Granagh Castle

Granagh Castle, County Kilkenny Photo © Paul O'Farrell, October 2004

Granagh Castle - Photo © Richard Webb, 24 June 2006

Granagh Castle also goes by the name Granny Castle, Castle Graney and Grandison castle.

Granagh (Irish An Greanach = Gravely place) is a small village in County Limerick, Ireland located about four and a half miles from Ballingarry.

Countess of Ormond

The earldom of Ormond was restored to Piers on 22 February 1538 after Thomas Boleyn, whose daughter Queen Anne Boleyn had been executed for High Treason in 1536, was stripped of his titles. Prior to that date, Piers and Margaret had continued to style themselves as Earl and Countess of Ormond.

Margaret was sometimes styled the "Great Countess of Ormond". She signed herself "Margaret Fitzgerald of the Geraldines", and played an active role in legal matters relating to her family and the Ormond estates, having worked with Piers in developing the estate, expanding and rebuilding manor houses; she also established Kilkenny Grammar School. She urged Piers to bring over skilled weavers and artificers from Flanders and she helped establish industries for the production of carpets, tapestries and diapers (a type of cloth). The couple are credited with significant additions to the castles of Granagh and Ormond, as well as having rebuilt Gowran Castle. Richard Stanihurst descibed her as having been "manlike and tall of staure, liberal and bountiful, a sure friend and a bitter enemy". He also credits her with having improved the standard of living in Kilkenny. Reverend James Graves said of her: "The fairest daughter of the Earl of Kildare was unquestionably one of the most remarkable women of her age and country". He also claims that she was the "traditional builder of nearly every castle in the district". Another chronicler considered her "a lady so politic, that nothing was thought substantially debated without her advice, while another described her as "able for wisdom to rule a realm had not her stomach overruled itself".

Margaret also developed a personal estate on her jointure lands which eventually descended to her younger son, Richard, 1st Viscount Mountgarret. Her husband Piers died in 1539; Margaret was the sole executor of his will. She herself died on 9 August 1542 and was buried in St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny alongside Piers. Their effigies are on their tomb.

--GRANDISON CASTLE

Grandison (sometimes termed Granny) Castle, situated on the banks of the river Suir, at a short distance from the city of Waterford, is a fine and picturesque ruin, covering a considerable plot of ground. The design involves extensive ranges of fortified outline; two courts; a large square tower or keep ; and various dependant buildings, within the fortified walls, adapted to baronial splendour and hospitality. On the margin of the river are still remaining three circular towers, which attest the formidable character of this noble pile, when in its original state, and garrisoned as a fortress. The traces of many apartments are visible in the keep, connected with which part of the structure are the remains of the great hall. Placed on the arch of a window in this hall, is a grotesque, holding a shield charged with the arms of Butler; and opposite is seen a figure of Justice.

History is silent concerning the date at which Grandison Castle was erected; but the tradition of the neighbourhood ascribes its origin to Pierce Butler, eighth Earl of Ormonde, Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1521. "In the hall of this castle, according to tradition, there was held a court, under under the direction of Margaret, the great Countess of Ormonde, for the trial of rebels; and the window is shewn whence they were supposed to have been hung. The respect, or fear, inspired by this great woman still remains among the common people, by whom she is called Maughreed ny ghirord, or Margaret Fitzgerald; and they frighten children by her name."

Margaret, second daughter of Gerald, eighth earl of Kildare, and wife of Fierce, eighth earl of Ormonde, to which nobleman she was married in 1485. Her ladyship was one of the most distinguished characters of the age in which she flourished, and seemed formed to advance family dignity in periods of baronial contention. By Carte she is described as "a person of great wisdom, and courage uncommon in her sex." Staniburst thus notices the countess and her noble husband: "The earl was of himself a plain and simple gentleman, saving in feats of arms; and yet, nevertheless, he bare out his honour and charge of his government very worthily, through the singular wisdom of his countess; a lady of such port that all estates of the realm couched unto her. So politic that nothing was thought substantially debated without her advice. She was manlike, and tall of stature; very liberal and bountiful; a secure friend; a bitter enemy; hardly disliking where she fancied; not easily fancying where she disliked."

In the civil wars of the seventeenth century, this castle, as we are told by Dr. Ledwich, "was strongly garrisoned for the king, and commanded by Captain Butler. Colonel Axtel, the famous regicide, who was governor of Kilkenny, dispatched a party to reduce it, but they returned without accomplishing their orders; upon which Axtel himself marched out, with two cannon, and summoned the castle to surrender on pain of military execution. Without any hope of relief it is no wonder they submitted, and were conducted to the nearest Irish quarters." Since that period the castle has remained unoccupied, progressively sinking, through the effects of spoliation and time, towards the state of dilapidation and decay in which it is now seen.

THE BEAUTIES OF IRELAND VOLUME 1, BY JAMES NORRIS BREWER, 1825--