#county limerick

Rather unusually, this monument was erected while the person to whom it paid honour was still very much alive. In 1829, the Barrington family decided to put up a free-standing limestone column in Limerick city celebrating its popular MP, Thomas Spring Rice, future first Lord Monteagle (he would only die in 1866). On a plain limestone ashlar cylindrical base approached by three steps, the fluted…

‘It is curious to observe how customs and ceremonies degenerate. The present Irish cry, or howl, cannot boast of such melody, nor is the funeral procession conducted with much dignity. The crowd of people who assemble at these funerals sometimes amounts to a thousand, often to four or five hundred. They gather as the bearers of the hearse proceed on their way, and when they pass through any…

Díseart Aonghasa, or Dísert Óengusa, was founded in 780 by Saint Óengus of Tallaght. The monastery was associated with the Céile Dé or Culdees (meaning client of God), an early Christian ascetic movement. Today the site comprises the remains of a multi-period church, a round tower and a graveyard, all originally surrounded by a stone enclosure. Much altered over the centuries, the first of these…

A gate lodge, almost all that remains of Ballywilliam, a former estate in County Limerick owned by the Maunsell family from the mid-18th century onwards. The main house here has long gone but this pathetic residue serves as a memory of what was once here. In his guide to the lodges of Munster, J.A.K. Dean ascribes the building’s design to Charles Frederick Anderson, and suggests a date after 1824…

After last Monday’s post about the former 19th century rectory outside Rathkeale, County Limerick (see …) here are some images of its predecessor, located to the immediate west of Holy Trinity Church and to the south of the river Deel, on the outskirts of the town. A four-storey, late-medieval tower house, the building is now called Glebe Castle, thereby indicating its original function which…

Glebe: land granted to a member of the clergy as part of a benefice. Etymology: derives from the Middle English word ‘glebe’, which in turn came from the Old French ‘glèbe’, and ultimately from the Latin word ‘gleba’ or ‘glaeba’, meaning ‘clod of earth’ or ‘soil’. As indicated above, glebes were parcels of land provided for members of the clergy within the parish for which they were responsible.…

Today being Hallow’een, here are some rather dejected looking family mausolea in the graveyard of St Mary’s, Croom, County Limerick. One or two of them can be identified, an example being that carrying the notification, ‘This Vault was erected by Denis Lyons Esqr in Memory of his Eldest Son, and as a Burial Place of the Family, AD 1802.’ Another carries the motto ‘Fortes fortuna juvat’ (Fortune…

Originally from Yorkshire, in 1657 Montifort Westropp settled in Limerick city and three years later was comptroller of the port there. Subsequently he purchased various parcels of land in Co. Clare where he held the office of High Sheriff in 1674 and 1690, as well as being appointed a Commissioner for the county by an Act of Irish Parliament in 1697. Following his death the following year,…