselves’.
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS so loved Coole that, in 1916, he bought himself a retreat just down the road – THOOR BALLYLEE, a remote 16th-century riverside tower where ‘under my window ledge the waters race’. He would bring his family here whenever they could escape from Dublin, and his 1928 collection The Tower contains a number of poems inspired by Thoor Ballylee.
On a wall of the tower are the words:
I, the poet William Butler Yeats,
With old mill boards and sea green slates,
And smithy work from the Gort forge,
Restored this tower for my wife George;
And may these characters remain
When all is ruin once again.
Thoor Ballylee did indeed become a ruin again after Yeats died, but it has since been restored and opened as a museum. Today you can climb the spiral staircase and gaze from the battlements at the hilly woodland views that so moved the great poet.
Hidden away down quiet country lanes in eastern Galway, close to the Shannon and the Grand Canal, is the tiny clutch of buildings that is CLONFERT. Clonfert means ‘Meadow of the Grave’, and even in this country of so many unexpected treasures, the glorious surprise of ST BRENDAN’S CATHEDRAL, rising out of that meadow, still has the power to astonish and awe. St Brendan, WHO MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE DISCOVERED AMERICA OVER 900 YEARS BEFORE COLUMBUS, was buried here in AD 578, outside what is now the great west door and THE SUPREME SWANSONG OF NATIVE IRISH ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE. It is a huge, delicately carved portal that dates from 1166 (just three years before the Anglo-Norman invasion), unmatched in Ireland if not the whole of Europe, six arches deep and crowned with a tall triangular tympanum.
The present cathedral, which incorporates this wonderful doorway, dates from the 13th and 14th centuries and is built on the site of a monastery founded by St Brendan in AD 558. A beautifully carved mermaid decorates the chancel arch inside – no doubt in tribute to the maritime heritage of the cathedral’s founder.
St Brendan was born in Co. Kerry around AD 483. He became known as THE NAVIGATOR as a result of his many sea voyages around the British Isles. He sailed up and down the west coast of Ireland, visited Iona in Scotland and went to St Malo on the Brittany coast. Wrapped in the mists of legend is his seven-year voyage in search of the fabled LAND OF PROMISE beyond the western horizon. According to Navigatio Sancti Brendani, a medieval manuscript written in about 1050, St Brendan and several companions, guided by his Celtic cross, sailed as far as Iceland, Greenland and even America. They celebrated Easter on the back of a whale, fought off a huge sea horse, met Judas Iscariot clinging on to a rock, and experienced many other adventures on the way.
Is it possible that St Brendan could have reached America? In 1977 the explorer TIM SEVERIN built a replica of the type of boat that St Brendan would have used, made from ash wood and ox-hides, and succeeded in making the journey safely from Galway to Newfoundland …
St Brendan has the honour of having an Irish cream liqueur named after him, produced in Co. Derry, Ulster.
Buried in woods to the north of the cathedral is an avenue of ancient yew trees, over 1,000 years old, laid out in a cruciform shape. One arm of the walk leads to the BISHOP’S PALACE, a long mid-17th-century house that was once the Irish home of SIR OSWALD MOSLEY Bt. (1896–1980), founder of the BRITISH UNION OF FASCISTS. Mosley’s second wife was DIANA, one of the famed MITFORD SISTERS, who had previously been married to BRYAN GUINNESS, of the Irish brewing dynasty.
The house was mysteriously burned down in 1954 and is now a poignant, ivy-covered ruin that somehow seems to complement the mystic aura of this ancient and bewitching place.
LOUGH CORRIB is THE SECOND LARGEST LAKE IN IRELAND OR BRITAIN, after Lough Neagh (see Ulster).
On INCHAGOILL island in LOUGH CORRIB, beside the little church of TEMPLEPATRICK, stands a stone bearing THE OLDEST LATIN INSCRIPTION IN ALL IRELAND: Lie Luguaedon Macci Meneuh (Stone of Luguaedon, son of Meneuh). It dates back to AD 500 and is probably translated from an earlier Ogham stone inscription.
Incorporated into the 19th-century Protestant cathedral in TUAM are the remnants of a 12th-century barrel-vaulted chancel from a previous church, which includes THE WIDEST ROMANESQUE ARCH IN IRELAND.
ANNA LYNCH, grandmother of South American revolutionary CHE GUEVARA (1928–67), was born in Co. Galway. Her son, ERNESTO GUEVARA LYNCH, Che’s father, said, in 1969: ‘The first thing to note is that in my son’s veins flowed the blood of Irish rebels.’
The ARAN ISLANDS, lying across the mouth of Galway Bay, are famed across the world for the pure white, distinctively patterned ARAN SWEATERS which have been made here for generations. The women of the islands still wear traditional red petticoats, thought to be THE ONLY GENUINE NATIONAL PEASANT COSTUME IN WESTERN EUROPE. The playwright JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE set his play Riders to the Sea (1907) on the Aran island of INISHMAAN, and in 1934 the American director ROBERT FLAHERTY filmed Man of Aran here, using island folk as the cast.
On a lonely, windswept peninsula jutting out into Galway Bay, at ORANMORE, stands one of Ireland’s most romantic ruins, ARDFRY HOUSE. Built around 1770 on the site of a castle, the house has had a colourful history. In 1784, during the wedding of the 1ST LORD WALLSCOURT to a daughter of the EARL OF LOUTH, there was uproar when the Earl stepped into a particularly fruity offering left in the drawing room by a dog belonging to one of the guests, who had insisted on feeding the animal ‘ripe peaches and apricots’. The Earl stormed around the house in a rage, leaving ruination and filth wherever he trod, much to the consternation of the unfortunate wedding party. The 3RD LORD WALLSCOURT was a man of enormous strength and temper who found it restful to walk about the house in the nude. His wife, the celebrated beauty BESSIE LOCK, insisted that he wore a cowbell somewhere about his person in order to warn the maids of his approach! Ardfry House was used as an atmospheric location in the 1973 JOHN HUSTON film The Mackintosh Man, starring PAUL NEWMAN. The house is presently undergoing renovation.
Ardfry House
Mary Anne Phelan, mother of actor MARTIN SHEEN who plays President ‘Jed’ Bartlett in the American TV series The West Wing, was a native of Co. Galway.
Parke’s Castle – restored 17th-century fortified manor house beside Lough Gill
DROMAHAIR IS A pretty, unassuming village on the River Bonet, east of Lough Gill. The 17th-century OLD HALL on the river bank occupies the site of BREFFNI CASTLE, ancient home of the O’ROURKES. Here, 850 years ago, there took place an incident that changed the history of Ireland for ever – a legendary tale of love and betrayal that set in train a series of events that would prove as dire for Ireland as the abduction of Helen was for Troy.
In 1152, TIERNAN O’ROURKE, Prince of Breffni, set out from Breffni Castle to make a pilgrimage to the holy island of St Patrick in Lough Derg. He left behind his beautiful young wife DEVORGILLA, safe, as he thought, within the castle walls. But when he returned she was gone, along with all her cattle and furniture, taken by a band of horsemen. Did she go willingly or was she abducted?
From the descriptions given by his terrified servants, Tiernan recognised the leader of the horsemen as his archenemy DIARMAIT MACMURROUGH, King of Leinster. Tiernan went straight to the High King, TURLOUGH O’CONOR, and demanded revenge. Together, they raised an army and attacked MacMurrough’s capital at FERNS and recovered Devorgilla. MacMurrough fled to England and sought help from the English King HENRY II, pleading for a force of armed men to assist him in recovering his kingdom. This was just the excuse the English King had been looking for to intervene in Ireland. In 1170, Henry allowed the EARL OF PEMBROKE, RICHARD DE CLARE (known as STRONGBOW), to go to Ireland with an army to fight for MacMurrough, in return for MacMurrough’s promise to acknowledge Henry as his overlord. This was the early stirring of the Norman invasion of Ireland that was to have such devastating consequences for all.
Was Devorgilla a knowing player in the tumultuous politics of Ireland? Was she an unfaithful temptress? Or just a helpless victim? No one knows.
Unchanged, unpolluted and undisturbed since the last Ice Age, Lough Melvin is home to three kinds of rare brown trout that do not cross-breed and have evolved there naturally – the ferox, the sonaghen and the gillaroo – the latter two UNIQUE TO LOUGH MELVIN.
On a small wooded island in the middle of the lough are the ruins of ROSSCLOGHER CASTLE, which features in the adventures of a Spanish Armada captain, FRANCISCO DE CUELLAR. His ship, like so many others, was wrecked on the coast of Sligo in 1588. Although suffering from a broken leg, De Cuellar managed to make his way inland to find refuge with the MACCLANCYS of Rossclogher. He remained there for three months, successfully defending the castle against the Lord Deputy, SIR WILLIAM FITZ WILLIAM, who was attempting to round up and dispose of all the shipwrecked Spaniards he could find. De Cuellar eventually made it back to Spain, where he published his story.
Glencar Lough
At the eastern end of this beautiful small lough, compared favourably by some to the Lakes of Killarney, are the spectacular GLENCAR WATERFALLS, the greatest of which tumbles 50 feet (15 m) into a deep brown pool to flow into the lough. This was one of William Butler Yeats’s favourite spots, and can be reached by a path from the road.
Lough Allen
The Buckle of Leitrim
Leitrim’s largest lough, LOUGH ALLEN covers the whole centre of Leitrim, from north to south, where the county narrows into a waist. It is the first of the great loughs on the River Shannon and is the point where the youthful stream turns into a mature river. IRELAND’S BIGGEST IRON ORE DEPOSITS were found to the east of Lough Allen, and the remains of some 19th-century blast furnaces can be found at CREEVYLEA.
CREEVYLEA ABBEY, a Franciscan friary founded in 1508, was the LAST FRIARY TO BE BUILT IN IRELAND BEFORE THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES BY HENRY VIII.
County Leitrim has THE SHORTEST COASTLINE OF ANY MARITIME IRISH COUNTY, stretching just 2½ miles (4 km) between the counties of Donegal and Sligo, on Donegal Bay.
The GREAT DOON OF DRUMSNA runs for 5 miles (8 km) across Co. Leitrim from near CARRICK ON SHANNON to the river at DRUMSNA village. It is thought to be part of the BLACK PIGS DYKE, a series of defensive ditches and embankments built in the 1ST CENTURY BC to protect the lands and livestock of ULSTER from the marauding tribes of the southern kingdoms. It is called Black Pigs Dyke from the legend that it was dug out by a great black boar using its tusks. The dyke appears sporadically in many border counties, sometimes up to 9 ft (2.75 m) high, and follows uncannily close to the route of the modern boundary between Northern Ireland and the Republic. It is also said that the dyke marks the boundary of dialects where the harder northern accent softens into the mellower Irish brogue.
The family of legendary Hollywood tough guy JAMES CAGNEY (1899–1986) came from Co. Leitrim. Cagney’s father, James Francis Cagney, was descended from the Leitrim family of O’Caignes, and Cagney’s maternal grandmother was born in Co. Leitrim. James Cagney never actually said ‘You dirty rat …’ in any of his films.
The COSTELLO MEMORIAL CHAPEL in Bridge Street, CARRICK ON SHANNON, is THE SECOND-SMALLEST CHAPEL IN THE WORLD. Built in 1877 as a resting place for the remains of businessman EDWARD COSTELLO and his wife, the chapel measures just 16 ft (5 m) by 12 ft (3.6 m).
SURGEON-MAJOR THOMAS HEAZLE PARKE (1857–93), THE FIRST IRISHMAN TO CROSS AFRICA, and co-discoverer, with HENRY MORTON STANLEY, of the MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON (RUWENZORI), was a native of Carrick-on-Shannon.
THOMAS and ROSE MCGOOHAN, the parents of actor PATRICK MCGOOHAN, known to television audiences as DANGER MAN and THE PRISONER, emigrated to America from the family farm in Co. Leitrim in the 1920s.
County Leitrim can boast IRELAND’S EARLIEST SALMON RIVER – 17 times in the past 20 years the first salmon caught by rod has been taken from the RIVER DROWES at TULLAGHAN near Lough Melvin.
Ashford Castle – the first castle in Ireland to appear in Technicolor film
CROAGH PATRICK, ALSO KNOWN as THE REEK, is IRELAND’S HOLY MOUNTAIN. It is 2,510 ft (765 m) high and its distinctive conical shape dominates the coastline south of Clew Bay. The summit is in fact a plateau, where there is a small dry-stone oratory dating back to the 5th or 6th century. The views are breathtaking and it is easy to see why this place has been a place of worship since before Christianity.
In AD 441, Ireland’s patron ST PATRICK climbed to the top of the mountain and fasted there for the 40 days of Lent. During this time he is said to have driven all the snakes and poisonous things of Ireland into the sea – and it is undeniably true that there are no snakes in Ireland to this day. (No moles, polecats or weasels either.)
A relic of this episode can be seen in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin – THE BLACK BELL OF ST PATRICK. The saint rang his bell and hurled it over the precipice, from where it was returned to him by angels – and each time he flung it ‘thousands of toads, adders and noisome things went down, tumbling neck and heels one after the other …’ (Thomas Otway). The bell was originally white but was burned and blackened by the fiery encounter and is THE OLDEST KNOWN EXAMPLE OF IRISH METAL WORK (c.406).
Every year, before dawn on Reek Sunday, the last Sunday in July, thousands of pilgrims, many of them barefoot, make the two-hour climb to the top of Croagh Patrick to receive Communion. In hardier times some pilgrims would make the journey on their hands and knees. Before the 12th century, people would come here in Lent, like St Patrick, but in 1113 there was a terrible storm and a large number of pilgrims were killed by lightning on the mountaintop. The time of pilgrimage was then changed to the more benign summer months.
On a tiny peninsula by the eastern shore of beautiful Lough Carra, 10 miles (16 km) south of Castlebar, stands all that is left of MOORE HALL, ancestral home of the writer and friend of Yeats, GEORGE MOORE (1852–1933). Although the house is now a burnt-out ruin the place is alive with history and atmosphere.
Moore Hall was built in 1795 by wine merchant George Moore, a Catholic who had amassed a fortune in trade with Spain. In 1798, his son John was made PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CONNACHT by GENERAL HUMBERT, who had landed at KILLALA BAY with a force of French soldiers to help the rebellion of the UNITED IRISHMEN. Moore held the position for only one week before being arrested by the English and sentenced to transportation, but he died at Waterford en route to New Geneva. In 1961 John Moore’s body was exhumed and brought back to be buried at Castlebar with full honours, due to his new-found recognition as IRELAND’S FIRST PRESIDENT.
Moore Hall
A later George Moore won the Chester Gold Cup with his horse Coranna and was able to use the winnings to help alleviate suffering during the Great Famine. No one from the Moore estate was evicted or died during the Famine.
The writer George Moore was a friend of W.B. Yeats and John Millington Synge and played an important role in founding the Abbey Theatre. His initials are on the autograph tree at Coole (see Co. Galway). In his lifetime his novels were bestsellers, considered by many to be scandalous – his first novel, A Modern Lover, published in 1883, was widely banned. Moore Hall and the surrounding area feature strongly in many of his books.
When George Moore died in 1933 he was buried on an island in Lough Carra. His ashes were ferried across the lake in a boat rowed by his friend, poet, politician and wit OLIVER ST JOHN GOGARTY, whose name is commemorated in one of Dublin’s most popular pubs and who was the inspiration for BUCK MULLIGAN in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The strenuous task forced Gogarty to strip off his silk hat and frock-coat. ‘I presume you will retain your braces,’ remarked Moore’s sister, who was sitting primly in the stern, clasping the urn.
Moore Hall was torched in the Troubles in 1923, but the grounds are open to the public. RENVYLE, Gogarty’s house at Letterfrack in Co. Galway, was also burned down in 1923, but was rebuilt and is now a hotel.
In the 16th century, lovely CLARE ISLAND, sitting in a commanding position at the mouth of Clew Bay, was the stronghold of the dashing pirate queen GRACE O’MALLEY. Grace was born into a seafaring family in 1530 and, from a very young age, was determined to sail with her father on his adventures. At first her father refused to allow it, saying that the sea was no place for a girl, so Grace dressed herself in boy’s clothing and cut off all her hair, forcing him to relent. This is how she acquired her nickname GRANUAILE – GRACE THE BALD.
At the age of 16 she married a local chieftain, DONAL O’FLAHERTY, and she bore him three children. This did not quell her buccaneering spirit, and when Donal was banned from trading in Galway because of his reputation as a troublemaker, Grace sailed out into Clew Bay and intercepted merchant ships heading for port, either raiding them or negotiating safe passage with them. Her bravery and sailing skills soon ensured that she controlled the shipping along most of the west coast of Ireland, and she became very rich. She was said to keep all her ships tied up to a hawser that was passed through a hole in the castle wall and tied to her bedpost.
There are examples of castles owned by Grace O’Malley all over Co. Mayo. One was a castle on an island in LOUGH CORRIB, captured from the JOYCES by her husband Donal and named THE COCK’S CASTLE, in tribute to his nickname, Donal the Cock, given to him because of his courage in battle. When Donal was later killed, the Joyces tried to recapture the castle, but Grace defended it so stoutly they were forced to withdraw. From that time on it became known as THE HEN’S CASTLE.
Favourite of Grace’s castles was ROCKFLEET, superbly sited on the northern shore of Clew Bay. This was the property of her second husband, RICHARD BURKE, whom she married in 1566. They made an agreement that either party could terminate the marriage after one year, and when the year was up, Grace barricaded herself into Rockfleet, slammed the door in Burke’s face and sent him packing, making the castle her own.
Rockfleet Castle
In 1584, SIR RICHARD BINGHAM became Governor of Connacht and confiscated all Grace’s lands and possessions, determined to bring her to heel. Grace went to England to petition QUEEN ELIZABETH I, offering to attack the Queen’s enemies off the coast of Ireland in return for getting her lands back. She was THE ONLY GAELIC WOMAN EVER TO BE RECEIVED AT COURT and she must have impressed Elizabeth because the Queen agreed to all her demands – ‘the wild grandeur of her mien erect and high, before the English Queen she dauntless stood’.
Grace returned to Mayo, where she died in 1603. She is buried in the small Cistercian abbey on Clare Island under an inscription of her family’s motto – Terra Marique Potens – Invincible on land or sea.
Facing Clare Island across Clew Bay is the little town of Newport. About two miles (3 km) inland lies tiny DRIMULA, beside a little lake called the LEG O’MUTTON. At this lonely spot you will find the remains of a small stone cottage, its thatched roof gone, grass growing from its walls, the chimney askew and about to tumble – the humble ancestral home of one of the world’s richest and most glamorous women, film star GRACE KELLY, later PRINCESS GRACE OF MONACO. Here, her great-grand-father JOHN KELLY was born into poverty, and from here he emigrated to America in 1870.
Grace Kelly’s Cottage
In 1961 Grace visited the cottage with her new husband PRINCE RAINIER and had tea with the owner, MRS ELLEN MULCHRONE. In 1973 the Princess went back and bought the property along with the adjoining land for £7,800, returning many times and mingling with the shoppers in nearby Newport. Her last visit was in 1979, when she revealed plans to turn her cottage into a holiday home. She was much loved by the local people and they were devastated when she died in a car crash three years later in 1982, aged 53. Grace’s son PRINCE ALBERT inherited the property and he dropped by to see it, unexpectedly, in 1987. Since then no one has been back and the 18th-century cottage has fallen into ruins.
KNOCK must be one of the tiniest places in the world to have its own international airport – you can fly to this village, slumbering on the quiet plains of Mayo, direct from London and many parts of Europe or even New York! What happened to make this sleepy place in the wild west of Ireland attract such attention?
It all began on a rainy evening in August 1879. Two village ladies, MARY MCLOUGHLIN and MARY BEIRNE, were walking past the parish church at about 8 pm when they thought they noticed something moving under the gable at the south end of the building. On closer inspection this turned out to be three luminous figures, one instantly recognisable as the VIRGIN MARY, dressed in a cloak and flanked by ST JOSEPH and ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST. As twilight fell the figures grew all the more visible and a crowd began to gather. There also appeared an altar with a lamb standing on it, and a cross, and a number of hovering angels. Although the apparitions were quite bright they cast no shadows, and the ground beneath stayed dry despite the pouring rain. The visions, which were quite silent, lasted for over two hours, and were seen by at least 15 people. There was talk of miracle cures in the days afterwards.
The apparitions at Knock were thoroughly investigated and it was proved that they could not have been created with either luminous paint or magic lanterns or with any other technology available in those times. Eventually, the Church accepted that these visions were reliable and Knock became a recognised Marian shrine. Official Church support was confirmed in 1979 with a visit from POPE JOHN PAUL II to celebrate the centenary of the Apparition. MOTHER TERESA also made a pilgrimage here in 1993.
Today, over a million and a half visitors come to Knock every year. The gable where the apparitions appeared has been covered over to make a chapel, while a modern basilica has been built beside the church to house a shrine to Our Lady. All along the main street there are opportunities to purchase bottles of ‘holy water’, fluorescent green models of the Virgin Mary complete with pump-action tears, onyx crosses and other trinkets, should you so wish.
Despite its popularity, the simple piety of Knock manages to overcome all this glitter and the village remains a place of special atmosphere and a sense of deep peace.
Musical Bridge, Bellacorrick
At BELLACORRICK, west of Ballina, there is a MUSICAL BRIDGE – if you roll a pebble along the stone parapet, a melodic note can be heard. There is a popular pub close by.
In 1920, THE LARGEST PIKE EVER TAKEN BY A ROD (53 lb/24 kg) was caught in LOUGH CONN.
The tiny island of INISHGLORA, off the Mullet Peninsula, was home to the SWANS OF LIR for their last 300 years (see Co. Westmeath). There is also a legend that bodies buried here are preserved so that their hair and nails continue to grow – it is said to be something in the soil.
The Neolithic CEIDE FIELDS, on the bleak north Mayo coast, have been preserved in bogland for over 5,000 years and are THE OLDEST KNOWN FIELD SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD as well as being EUROPE’S LARGEST STONE AGE ENCLOSURE.
THE HIGHEST CLIFFS IN EUROPE, dropping 2,192 feet (650 metres) into the Atlantic, are on ACHILL ISLAND, which is IRELAND’S LARGEST OFFSHORE ISLAND, 14 miles long and 12 miles wide (22 km by 19 km).
BALLINTUBBER ABBEY was founded in 1216 and is THE ONLY ROYAL ABBEY IN IRELAND TO HAVE BEEN CONTINUOUSLY USED SINCE IT WAS BUILT.
KILLARY HARBOUR is IRELAND’S ONLY FJORD. The village of LEENANE on the south shore was the principal location for the filming of the 1991 movie The Field, starring RICHARD HARRIS and TOM BERENGER. Pub scenes were shot at GAYNOR’S, one of the bars in the tiny village street. The dramatic fight scene was filmed at the picturesque AASLEAGH FALLS, upstream on the Erriff river.
In 1951, Hollywood stars JOHN WAYNE and MAUREEN O’HARA descended on the village of CONG, to film JOHN FORD’S The Quiet Man. They stayed just outside the village at ASHFORD CASTLE, a vast Victorian baronial pile built by ARTHUR GUINNESS of brewery fame in the 1870s. The castle appears in the opening shot of the film and guests can take a ride in the jaunting car driven by the stars. As Maureen O’Hara commented, THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME THAT IRELAND HAD EVER APPEARED ON FILM IN TECHNICOLOR.
Two miles (3 km) to the east of Cong is MOYTURA HOUSE, built in 1865 by OSCAR WILDE’S FATHER, SIR WILLIAM WILDE. The family spent many happy holidays here.
A few miles north of Cong is LOUGH MASK HOUSE the residence of CAPTAIN CHARLES BOYCOTT (1832–97), land agent for the Ulster landowner LORD ERNE. In 1880 his tenants demanded a substantial cut in their rents, which Boycott refused. THE IRISH LAND LEAGUE, led by CHARLES PARNELL, persuaded all the tenants, workers and tradesmen in the area to stop their dealings with him. The household servants downed tools, no one would work on the land, shops refused to serve him and even his mail wasn’t delivered. Despite the fact that a group of Ulstermen marched down from Cavan and Monaghan to help Boycott gather in his crops, Parnell’s tactics were very effective and were soon widely adopted elsewhere. The London Times picked up on the name of Boycott as meaning to ‘ostracise’ or ‘refuse to deal with’ and the English language acquired a new word.
The NATIONAL FAMINE MONUMENT near Croagh Patrick depicts a coffin ship and was sculpted by JOHN BEHAN. It was unveiled in 1997 by Irish President MARY ROBINSON to commemorate 150 years since the Great Famine and is THE LARGEST BRONZE SCULPTURE IN IRELAND.
A small white cottage in Providence Road, FOXFORD, was the birthplace, in 1777, of ADMIRAL WILLIAM BROWN, known as the ‘FATHER OF THE ARGENTINIAN NAVY’. When he was nine, his family emigrated to America and, after a sporadic maritime career, Brown found his way to BUENOS AIRES, capital of Argentina. He became a government privateer during the war with Spain (1812–14) and succeeded in driving the Spanish fleet from the River Plate, paving the way for Argentina’s independence and becoming a hero in that country. The Admiral visited Foxford in 1847 with his daughter and was shocked by the effects of the Famine. He died in 1857 and is buried in Buenos Aires. The central square in Buenos Aires is named PLAZA DE MAYO in his and his Irish county’s honour. He is commemorated in his native Foxford by a bronze bust.
THE WORLD’S FIRST GUIDED MISSILE SYSTEM was invented by LOUIS BRENNAN, born in CASTLEBAR in 1852. He devised a torpedo with two propellers each connected to a separate reel of wire 2 miles (3.2 km) long. The torpedo was launched from a runway on land and then steered via the wires by an engineer on shore who could follow its progress by watching a small mast that protruded from the water. Travelling about 10 feet (3 m) below the surface with a range of 2 miles and a top speed of 25 mph (40 km/h), this was THE FIRST WEAPON EVER BUILT THAT COULD BE DIRECTED ALL THE WAY TO ITS TARGET. The system was adopted for coastal defence all around Britain. Only one launch station was built in Ireland, at FORT CAMDEN near CROSSHAVEN, for the defence of CORK HARBOUR. The guide rails for launching it are still there. Brennan also invented a gyroscopic monorail and a gyroscopic helicopter with which he achieved THE WORLD’S FIRST CONTROLLED UNMANNED HELICOPTER FLIGHT some time around 1920. He died in 1932 after being knocked down by a car in Switzerland. He was a founder member of the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF IRELAND.
Louis Brennan’s Gyroscopic Monorail
Roscommon Jail
ROSCOMMON TOWN, THE capital of its county, is a pleasant, bustling market town with a huge Norman castle, built in 1269 by THE LORD JUSTICE OF IRELAND, ROBERT D’UFFORD. Despite being one of the biggest and strongest castles in Britain or Ireland it was sacked 11 years later by HUGH O’CONOR, KING OF CONNACHT (see Clonalis House) and had to be rebuilt.
Main Street is dominated by the looming bulk of ROSCOMMON JAIL, infamous as the haunt of the fearsome executioner and hangwoman ‘LADY BETTY’. Betty was an educated woman from Kerry who was left destitute when her husband died. She and her only son made their way to Roscommon, where they survived by squatting in a derelict cottage and begging in the streets. Eventually her son disappeared and Betty was left, alone and embittered.
Many years later a finely dressed man called at her meagre home seeking shelter for the night. She took him in and then, at the dead of night, stabbed him through the heart, intending to rob him of his possessions. Imagine her horror, as she was rifling through his things, when she discovered that the victim was her son, come back for her having made his fortune. Betty gave herself up and was sentenced to be hanged. On the very day that she was to meet her end, the official executioner took ill and Betty volunteered to take his place and execute the other prisoners, in return for her own pardon. She proved so good at the job that when the hangman died shortly afterwards, Betty was made official executioner, with a salary and lodgings in the jail.
It was a busy time, with the Rebellion of 1798 providing plenty of victims, and Betty relished her work. Parents would invoke her name to ensure the good behaviour of their naughty children, and the taverns of Roscommon rang with lurid tales of her bloodthirsty rituals and cackling laughter as she sent another poor soul to his doom. ‘Lady Betty’ died in 1807 and her name is still spoken in whispers in Roscommon Town.
The first thing you notice about the little country town of STROKESTOWN is the elegant, tree-lined main street, one of the widest in Ireland. It was laid out by a local squire who wanted to create an avenue similar to Vienna’s RINGSTRASSE. At the end of the street is an impressive Georgian Gothic arch, marking the entrance to STROKESTOWN PARK, a splendid 18th-century house with a tragic history.
Strokesdown Park
The house, which incorporates a 17th-century tower, was built in the 1730s for THOMAS MAHON, an Irish MP whose grandfather had been granted 30,000 acres (12,000 ha) of Co. Roscommon by Charles II.
When MAJOR DENIS MAHON inherited the estate over 100 years later, at the time of THE GREAT FAMINE, it was deeply in debt, divided into blighted plots too small to sustain the tenants, who had no way of paying off their rent arrears. Major Mahon’s agent, his cousin JOHN ROSS MAHON, decided that the only way to clear the debts was to evict the tenants and put the land to tillage farming. He advised Major Mahon that it would be cheaper to send the tenants to America than to turn them over to the workhouse, where he would have to pay for their keep. At a cost of £24,000 the Major chartered a number of ships and in May and June of 1847 some 900 men, women and children were sent to Liverpool to be shipped to America. Ships such as these became known as ‘coffin ships’, as the appalling conditions and overcrowding on board caused the deaths of many hundreds of the emigrants.
Ireland’s Great Famine lasted from 1845 until 1851 and was due to a parasitic fungus that caused potatoes to rot in the ground and become inedible. It is thought that the blight was imported into Belgium in 1843 in a shipment of potatoes from North America that had been infected from Mexico. The fungus then spread throughout Europe, arriving in Ireland in 1845. Potatoes were the staple diet of Ireland’s livestock as well as many of the country’s poorer families, and when the crop failed, one quarter of Ireland’s population – almost two million people – either died or were forced to emigrate, most of them to America. Many landlords were sympathetic and did all in their power to alleviate the suffering; others used the situation to clear their estates of unprofitable tenants.