Unquestionable Charm



The ffrench family liked to trace their ancestry back to Rollo the Strong, a ninth-century Viking warrior so big that no horse was able to carry him. Around the year 885, he and a band of warriors sailed from Scandinavia to France where they would carve out a territory that, because they were Norsemen, came to be known as Normandy. There, one of Rollo’s descendants was Theophilus de Ffrench who accompanied Duke William to England and participated in the Battle of Hastings, his family staying on thereafter. But in the 14th century, two brothers, Patrick and Nicholas French, chose to move to Ireland, settling in County Wexford, although one of the former’s sons, Walter French, eventually crossed the country to Galway and there founded a dynasty that became one of the city’s ‘tribes’, fourteen mercantile families who dominated the city’s commercial and political life for several hundred years. By the early 16th century, the Frenches were sufficiently well-established for one of them, John French, to serve as mayor in 1538-9. He was also one of the richest citizens, having made a fortune through the importation of salt from Spain and as a result becoming known as ‘Shane ne Sallin’. This wealth allowed him to add an aisle to the north side of the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas in the city, and also begin to acquire property in the surrounding countryside, as did future generations of Frenches. Thus from being city merchants, they became landed gentry, choosing to spell their surname ffrench and owning substantial estates in the west of Ireland. Among their most important houses were Monivea, County Galway (see Death Before Dishonour – The Irish Aesthete) and Frenchpark, County Roscommon. Both these properties were demolished in the last century, but another family residence, Castle ffrench, still stands and has recently come on the market. 





Sir Charles ffrench was a descendant of John ffrench, a Galway citizen who at some date in the second quarter of the 17th century bought the castle and lands of Clogher, north of Ahascaragh, and although the family lost this property during the Cromwellian confiscations of the 1650s, they managed to regain it later and remained in possession until the second half of the last century. It would appear that Jasper ffrench built a new ‘castle’ or residence of some kind here in 1683 and this remained standing for almost 100 years until his great-grandson, Sir Charles ffrench, who had served as Mayor of Galway 1773-4, decided to replace it with a new house in 1779, the same year he was created a baronet. Following his death, Sir Charles’ widow, Rose Dillon, was made a baroness, this title being inherited by her son Sir Thomas, a Roman Catholic like his forebears and a vigorous supporter of religious emancipation. Sir Thomas was also partner in what was, for some time, a successful private bank, ffrench & Co. Unfortunately, towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars, this enterprise went bankrupt and in December 1814 Lord ffrench shot himself in the head using his dueling pistols. Although his son Charles inherited both title and estate, the family never recovered from this financial setback, which was made worse when the third baron refused to collect rents from his tenants during the Great Famine in the second half of the 1840s. As a result, in 1851 Castle ffrench and its estate of some 4170 acres was sold for £23,990 in the Encumbered Estates’ Court to James Thorngate  





The Thorngates were originally from the Hampshire town of Gosport where they had a successful grocer business before starting to acquire property. Like other families in England and Scotland, in the aftermath of the Irish famine, they recognised the investment potential in property here, and accordingly bought parcels of land being offered through the Encumbered Estates’ Court, in the case of the Thorngates in Counties Mayo, Roscommon. It seems that James Thorngate continued to own Castle ffrench until his death in 1869, after which it was sold, being duly acquired by members of the Churcher family, a family of solicitors based in Southampton. (Curiously, both the Thorngates and Churchers founded trusts to provide almshouses for the poor in the native country, and these two bodies were amalgamated together in 1981 as the Thorngate Churcher Trust.) Meanwhile, in 1919 Castle ffrench was bought back by the sixth Lord ffrench, and the house was once again occupied by the family until the closing years of the last century when it was sold once more. As seen today, Castle ffrench is a handsome ashlar-faced property of 3 storeys over basement, and with a five-bay facade with three-bay breakfront. The line of stone urns along the roof parapet and the doorcase flanked by fluted Doric pilasters beneath a plain entablature are the only decorative details. Inside, the building follows the customary tripartite pattern of drawing and dining rooms opening off a central entrance hall behind which is an elegant staircase with smaller rooms on either side. The surprise is that while Castle ffrench’s exterior is somewhat understated, the interior is notable for its splendid plasterwork. In the style of master stuccodore Michael Stapleton, it is a merry blend of rococo and neoclassical incorporating, a riotous spread of flowers and foliage, Irish harps, trophies and urns, birds and bows, all generously applied to ceilings and walls alike. Classical deities also put in an appearance: a cartouche below the stairs, for example, features the goddess Diana holding her bow while she reclines beneath a tree. The plasterwork here is rather unexpected (not least to find quite so much of it in the one house) and all the more wonderful for that. As mentioned, having only changed hands once in the past 100 years, Castle ffrench is now for sale: an opportunity for someone else to relish the house’s unquestionable charm. 



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A Delightful and Unspoiled Treat



‘The cathedral has neither grandeur nor architectural sophistication, but it retains a strong medieval atmosphere. Peering up out of the hollow in which it was built, it presents a stern and frowning countenance, as if looking at its visitors suspiciously and defensively, blinking with surprise that anyone should want to pay it a visit. The casual visitor will be equally surprised. St Laserian’s Cathedral is hidden away down so many twisting lanes that the likelihood of a chance visit is remote. The interested visitor will have to make a determined effort to get here, and the effort will be well rewarded.’
From The Cathedrals of Ireland by Peter Galloway (Belfast, 1992) 





Once an important urban settlement (until 1801 sending two members to the Irish House of Commons) Old Leighlin, County Carlow is now a small village, rather overshadowed by its neighbours on the other side of the river Barrow, Leighlinbridge and Bagenalstown. The best evidence of its former significance is a cathedral dedicated to Saint Laserian, although he was not responsible for establishing the original religious foundation here. That role went to Saint Gobhan, who in 633 participated in a synod here to debate the timing of Easter. Another participant in this synod was St Laserian, who is believed to have advocated that the Irish Church abandon its own method of calculating when Easter should fall and instead follow that of Rome. Otherwise known as Molaise, Laserian subsequently became the abbot of a monastery at Leighlin, but not before he had visited Rome and been consecrated a bishop by Pope Honorius I, which explains why this village should have become an episcopal seat (it was established as one of the five dioceses of Leinster at the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111) . Meanwhile, at Leighlin, the monastery flourished and at one point is said to have had a community of some 1,500 monks. This explains why it was raided twice by the Vikings, in 859 and 916, before being totally destroyed by fire in 1060. What can be seen there today all dates from after that catastrophe.  




Work on the present St Laserian’s was begun during the episcopacy of Bishop Donatus (1152-81) and was completed by the end of the 13th century. Sitting stocky and low, as though trying not to be seen, this is one of Ireland’s smallest cathedrals, consisting of an aisleless 82 foot long nave and 59 foot long chancel with a 59 foot tall 16th century tower between them. Two transepts were added in the 13th century but that to the south has long since been demolished while that to the north is now roofless. A very substantial Lady Chapel, almost as long as the chancel, was added immediately to the north of the latter by Bishop Matthew Sanders in the first half of the 16th century. With its plain plastered walls, the nave is barnlike, there being no windows on either north or south sides, and only a small window above the west door, although the addition of several skylights in the roof has made it less dark than must once have been the case. The chancel has walls stripped of plaster and two large windows of three lights at the eastern end of the south wall. Below these is a four-seat sedilia with trefoil heads and shafts. The four-light east window has stained glass by Catherine Amelia O’Brien, a member of An Túr Gloine. Otherwise, the interior is notable for the number of memorials, some 32, all to members of the Vigors family, the first of whom to settle in Ireland, the Rev Louis Vigors, was a Church of Ireland rector in County Cork. His grandson, Bartholomew Vigors, served as Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin for 30 years (1691-1721): his chair can still be found in the chancel. Descendants of the bishop continued to live in the area for the next couple of hundred years, as their memorials scattered throughout the cathedral can testify. As Peter Galloway noted, St Laserian’s is not notable for its architecture or monuments, but instead this ancient place of worship is ‘a delightful and unspoiled treat, grey and bluff and with all the atmosphere of a 13th-century fortress church.’



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New and Old



Wallstown Castle, County Cork is thought to date from c.1780 when constructed by the Ruddock family, although the battlements were only added in the middle of the following century. The building owes its name to the Walls who occupied the site during the Middle Ages and lived in a three-story tower house, the remains of which can be seen in the yard behind the more modern castle. In 1642, during the Confederate Wars, Wallstown was captured by Lord Inchiquin in 1642 and most of its occupants killed: Richard Wall was captured and in due course died in Cork prison. The property was then granted to Captain Andrew Ruddock, whose descendants in due course opted for a more convenient residence.



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As Healthy and Convenient as Any Other Rooms


‘Don’t give the servant’s room the look of a perpetual rummage sale by making it a dumping ground for old defaced pictures, furniture, and bric-a-brac. Remember that it is her only haven of rest, and have it restful, if only for selfish reasons, for renewed bodily vigor means well-done work and a made-over disposition. When we think of the average servant’s room, small, stuffy, poorly ventilated, hot in summer, cold in winter, and unattractive to a degree, it ought to bring a blush of shame.’
Excerpt from The Complete Home (1879)





‘The servants’ rooms should be made as healthy and convenient as any other rooms in the house, well lighted, and, being in part in the roof, care should be taken in all new houses to protect them from undue heat and cold by means of boarding and slates, by overlaying the former with battens, on which the slates are hung, so that, as far as practicable, the rooms may not be rendered hot and close in summer, or icy cold in winter.’ Excerpt from Popular Science Monthly (1885)





‘The writer would here urge every mistress of a family, who keeps more than one domestic, to provide them with single beds, that they may not be obliged to sleep with all the changing domestics, who come and go so often. Where the room is too small for two beds, a narrow trucklebed under another, will answer. Domestics should be furnished with wahing conveniences in their chambers, and be encouraged to keep their persons and rooms neat and in order.’ (Excerpt from A Treatise on Domestic Economy by Catherine Esther Beecher (1845)


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Wanting Repair




In the past, the Irish Aesthete has come across several examples of late-mediaeval cylindrical tower houses, which seem to have been constructed only in Counties Kilkenny and Tipperary. From the latter county, this one can be found in Ballysheedy (sometimes Ballysheeda). Thought to date from the late 15th century, it seems originally to have belonged to the O’Dwyers, who were the dominant family in this area, the barony of Kilnamanagh Lower. Of five storeys, the building was recorded in 1607 as being in the possession of John O’Dwyer of Dundrum, deputy chief of the Dwyer clan. In the Down Survey of the mid-1650s, it is described as ‘the small castle of Ballysida wanting repair.’ Such remains the case today.


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Benefitting from Attention


‘”Grey Lambert,” as he was called, had taken up his abode in a corner of the castle under whose shadow they stood the lonely castle of Coolhull – and no entreaty could induce him to leave. He was a singular, but a fine looking person; wore neither hat nor cap; never cut either his beard or hair, which were purely, perfectly white, and flowed over his shoulders, and down his breast, even below a leather girdle that encircled his coarse frieze wrapping coat; his feet were bare; his forehead high and bald; his dress clean, betokening singularity, but not poverty; and he had been a traveller in his youth-a sailor-a soldier -some said a pirate; but that, I firmly assert, never could have been the case, for Lambert was the gentlest of old men; children and animals (who seem to have an instinctive dread of bad people) all loved him; and on Sunday evenings the village urchins, and their little cur dogs, visited him in his castle, or sat at his feet on the green sward, while he recounted tales and adventures of other lands. ‘
Extract from Sketches of Irish Character by Mrs S C Hall (London, 1829)





Relatively little is known about what Mrs Hall described as ‘the lonely castle of Coolhull’ in County Wexford. It is believed to date from the 16th century when constructed by the Devereux family, whose Norman forebears, originally from Évreux in France, had come to Ireland with Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, otherwise known as Strongbow, and been granted lands by him in this part of the country where they remained prominent and built a number of castles before losing much of their property in the mid-17th century following the Cromwellian settlements. Unlike elsewhere, there does not appear to have been a castle on this site before the 16th century when the Devereuxes acquired the land on which it stands. The first Ordnance Survey of 1840 markted the castle as a roofed building, and a drawing made by William Frederick Wakeman for the OF service during this period shows it to have been thatched. However, it would appear that the castle then ceased to be a residence, a farmhouse being built close by and the older structure given over to agricultural purposes. Handed over to the Irish State in the 1970s, it has undergone considerable restoration in recent years.





Coolhull Castle is rather unusual in design, comprising a four-storey tower at the west end attached to a three-storey fortified long house. Tower houses sometimes had such a building added to them at a later date, but this is all of the same period, a uniformity being given to the structure by having the same stepped crenellations along the roofline. The whole building constructed of local granite, for defensive reasons it had only one entrance, found on the north wall of the tower. Once inside, a door to the left provides access to the house while a newel staircase immediately ahead rises anti-clockwise to the upper floors of both the tower and the fortified house. Inside the former, each level is thought to have held a garderobe and bedroom. Meanwhile, the house contained cellars and storage areas on the ground floor, with the main living space, the hall, was on the floor above, along with the most important bedroom, each of which had its own fireplace; surviving granite corbels indicate that the ceilings in these spaces were not as high as would have been the case in earlier periods, but the window openings were larger, permitting more light to enter. The windows on the uppermost floor are noticeably smaller and fewer, and there are no fireplaces, suggesting that this was where the family’s retainers lived. According to the late Sean Rothery, there are some 130 castles in County Wexford, but Coolhull is quite unlike most of them and it is therefore wonderful to see that its fabric has been given necessary attention.


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What Survives




The mid-13th century porch of St Lachtain’s church in Freshford, County Kilkenny. It is believed that the saint after whom this was named established a monastery here at some date prior to his death in 672, but in the aftermath of the Reformation, the church fell into a poor condition, undergoing extensive renovation in 1731 and again in the mid-19th century. As a result, the sandstone porch at the west end is the only part of the mediaeval monastery to survive. It comprises four orders of ornamented arches, the inner one, the plainest, containing a dedicatory inscription in Old Irish: ‘Or do Gilla-Mocholmoc u Ce[nn]cucain do rigne. Or do Neim ingin Cuirc acus do Mathgamain u Chiarmeic lasndernad in tempul-sa’ (Pray for Gilla Mocholmoc O Cennucain who made it. Pray for Neim [Niamh], daughter of Curc and for Mathgamain O Chiarmeic, for whom this church was made.) As is often the case, the outer order, separated from the other three by a shallow barrel vault, is the most elaborate, separated from the rest by a shallow barrel vault and carved with a step pattern and zoomorphic masks. On the west face are two figurative panels, one depicting a rider figure, the other two ecclesiastics. These, together with a third figurative panel set into the jamb of the inner order, do not appear to be in their original locations and may have been arranged when the church was rebuilt in the 18th century. The upper part of the porch is 19th century.




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Hunting for a House


Irish readers over a certain age may remember the name Molly Cusack-Smith, since her colourful exploits (and sometimes language) often appeared in newspapers during the closing decades of the last century. Lady Cusack-Smith was a descendant of the Revd John O’Rorke, a Church of Ireland clergyman and member of an ancient Irish family which had once been based in what is now County Leitrim, where they had claimed the title Prince of Breifne. The Rev. O’Rorke had begun his ecclesiastical career as curate of Moylough, Co Galway, later becoming Rector of Foxford, Co Mayo, and Vicar of Straid, in the Diocese of Achonry, although he continued to live in Moylough (pluralism and non-residence being common features about Church of Ireland clergymen at the time). However, his primary interest appears to have been the acquisition of property, since he leased land from the Bellews of Mountbellew, County Galway and then bought the Clonbern estate in the same county from the family of the late William Beresford, Archbishop of Tuam. His landholdings also included over 1,600 acres in Co Roscommon and 217 acres in Co Westmeath. Married three times, he eventually diedin 1849 at the age of 73 after a fall from his horse. His son, Charles Dennis O’Rorke, inherited not just the Clonbern estate but also another at Bermingham, County Galway, bequeathed by his uncle John Dennis. This, in turn passed to his son, Charles Trench O’Rorke, before the greater part of the family’s landholdings, running to more than 5,000 acres, were acquired by the Irish Land Commission in 1927. Charles Trench O’Rorke had one child, a daughter christened Adela Mary, but known as Molly. 





Molly O’Rorke was born in 1905 and from an early age hunted with her father’s pack of harriers, since the family had long been associated with the local hunt known as the Galway Blazers. In the 1930s, she moved to Paris, initially with the intention of studying music but then opting for fashion, establishing herself as a couturier in London and specialising in evening dresses. At a cocktail party during the war she met Sir William Robert Dermot Cusack Smith whose family, like her own, was Irish. The couple married in 1946, had a daughter two years later but then parted ways. In a 1992 interview Molly Cusack-Smith explained ‘He was very rich and had a title. We got engaged because it seemed a good idea. But, actually, it wasn’t.’ Returning to Ireland and hunting, she became the first woman master of the Galway Blazers before founding the North Galway hunt where she was joint-master until her retirement in 1984. Every year at Bermingham House, she hosted a hunt ball once described as ‘the last clarion call of the stranded gentry’ and famous for the exuberance of all attendees: to paraphrase what was once said of the 1960s, if you could remember a Bermingham House hunt ball, you weren’t there. The tone was set by the event’s hostess, renowned for her colourful behaviour and language both on and off the hunting field. Of the various stories told about her, perhaps the best known is of the occasion when, at the end of the hunt, a groom remarked on the sweaty condition of her horse. To which she is said to have responded ‘You’d be sweaty, too, if you’d spent the past three hours between my legs.’ Molly Cusack-Smith died at the age of 92 in 1998. 





Bermingham House, the setting for all those legendary hunt balls, takes its name from the Berminghams, Barons Athenry, who once owned the land here, until their line died out with the first (and last) Earl of Louth who died in 1799. The house and estate were leased to John Irwin Dennis in the late 1830s before being bought  by him in 1851 in the Encumbered Estates’ Court. Along with 200 acres of farmland, it has now come on the market once more, with the opportunity for a new owner to host parties equal to those of the house’s former chatelaine. Dating probably from the mid-18th century, the building has a curious facade, of two storeys over basement and three bays, the latter spaced exceptionally far apart and both windows and door rather small considering the overall size: this is particularly curious because the west elevation is of four bays and the east of five. Inside, a pedimented doorcase leads from entrance to staircase hall, the latter having pretty neo-classical plasterwork in arches above doors and recessed bookcases. The main reception rooms have good late 18th century chimneypieces and are all painted in bold colours, as is the case with many Irish country houses. Naturally, given its previous predilection for hunting, there are fine stable yards to the rear. 


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A Victim of Temperance



After Monday’s examination of a fake castle in County Tipperary, here is a real one, albeit now in very poor condition, elsewhere in the same county. On the banks of the river Cromogue, Borrisoleigh Castle is a rectangular four-storey tower house, with the remains of a gable on the south-east wall and evidence of lower buildings once on the north-western side. It was constructed by a branch of the de Burgo (Burke) family, who were prominent in the area, although often under attack from their neighbours the O’Dwyers. A stone once embedded in a wall of the castle had a Latin inscription which translated as ‘Richard Bourke—Alice Hurley, Friend and foe make this marble rise. Come friend to our arms; the enemy begone.’ It has since been moved elsewhere. As for the castle, according to John O’Donovan who was employed by the Ordnance Survey in 1840, a brewery operated by the Biddulph family had been attached to the castle but by the time O’Donovan arrived, this had closed (he attributed the business’s failure to the temperance movement then being driven by the Capuchin friar Fr Theobald Mathew).



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