Thursday 17 September 2015

Drogheda Town Walls















Tom Reilly took us around Drogheda on Sunday September 13th 2015 to see the Town Walls at different, locations.


























Sunday 9 August 2015

Stratford House, Dublin (Portland Road)

Built by Edward Augustus Stratford (1736-1801), 2nd Earl of Aldborough as Dublin’s last great house of the eighteenth century. The foundation was laid down in 1792 and after its completion there is no record in my possession that any of the family made it their permanent residence, and, although it bears the date 1796, evidence shows that it was still not fully completed by 1798. It included a Play House, a cold bath and a music room and on the Earl of Aldborough’s death, the property became owned by his wife.


Older Photograph of Stratford House


     Stratford House (August 2015)

It is built of brick, and cut granite forms the facade, and when built, had balustrading all the way around the parapets, with urns and eagles, sphinxes and lions, and a Coat of Arms, displayed bearing Stratford, Herbert, Henniker, North, Neale, and Major.

It was uninhabited from 1802 to 1813, when Prof Von Feinagle leased it and opened it as a school. he built an addition to the house including large classrooms and a Chapel. He died in 1820 and by 1830 it had been closed altogether as a school. At the outbreak of the Crimean War when it was used as Barracks on acquisition of the Government, and then used as the Stores Department of the Post Office. It is now empty.

John Stratford
1st Baron Baltinglass later 1st Viscount Aldborough later 1st Earl of Aldborough

3rd son of Edward Stratford, of Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, and of Belan, Co Kildare,
born 1698

married
Martha O'Neale (b. c. 1706; d. 11 Mar 1796), daughter and heiress of Ven Benjamin O'Neale, Archdeacon of Leighlin

First Son
1. Hon Edward Augustus Stratford, later 2nd Earl of Aldborough
born c. 1741

married (1)

29 Jul 1765 Barbara Herbert (b. Jul 1742; dsp. 11 Apr 1785), 2nd daughter and heiress of Hon Nicholas Herbert, of Great Glemham, Co Suffolk (by his wife Anne North, dau. and coheiress of Dudley North, of Great Glemham, Co Suffolk)

married (2)

24 May 1787 Hon Anne Elizabeth Henniker only daughter of  John Henniker, ist Baron Henniker by his wife Anne Major, 1st daughter and coheiress. of Sir John Major, 1st Bt., of Worlingworth Hall, Co Suffolk

died s.p. 2 Jan 1801 (bur. at St Thomas's, Dublin)


The multiquartered arms on Stratford House, Portland Road, Dublin  (August 2015)

Herbert, Stratford, Henniker
North, Neale and Major (see description of the arms below)


Arms, Crest and Motto of Stratford


Arms of Neale (O'Neill)



Arms of Herbert
Per Pale azure and gules three lions rampant argent

Arms of North
Azure a lion passant between three fleurs-de-lis




Saturday 6 June 2015

Baronscourt Hamilton Heraldry

Lord Belmont's Blog on his visit to Baronscourt provides two interesting coats of arms.

http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.ie/

The impaled arms over the front door of the house are for Hamilton and Russell for James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn and his wife Lady Louisa Russell.


The Hamilton Arms at Lisadell Church, Co Armagh


The arms of Russell

The other arms dated 1890 are the arms of Hamilton with an escutcheon of pretence containing three fleur de lis. These latter arms represent France. The Marquess of Abercorn (who became duke in 1868) assumed an inescutcheon bearing France and crowned with a French ducal crown on his arms.

For the full details of the Title of Duke of Châtellerault and the Hamilton-Abercorn Controversy
see:

http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/scotfr.htm








Monday 25 May 2015

Dromantine Heraldry

Dromantine House is now a retreat and conference centre and belongs to the SMA

see:


                                                



The history of Dromantine estate dates back to the middle ages. The ancient Irish clan of Magennis dominated most of South County Down from the 14th - 17th century and owned vast tracts of land in that area, including what is now Dromantine Estate. Following the political upheavals of the early 17th c. one of the Magennis clansmen, Murtagh, became the owner of an estate of 4200 acres within the precinct of Clanagan





 Magennis Coat of arms



In 1741 the Manor of Clanagan passed from Magennis ownership to that of a Scottish Family called Innes. In 1806 Arthur Innes built the original part of the existing house in Neo-classical style. When he died in 1820 he left a magnificent house within a beautifully landscaped demesne complete with a newly formed lake. His grandson, Arthur Charles Innes, became the owner of the property and in the 1860s extended the original house (now called Dromantine House) making it even more stately and imposing. In the early 20th c. the fortunes of the Innes family waned and they decided to dispose of Dromantine. In 1922 it was bought by Samuel McKeever 


Innes Coat of Arms on Stained-Glass at Dromantine


At the same time the Society of African Missions (SMA) which was based in Cork was looking for a suitable property in which to prepare their students for missionary work in Africa. Under the guidance of Fr. Maurice Slattery the SMA bought Dromantine House and the 320 acre estate in 1926. It was their seminary until 1972 and during these years about 600 young men were ordained priests and went from Dromantine as missionaries to Africa.

1611  Arthur Magennis receives Dromantine in ‘re-grant’.
1737  Dromantine put up for sale.
1741 John Innes of Scotland buys Dromantine.
1808  Building of the present house.
1810  Construction of the lake.
1859  Extensive construction work on House.
1865  Work on House completed.
1922  Dromantine House bought by Samuel McKeever.


McKeever Coat of arms


1926  The Society of African missions buys Dromantine.
1927  First eleven of 587 priests ordained.
1931  St Patrick’s Wing built.
1935  St Brendan’s Wing built.
1936  Work begins on Chapel.
1959  St Colman’s and Assembly Hall opened.
1974  Dromantine closes as a Seminary.
1975  Dromantine opens as a Retreat Centre.
1998  Major renovation work begins.
2001  Renovation work completed.



        Dromantine House



Innes Crest and Motto on a Fireplace at Dromantine


The Millennium Stained-Glass Window by Ann Smyth is shown on:



    The Millennium Stained-Glass Window at Dromantine


The details in the smaller shields are either religious or heraldic or local.  The second row shows the McKeever arms, a thistle and the Magennis arms. The background in the Magennis arms is red as opposed to the green above.

The third row shows the SMA motif along with a chalice and a cross.

The vine leaves represent the local Clarke family who moved to Bordeaux.

The Irish presence in the area is well documented, not least by Renagh Holohan in her book The Irish Chateaux: In Search of the Descendants of the Wild Geese. The Irish have been an influence in Bordeaux since defeat at the Boyne and Limerick drove the Irish Jacobites abroad. Their names live on in streets and chateaux, even when the latter have changed ownership.

The name Clarke is still attached to an 18th-century chateau bought and restored by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. Chateau Clarke was founded by an ancestor of Patrick Clarke de Dromantin, a resident of Bordeaux, who, since his retirement from the aeronautical industry, has been researching and writing the history of the Clarke family in France and their place in the wider historical context of the Irish in Europe.
His house in a quiet residential area of Bordeaux is filled with ancestral portraits, genealogical charts and photographs of the present generation of Clarkes. "I am a Jacobite," Patrick told me. "The Dromantin is from Dromantine, near Newry." The name was familiar to me as the former headquarters of the Society of African Missions. Patrick had visited it as part of his research for Les OiesSauvages: Mémoiresdu'unefamilleirlandaiseréfugiéeen France (1691-1914) and Les réfugiésjacobitesdans la France du XVIIIe siècle (both published by Bordeaux University Press). Patrick, who subtitled his second book L'exode de touteune noblesse pour cause de religion, found it a delicious irony that Dromantine had ended up in the possession of the Society of African Missions, whose founder was, of course, a Frenchman.

The first Clarkes to arrive in France were three sons of James Clarke and Anne O'Sheill sent by their parents to live with their maternal uncle, Luc O'Sheill, a gun merchant who had settled in Nantes. Thoby (aged 21) stayed in Nantes; James (aged 14) went to Martinique. The youngest, 12-year-old John - Patrick's direct ancestor - went to Bordeaux. His son, Tobie Clarke, bought a wine estate in Listrac in the Medoc in 1771, but died the same year. Jean's grandson, Luc Tobie Clarke, a Bordeaux magistrate, built a house on the estate in 1810 and called it Chateau Clarke. The wine retains the name, although the estate was sold and Luc Tobie's house was demolished in 1955.

"De Dromantin" was added to the family name by Patrick's grandfather - "for reasons of vanity," Patrick says. "It sounds more noble." As to the origins of the name Clarke and its connection to Dromantine, Patrick's correspondence with archivists in Dublin and Belfast turned up a will, dated May 13th, 1672, of Thomas Clarke of Drementian (sic) in which he bequeaths to his wife the townlands named as Lisadeane and Dromhirre in Co Armagh, and a third of his land in Drementian. In later documents it is spelled Dromantine.

Thomas was the father of James Clarke, who became a freeman of the city of Dublin and a municipal councillor under James II. It seems James Clarke also lost everything after the Battle of the Boyne. The letter presented to the French authorities in Bordeaux, requesting French nationality for Jean (John) Clarke as "refugiéen France à cause de la Religion", says his father was a cavalry captain who, having been imprisoned, and having lost all his property and good standing, died of grief - "et samèreaussi." I thought it a sad little footnote. A line from a poem drifted into my head - "you feathered with the wild geese our
despair. . ." but I couldn't remember the rest of the poem or who wrote it. I think it was about Patrick Sarsfield. Maybe some reader will recognise it. James Clarke's sons prospered in France. Patrick, his great, great, great grandson is proud of him.


Friday 22 May 2015

Gore Booth Heraldry Lissadell - Drumcliff

This year sees the 150th Birthday of William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) being celebrated on June 13th 2015.

A week later the Society on its all-day excursion will visit some of the sites associated with the poet in Co Sligo and Parkes Castle will also be visited.



The well-known gravestone of Yeats at Drumcliffe

The recent visit of Prince Charles also focused attention on Co Sligo and the places associated with Yeats.



The Interior of St Columba's Church Drumcliffe


WB Yeats wrote his own epitaph in his poem “Under Ben Bulben” which describes the location and the church, the last three lines are inscribed on his tombstone:

Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;

On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!”

St Columba's Church, Drumcliffe

Further Information of Yeats 150 is found at:





It is claimed that St. Colmcille (Columba) founded a monastery in Drumcliffe ca.575 A.D., although modern scholarship now claims that a monastery was founded much later here.

The village of Drumcliffe (also known as Drumcliff) is famous for its Irish high cross dating to the 9th-10th Century that stands in the grounds of the former abbey. In addition, across the road from the church and high cross is the stump of a round tower. The monastery was plundered by Maelseachlain O'Rourke in 1187. 



Round Tower at Drumcliffe




High Cross at Drumcliffe (East Face).

On the east face are Adam and Eve, David cuts off the head of Goliath, above a lion. At bottom of the head is Daniel in the Lion's Den. The scene at the centre of the head may represent the Last Judgement. (Irish High Crosses with the figure sculptures explained by Peter Harbison, 1994, page 50). Some of this detail differs from that on the Duchas notice board at Drumcliffe.



High Cross at Drumcliffe, (West Face).

The three figures at the bottom could represent the Holy Family or Elizabeth, Zacharias and John the Baptist. Above the camel there is possibly the scene of the mocking of Christ. Below the head of the cross could be the holy family returning from Egypt and at the centre of the head is the Crucifixion (Harbison).



Lissadell House is a neo-classical Greek revivalist style country house,

The house was built between 1830 to 1835, and inhabited from 1833 onwards, for Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet (1784-1835) by London architect Francis Goodwin. In 1876, Sir Robert left the house and surrounding estate to his son, Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet.

The house was the childhood home of Irish revolutionary, Constance Gore-Booth, her sister the poet and suffragist, Eva Gore-Booth and their siblings, Mabel Gore-Booth, Mordaunt Gore-Booth and Josslyn Gore-Booth. It was also the sometime holiday retreat of the poet, William Butler Yeats. He made the house famous with the opening lines of his poem:







Yeats made the house famous with the opening lines of his poem:

'In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz'

The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.


Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy with Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall at Lissadell on 20 May 2015



'In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz'

The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.
But a raving autumn shears
Blossom from the summer's wreath;
The older is condemned to death,
Pardoned, drags out lonely years
Conspiring among the ignorant.
I know not what the younger dreams--
Some vague Utopia--and she seems,
When withered old and skeleton-gaunt,
An image of such politics.
Many a time I think to seek
One or the other out and speak
Of that old Georgian mansion, mix
pictures of the mind, recall
That table and the talk of youth,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.

Dear shadows, now you know it all,
All the folly of a fight
With a common wrong or right.
The innocent and the beautiful.
Have no enemy but time;
Arise and bid me strike a match
And strike another till time catch;
Should the conflagration climb,
Run till all the sages know.
We the great gazebo built,
They convicted us of guilt;
Bid me strike a match and blow.




The coat of arms of Gore-Booth

This armorial that came on sale in 2013 could well be associated with Countess Markiewicz or rather her ancestors. The first quarter contains the quartered arms of Gore and Booth.

Booth: argent three boars heads couped sable
Gore gules a fesse between three crosses crosslet fitche or

Sir Nathaniel Gore married Laetitia Booth and their son

Sir Booth Gore (1712-17730 (1st Baronet) married Emilia Newcomen, daughter of Brabazon Newcomen and Arabella Lambert.

The arms of Newcomen are:
Argent a lions head erased sable langued gules between three crescents gules.

The arms of Lambert are argent threes roses gules and perhaps the arms in the quarter of green (vert) background and three gold roses (or) reflect those of Lambert. 

The arms containing the three birds could well be for Brabazon, eventhough the tinctures differ. 

PARKE'S CASTLE



Rising three storeys tall, in an idyllic setting on the banks of Lough Gill, Parke's Castle is a plantation a era castle. In 1610 Roger Parke completed his fortified manor house on the site of an earlier fifteenth-century O'Rourke castle. He kept the walls of the original bawn - a spacious pentagonal defensive area - and demolished the O'Rourke tower house in the centre. The stones of O’Rourke’s tower were used to build the three-storey manor on the eastern side, eventually adorned with mullioned windows and diamond-shaped chimneys.