Qualla: Kilcash Castle

Kilcash Castle: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.-K. D., CC BY-SA 4.0. Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad? -- 'Now what will we do for timber?' The opening line of the great Irish lament 'Cill Chais' has been recited by generations of schoolchildren in Ireland, but the question is not abstract. The woods around Kilcash Castle were real. They were sold in 1797 and 1801. The lady the lament mourns -- Margaret Magennis, Viscountess Iveagh -- was buried in the small church beside the castle in 1744. The ruined tower house that gave the song its name still stands above the N24 road just west of Ballydine in County Tipperary, and it is one of the few literary landmarks in Ireland whose stones you can actually touch.

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Image: A.-K. D. | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kilcash Castle: Butlers of Ormond

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kweedado2, CC BY-SA 3.0. The main castle is a fortified tower dating from the 16th century, with an adjoining hall added later, after the need for defence gave way to the appetite for large windows. In the 16th century the manor of Kilcash was taken from the Wall family during the Irish Confederate Wars ...

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Image: Kweedado2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kilcash Castle: Confederate Catholics and Civil War

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.-K. D., CC BY-SA 4.0. The 3rd Earl of Castlehaven, a noted Confederate Catholic commander during the 1641-52 wars, was a frequent visitor to Kilcash. His sister Lady Frances had married Richard Butler of Kilcash, another Confederate commander, and Castlehaven wrote his memoirs at the castle -- they we...

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Image: A.-K. D. | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kilcash Castle: The Mermaid and the Butler Mausoleum

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah777 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Beside the castle stand the remains of a medieval church, a simple chancel and nave with a Romanesque doorway in its south wall. The church was partially repaired in the 1980s and is now open to the public. In the graveyard, a Butler mausoleum -- nearly as large as the church its...

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Image: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Kilcash Castle: The Lament

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stefan Riesner, CC BY-SA 3.0. The song 'Cill Chais' -- 'Kilcash' -- mourns the ruin of the castle and the death of Viscountess Iveagh. It was long ascribed to Father John Lane, who died in 1776, but the woods the song laments were not sold until 1797 and 1801, long after Lane's death. The earliest manuscripts...

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Image: Stefan Riesner | CC BY-SA 3.0