Qualla: Castleblayney https://qualla.com/castleblayney en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Castleblayney https://qualla.com/castleblayney Castleblayney: Introduction https://qualla.com/castleblayney/ The Hope Diamond, the deep blue stone now displayed behind glass at the Smithsonian, once belonged to a family that lived in a Monaghan market town. Lord Francis Hope sold the famous heirloom in 1901 to clear extravagant debts, and the castle his family owned in Castleblayney still carries their name. Hope Castle is gone now, gutted by arsonists on a cold October night in 2010, but the wide main street the 11th Baron Blayney laid out around 1800 still runs through the heart of town with its long, narrow garden plots stretching out of sight behind the shopfronts.

Read more: Castleblayney on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/5/castleblayney-wp/gce5-castleblayney-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Castleblayney: The Town of the Long Low Ridge https://qualla.com/castleblayney/ Before Castleblayney was Castleblayney, this place was Baile na Lorgan - Irish for "town of the long low ridge." The land belonged to the Mac Mathghamhna chieftains, anglicised as MacMahon, whose stronghold gave the area its older Gaelic name: Caisleán Mathghamhna. Then came the ...

Read more: Castleblayney on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/5/castleblayney-wp/gce5-castleblayney-the-town-of-the-long-low-ridge.mp3 0:06 2 full Castleblayney: Blayney's Bloodhounds https://qualla.com/castleblayney/ Andrew Thomas Blayney, the 11th Baron, inherited the peerage and estate as a fourteen-year-old in 1784 and grew up to be the kind of figure Monaghan parents still mention when telling stories. Educated in France and Germany, fluent and ambitious, he rose to Lieutenant-General in ...

Read more: Castleblayney on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/5/castleblayney-wp/gce5-castleblayney-blayneys-bloodhounds.mp3 0:06 3 full Castleblayney: The Hope Years https://qualla.com/castleblayney/ In 1853, the last Baron Blayney sold the castle and what remained of the estate to Henry Thomas Hope, an English plutocrat whose family had grown rich in Amsterdam banking. The Georgian house was renamed Hope Castle and given a Victorian makeover. Henry's grandson, Lord Francis H...

Read more: Castleblayney on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/5/castleblayney-wp/gce5-castleblayney-the-hope-years.mp3 0:06 4 full Castleblayney: A Royal Tenant and a Burning https://qualla.com/castleblayney/ Between 1900 and 1904 the castle had a royal occupant: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of Queen Victoria and Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Ireland. He leased Hope Castle from the Pelham-Clinton-Hope family as his country retreat away from his offici...

Read more: Castleblayney on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/5/castleblayney-wp/gce5-castleblayney-a-royal-tenant-and-a-burning.mp3 0:06 5 full Castleblayney: The Wound of 1976 https://qualla.com/castleblayney/ On 7 March 1976 a car bomb detonated outside the Three Star Inn on Main Street. One person was killed and seventeen were injured. The attack was the work of the Glenanne gang, a loyalist paramilitary group responsible for some of the worst cross-border violence of the Troubles. C...

Read more: Castleblayney on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/5/castleblayney-wp/gce5-castleblayney-the-wound-of-1976.mp3 0:06 6 full