Many of these castles are historic ruins, but a few have been restored and are still in use.
At least three County Louth castles – Belllingham Castle, Darver Castle and Slane Castle – are wedding and event venues. Another – Smarmore Castle – is a drug and alcohol dependency treatment facility. Ardee Castle houses municipal government offices.
A few castles, such as Castle Roche, are on private land. Others, such as Carlingford (King John’s) Castle, The Mint in Carlingford and Roodstown Castle, are designated Irish national monuments.
This video covers just some of Louth’s prominent castles and isn’t comprehensive.
King John’s Castle, also known as Carlingford Castle, played a role in 500 years of Irish history from medieval times to the Battle of the Boyne.
Carlingford Castle is located in a strategic position on a high rocky outcrop point above Carlingford’s harbor on the south side of Carlingford Lough.
The original section of the castle, its west wing, was built in the late 12th century by Hugh de De Lacy, Lord of Meath, shortly after the Norman invasion of Ireland. De Lacy was a wealthy and powerful Anglo-Norman landowner and royal office-holder.
King John hunting a stag with hounds.
De Lacy accompanied King Henry II as part of an Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in October 1171.
In early 1172 De Lacy was sent accept the surrender of Rory, the last High King of Ireland prior to the Anglo-Norman invasion. Before King Henry returned to England around the end of March 1172, De Lacy was granted authority over Meath and was given command of Dublin Castle.
The catch for De Lacy was he had to gain control of the portions of Ireland that Henry had granted to him. In an effort to control eastern Ireland, De Lacy began building a series of castles, including Trim Castle in Meath, Kilkea Castle, and a mott-and-baily structure in Clandard in County Meath.
Returning to England in late 1172, De Lacy was involved in a dispute with Archbishop of Canterbury Richard of Dover and in 1173 he led in an unsuccessful battle in France during fighting with French King Louis VII.[1]
De Lacy returned to Ireland as procurator-general in 1177 and quickly became a controversial figure.
As governor of Ireland De Lacy took control of both Leinster and Meath and continued building numerous castles.
De Lacy’s marriage to an Irish princess angered Henry.
De Lacy married the daughter of Ruadri O Conchobair, deposed High King of Ireland, in 1181 without asking Henry’s permission. He was recalled from his royal post because of the marriage. But he was sent back Ireland in 1182, this time with royal clerk Robert of Shrewsbury watching over him.
Henry sent his son John, the future King John, to Ireland in 1185. The prince complained to his father that De Lacy was preventing the Irish from paying tribute.
King John supposedly stayed in the castle for three days in 1210 while his army crushed a rebellion by Ireland’s Anglo-Norman lords. It then became known as King John’s castle.
Some accounts accuse De Lacy of trying rule Ireland on his own.
One account says De Lacy lost favor because of complaints of his injustice by the Irish. His mistreatment of the Irish leadership may have led to his death in 1186.
De Lacy’s murder is described in the Annals of Ulster –
“A.D. 1186. Hugo de Lacy went to Durrow to make a castle there, having a countless number of English with him; for he was king of Meath, Breifny, and Oriel, and it was to him the tribute of Connaught was paid, and he it was that won all Ireland for the English. Meath from the Shannon to the sea was full of his castles and English followers. After the completion of this work by him, i.e., the erection of the castle of Durrow, he came out to look at the castle, having three Englishmen along with him. There came then one youth of the men of Meath up to him, having his battle-axe concealed, namely Gilla-gan-inathar O’Megey, the foster son of the Fox himself (chief of Teffia), and he gave him one blow, so that he cut off his head, and he fell, both head and body, into the ditch of the castle.”
O’Megey, escaped. His motive may have been revenge for seizures of land by De Lacy, according to Alfred Webb’s A Compendium of Irish Biography, published in 1878.
In 1326 control of the castle was given to Geoffrey le Blound, then to Edmond Loundres in 1388, and Stephen Gernon in 1400. Henry MacShane O’Neill attempted to capture the castle in 1596.
The castle was held by the Irish Catholic Confederation during the Irish Confederate Wars 1641 to 1653. Sir Henry Tichborne, (Parliamentarian) gained control of the castle in 1642, then by Murrough O’Brien in 1649 and Charles Coote in 1650.
Jacobites fired on the castle in 1689 during the Williamite War. It was used as a Williamite hospital prior to the Battle of the Boyne.[2][3]
[1] Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge (1892). “Lacy, Hugh de (d.1186)”. In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co. [2] “Castles.nl – Carlingford Castle”, https://www.castles.nl/carlingford-castle. [3] “Castle works progress – Independent.ie”, https://www.independent.ie/regionals/argus/news/castle-works-progress-31177882.html. Four Masters, Annals of Ireland by the: Translated and Edited by John O’Donovan. 7 vols. Dublin, 1856. Giraldus Cambrensis: Topography, and History of the Conquest in Ireland: Forester and Wright. London, 1863. Music: Far Over The Highlands, Christopher Moe Ditievsen; The Norman Kings, Bonnie Grace
The Mint is located on Carlingford’s medieval main street.
It is a fortified town house or tower house dating to the 15th – 16th century, but its exact purpose is unclear.
The name “The Mint” is presumed to derive from a license granted to Carlingford by Edward VI of England in 1467 to mint coinage.[1]
The limestone building is believed to have housed one of Carlingford’s wealthy merchant families, the Marmions.[2]
However, some structural quirks of the building cast some doubt on whether it was a residence or a commercial building designed to house valuables. Thus the mystery of The Mint.
The building lacks a fireplace, suggesting it may not have been a residence. It is also highly fortified, with extra thick walls,
One historical fact that could indicate the structure was just an extra fortified residence is the fact that no coins minted in Carlingford have been found.
It’s defensive features include a a battlemented chemin de ronde on the roof, with loopholes for muskets. The street side doorway is protected by and elaborate machicolation, a structure for dropping stones or material such as boiling water, boiling oil, hot sand or quicklime[3] on attackers
The Mint also features a set of five highly decorated windows, three of which are at street level, on the side facing the street.
The ogee windows have carvings of a horse, a bust of a man, a bird, a snake and Celtic interlace designs. Some sources state this reflects a revival of interest in Celtic art during the 15th–16th centuries. Each of the windows have hood mouldings and mullions.
There are also five small windows on the rear each dressed either with an arch of stones or headers and sills. There is a large first floor opening on the rear of the building and what may have been a ground floor rear entrance that has been sealed up.
The Mint is the smallest of three fortified buildings in historic Carlingford.
Carlingford is also home to the majestic ruin, King John’s castle and the Taaffe’s Castle, another example of a fortified medieval Irish tower/town house.
[1]Ruding, Rogers (1 January 1840). Annals of the coinage of Great Britain and its dependencies: from the earliest period of authentic history to the reign of Victoria. Hearne. p. 241
The notion that Spanish sailors from the ill-fated Spanish Armada settled Ireland after their ships sank off the Irish coast is an enduring myth.
The myth posits that these Armada survivors stayed in Ireland, intermarrying with the Irish in great enough numbers to create an entire segment of the population with dark complexion, dark eyes and dark hair – unlike many pale Irish. These individuals are referred to by some as the Black Irish.
There is virtually no evidence – circumstantial or otherwise – to support the connection to Spanish Armada survivors. The term Black Irish is not widely used in Ireland. But the origin and use of the term is a subject for another video.
There is significant historical evidence that most of the Spanish who survived were either captured and killed by Irish locals or the English. The small number who were not killed were either noblemen taken for ransom or those who found help from friendly Irish or Scottish chieftains who then helped them return to Spain.
The Spanish Armada was a fleet of 130 ships that was part of plan to invade England in 1588.
The English attacked the Armada in the English channel. The Spanish fleet scattered and the English pursed the defeated Armada.
Trying to return to Spain, some Spanish Armada ships wound up off the west coast of Ireland.
Fierce storms in September 1588 sank many of the damaged ships.
Between 17 and 24 ships of the Spanish Armada were lost on the Irish coast. This about one-third of the fleet’s total loss of 63, about 6,000 men were killed.[1]
Spanish Armada ships either made landfall or where wrecked at several locations in Ireland.
The galleass La Girona sank off Lacada Point, County Antrim, 26 October 1588. Of the 1,300 on board, there were nine survivors. 260 bodies washed ashore.
A storm a month earlier was even more deadly.
On 21 September 1588, three damaged vessels of the Spanish Armada were blown ashore during a violent storm on Streedagh Beach in what is now County Sligo, Ireland.
Accounts differ but about 1,800 men drowned, according to an account by Captain Francisco de Cuellar, one of the few survivors. Approximately 300 made it ashore.
“Over a thousand drowned among them many important people, captains, gentlemen and regular officers….many men drowned inside the ships, while others jumped into the water never to come up again.” — Captain Francisco de Cuellar
Once ashore, most of the survivors were attacked by locals and robbed of everything, including their clothes, or they were attacked by English soldiers and slaughtered.
De Cuellar managed to survive a number of encounters with robbers and the English.
English soldiers in Ireland were ordered to kill any Spanish prisoners, England’s Lord Deputy William FitzWilliam instead of asking for ransom as was common during that period.
It was with the demise of these Spanish Armada ships is when the myth of Black Irish takes root.
So how did the myth of Spanish Armada survivors living in Ireland get started?
The historical record shows the Black Irish – Spanish Armada myth likely originates from local lore.
The first recorded references to descendants of the Spanish Armada among the Irish population are from the 20th century. All the references cite local stories as the source.
The first is from 1906, by British historian Maj. Martin A. Hume.
Hume points out there were too few Spanish Armada survivors to have made a difference in the Irish population and that centuries contact with Spain prior to the Armada would explain any “Spanish blood”.
“But it is certain the English at the time of the Armada prevented anything like a settlement of Spaniards there,” Hume wrote.
Hume’s remarks appeared in The Geographical Journal, XXVII: 5 (London, May 1906) p 448-449
The second reference is from British writer Lorna Rea’s 1933 book The Spanish Armada.
“A few others escaped. There were other Irish girls who pitied them and took them home and forgot they were enemies; so that even now on that coast a child is occasionally born whose dark hair and eyes and soft brown Southern skin testifies to it remote Spanish ancestry,” Rea wrote on page 160.
Rea does not question this account.
A third reference comes from Irish journalist T.P. Kilfeather. Kilfeather questions “the belief that men of Spanish appearance in County Galway [W Ireland] may be descendants of men who came ashore from the ships of the Armada and inter-married with the Irish…” — T.P. Kilfeather, Ireland: Graveyard of the Spanish Armada, 1967 p 63
About 5,000 men died by drowning, starvation or slaughter by local inhabitants and English troops, after their ships were driven ashore on the west coasts of Scotland and Ireland.
[1] Whiting, J. R. S. (1988). The Enterprise of England: The Spanish Armada. Gloucester: Sutton. p. 171. ISBN 9780862994761.
T.P. Kilfeather Ireland: Graveyard of the Spanish Armada (Anvil Books Ltd, 1967)
thomas p. kunesh, 1981. “The myth of the Black Irish: Spanish syntagonism and prethetical salvation.” Published online at: www.darkfiber.com/blackirish/. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
An Armada galeass, similar to Zuñiga, depicted in the anonymous Greenwich Cartoon, Unknown – National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Public Domain
English Ships and the Spanish Armada, August 1588 RMG BHC0262.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_Ships_and_the_Spanish_Armada,_August_1588_RMG_BHC0262.jpg
The English pursue the Spanish fleet east of Plymouth on 31 July – 1 August 1588 RMG D3294.tiff, Public Domain
Feb. 2023 marks the first year that St. Brigid’s Day will be a national holiday in Ireland, the first named for a woman. https://www.newsendip.com/saint-brigid-day-ireland-first-public-holiday-created-after-a-woman/
The result of a successful three-year campaign to establish St. Brigid’s Day, Ireland’s newest national holiday will be observed in 2023 on Monday, 6 February.
The initiative to make St. Brigid’s Day an Irish national holiday was spearheaded by HerStory https://www.herstory.ie/home, an organization founded in 2016 that tells women’s stories through education and arts programs.
Also known as Saint Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland, she is purported to have been born and raised circa 451 AD in Faughart just north of Dundalk in County Louth. She is said to have died in Kildare on 525 AD.
St. Brigid is the patron saint of Ireland, poetry, learning, healing, protection, blacksmithing, livestock and dairy production. A very busy saint, Brigid is also patron saint of babies, boatmen, children whose parents are not married, children whose mothers are mistreated by the children’s fathers, Clan Douglas, fugitives, Leinster, mariners, midwives, nuns, the poor, poultry farmers, printing presses, sailors, scholars, travelers, and watermen.
However, there are few historic facts about Brigid. There is on-going debate among both secular and Christian scholars over whether she was a real person.
St. Brigid shares her name with a Celtic goddess.
Some scholars suggest that St. Brigid is a Christian version of the pagan goddess. Others argue that she was a real person whose story was given the goddess’s attributes.
Christian monks “took the ancient figure of the mother goddess and grafted her name and functions onto her Christian counterpart,” art historian Pamela Berge asserts.
St. Brigid was an abbess who founded several convents, most notably in Kildare, which were Ireland’s most important, according to medieval Irish hagiographies.
“By the end of the seventh century, at least two Latin biographies had been written describing her as a nobleman’s daughter who chose to consecrate her virginity to God, took the veil as a Christian nun, and became the leader of a community of religious women — or perhaps of both women and men,” Phylilis G. Jestice wrote in ‘Holy People of the World: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia’. “Certainly, by the seventh century, there was an important double monastery at Kildare that regarded her as its founder.”
Votive Offerings and The Rag Tree
Pilgrims often leave votive offerings at St. Bridgid’s Holy Well. Growing next to the well is a rag tree. A common offering at holy wells is a rag or piece of cloth that is attached to the ‘rag tree’, which is often also considered holy. Offerings include pins, medals, rosary beads, holy pictures, statues and so forth. The offering represents the sickness the pilgrim wants cured.
St. Brigid’s feast day is 1 February, which was originally a pre-Christian festival called Imbolc, marking midwinter day, the beginning of spring. Brigid was a fire goddess in ancient Irish mythology. Today St. Brigid is celebrated with a perpetual flame at her shrine in Kildare.
A folk tradition celebrated on St. Brigid’s Day or Imbolc is Brigid’s Bed. Girls and young unmarried women make a corn doll representing Brigid that is called the Brideog and they make a bed for the Brideog.
the girls and young women gather in one house and stay up all night with the Brideog. The next day they visited by the young men of the community who must ask permission to enter, and must then treat them and the doll with respect.
Brigid is said to walk the earth on Imbolc eve. On St. Brigid Day’s eve people may leave clothing or strips of cloth outside for Brigid to bless when she passes by in the night.
A Brigid of Faughart Festival http://www.brigidoffaughart.ie/ takes places in 2023 from 29 January to 6 February at the An Táin Arts Centre Crowe Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth, St. Brigid’s Shrine and several other locations in co. Louth.
On 21 September 1588, three damaged vessels of the Spanish Armada were blown ashore during a violent storm on Streedagh Beach in what is now County Sligo, Ireland.
The three ships were carracks, armed merchant ships.
The three ships were the La Lavia (25 guns), a Venetian merchantman and the vice-flagship; La Juliana (32 guns) a Catalan merchantman; and Santa Maria de Vison (de Biscione) (18 guns) a Ragusan merchantmen.
The ships were 3 of 28 from the Spanish Armada, part of an unsuccessful attempt to invade England, that had fled to the Irish coastline after the invasion plan collapsed in August 1588. The three ships retreated to the west coast of Ireland and were anchored about a mile offshore when a major storm began.
On 21 September, the ships’ anchor cables gave way in heavy seas. When the storm began on 17 September all three ships were already in serious trouble.All three were heavily damaged from battle in the English channel.
All three had cut their main anchors to flee the English fleet when the battle of Battle of Gravelines began.
Having no main anchors made anchoring near to shore difficult. When the ships hit the shore, they broke apart in less than hour.
Accounts differ by about 1,800 men drowned, according to an account by Captain Francisco de Cuellar, one of the few survivors.
Approximately 300 made it ashore.“ ..and not being able to weather round or double Cape Clear, in Ireland, on account of the severe storm which arose upon the bow, he was forced to make for the land with these three ships, which, as I say, were of the largest size, and to anchor more than half a league from the shore, where we remained for four days without being able to make any provision, nor could it even be made.
On the fifth day there sprang up so great a storm on our beam, with a sea up to the heavens, so that the cables could not hold nor the sails serve us, and we were driven ashore with all three ships upon a beach, covered with very fine sand, shut in on one side and the other by great rocks. The likes of this had never been seen for, within the hour, our three ships broke up completely, with less than three hundred men surviving.
Over a thousand drowned among them many important people, captains, gentlemen and regular officers….many men drowned inside the ships, while others jumped into the water never to come up again.” — Captain Francisco de Cuellar https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i…
Once ashore, most of the survivors were attacked by locals and robbed of everything, including their clothes, or they were attacked by English soldiers and slaughtered. De Cuellar managed to survive a number of encounters with robbers and the English.The late sixteenth century. and 1588 in particular, was marked by unusually strong North Atlantic storms.
Most of the 28 Spanish ships lost in the storms were along the jagged steep rocks of the western coast of Ireland.
About 5,000 men died by drowning, starvation and slaughter by local inhabitants after their ships were driven ashore on the west coasts of Scotland and Ireland.
English soldiers in Ireland were ordered to kill any Spanish prisoners, England’s Lord Deputy William FitzWilliam instead of asking for ransom as was common during that period.
The locations of the wrecks were discovered in 1985.
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