Category: ANGLO-IRISH

Eliza O’Neill, Lady Becher – Actress of Renoun

Miss O’Neill (eventually Lady Becher) was born in Ireland about the year 1791 and died at Mallow in September 1872. The following interesting details concerning her career are extracted from Sir Bernard Burke’s “Family Romance”

…..Her father, Mr John O’Neill , was at the time of her birth the manager of a strolling company, whose wanderings were pretty extensive, being bounded on the south by the ocean at Kinsale, and on the north by the Giants’ Causeway. Her mother’s maiden name was Featherstone, and to her care the future tragedian was chiefly indebted for her education. She made her first essay as the little Duke of York in Shakespeare’s King Richard the Third, her father playing the part of the crook-backed tyrant. Such was the admiration excited by her talent, that she proved no small pecuniary advantage to her family. Continue reading “Eliza O’Neill, Lady Becher – Actress of Renoun”

Perceval – Earls of Egmont

The first member of the Perceval family who settled in Ireland was Richard, eldest son of George Perceval Lord of Tykenham and Rolleston. He was born in Somerset in 1550 and educated at St Paul’s Westminister and Lincoln’s Inn where brilliance as a student was only matched by his dissipated and disorderly conduct. His father cut him off from his inheritances when he married a Miss Young of Dorset. He quickly acquired a large family and took himself off for Spain at the age of a effort to support them.

When his wife died in the year 1586, Estranged from his father, Richard Perceval won the patronage of Lord Burleigh and a lowly position of great trust and secrecy in the service  of Elizabeth I. Documents recently captured from a Spanish ship on its way to Holland lay in Elizabeth’s court but could not be de-coded and Perceval got the task of and decoding them, having an exceptional aptitude for languages and for code-breaking. He returned the documents the next day to Elizabeth in person, deciphered, translated and fairly written in Spanish, Latin and English.

Spanish Armada

Continue reading “Perceval – Earls of Egmont”

A Castlemagner Castaway

Denis Higgins was born in Castlemagner in 1787. A shepherd/labourer, he married Honora (Norry) Murphy in 1822, he 35, she 19 and they had 5 children in the next 6 years; John (1822), Mary (’23), Catherine (’25) followed by Joanna and Denis Jnr, both of whom died in childhood.

Circa 1820, the introduction of the steel plough resulted in massive unemployment and acute privation and although Geoff O’Donoghue has posthumously pardoned Denis of sheep-stealing, he was, nonetheless, dispatched to Sydney Cove aboard the ‘Governor Ready’, arriving down-under on 16th January, 1829 after a journey of 117 days. Continue reading “A Castlemagner Castaway”

Sir Timothy O’Brien

Sir Timothy O’Brien was not only a resident of Lohort but also was a local ‘character’. A man of exceptional sporting fame himself, he was connected with events and people of great national moment through the Parnell period and the early days of Irish national emergence. He was associated with Lohort for about forty years until 1917.

In the last quarter of the 19th century, Lohort was owned and occupied by a man called Sir Timothy O’Brien. Unusual for a resident of this latterly very English retreat, he was a Catholic. He inherited his knighthood from his grandfather. He inherited the castle and land from his father who had purchased it at the break-up of the Egmont/Perceval estates. His father was a prosperous Dublin publican, a younger son of Sir Lucius O’Brien of Dromoland, a nephew of William Smyth-O’Brien, the famous Irish Nationalist and liberal politician from County Clare, and close friend and confidante of the great Daniel O‘Connell. The family was a cadet branch of the extended Earls of Thomond and Inchequin whose less reputable roots led back to Morrogh O’Brien Lord Inchequin, ‘Morrogh of the Burnings’, well known to the people around Castlemagner for his victory over Lord Taaffe and Sir Alasdair McColla Ciotach McDonnell at Knocknanuss in 1647. Continue reading “Sir Timothy O’Brien”

Protestantism in Castlemagner

The first Protestant Church in Castlemagner was converted from the early Roman Catholic church (circa 800) that was attached to the old Gaelic settlement of Munemanarrach (shrubbery of the sheepfold).

The majority of the ruling classes in Cork ignored the reformation in England (1543) even though they had all signed for the Act of Supremacy (1560). They conveniently ignored its contents and openly practised the Roman Catholic religion. Although all the leading families who took part in the unsuccessful Fitzmaurice rebellion in 1579 got the Queen’s pardon, allowing them to hold on to their land, property and titles, they were forced to adopt the Protestant religion. Edmond Magner became the first Protestant vicar of the old Gaelic church which was now for Protestant worship only. Continue reading “Protestantism in Castlemagner”

St Brigit’s Graveyard

The present burial in the townland of Castlemagner has been in use from early Christian times (c. 800). It was walled in with the building of the new Church of Ireland church in 1817. The imposing gateway was a gift from Lord Arden of Lohort Castle. In 1926, the local landlord, Mr. Beecher, added about a third of an acre and in 1980 Cork County Council added another acre, which was also walled in and a new 12 foot entrance and gateway completed. Catholics and Protestants have been buried there side by side since 1591.

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Mallow Field Club Visit Ballygiblin

The Mallow Field Club were hosted at Ballygiblin, Cecilstown on a pleasant evening this 5 September.  The event was led by Charles Mortell, chairman of the Mallow Field Club, with the O’Donoghue family, current owners of Ballygiblin, making the estate available for the evening. Continue reading “Mallow Field Club Visit Ballygiblin”

Castlemagner – An Abridged History

Castlemagner parish is at the eastern end of the Barony of Duhallow in North Cork. It includes the villages of Castlemagner and Cecilstown and the north east quarter of Kanturk town. In all its 7880 acres, thousand years of careful farming has enriched the naturally fertile soil and there is no wasteland. The troubled history of the nation has ebbed and flowed over its green fields since time immemorial: it was an old and settled place when the Magnels from Pembrokeshire made their way along the Blackwater valley and sank their roots deep into Castlemagner soil to shape the life of the parish for more than 450 years. Continue reading “Castlemagner – An Abridged History”

Plantagenet Dynasty

The Plantagenet dynasty began with the marriage of the empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, to Geoffrey Count of Anjou (d.1151) a grandson of William The Conqueror.  He had the nickname ‘Plantgenet’ (lit. broom-planter) because he planted broom extensively to improve his hunting covers and always wore a sprig of broom on the rim of his hat. Curiously, the Parliament army at the battle of Knocknanuss 1647, wore the same plant for a badge on their hats .

Continue reading “Plantagenet Dynasty”

Knocknanuss 1647-1997, 350 Year Commememoration

The following is an account from a local newspaper, The Corkman, of the special event that was organised by the Castlemagner Historical Society to commemorate the Battle of Knocknanuss on 17 August 1997. Shane Scanlon wrote the article.

A FAMOUS piece of North Cork history was recalled at the weekend when a special ceremony was held in Castlemagner to commemorate Munster’s biggest ever battle.

Rob McDonald Parker Chamberlain to the High Council of Clan Donald

The fields of Knocknanuss might now be a picture of calm and serenity but 350 years ago, they were the location of one of Ireland’s bloodiest battles. The Battle of Knocknanuss saw some fierce fighting between the Parliamentary forces under Lord Inchiquin and the Confederate forces of Lord Theobald Taaffe – claiming the lives of 3,500 soldiers during November 1647.

Three and half centuries later, people from home and abroad gathered at the site to celebrate peace and reconciliation. Douglas Kerr represented the British Ambassador, Veronica Sutherland, at the commemoration while there was a large gathering of community and army representatives, as well as historians. Continue reading “Knocknanuss 1647-1997, 350 Year Commememoration”