THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 44. | SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1841. | Volume I. |
ARDFINNAN CASTLE, COUNTY OF TIPPERARY.
In some of the recent numbers of our Journal we presented our readers with views of two or three of the many striking objects of picturesque and historic interest for which, among our numerous beautiful rivers, the gentle Suir is more than ordinarily remarkable; and we return again with pleasure to its green pastoral banks, to notice another of its attractive features—the magnificent ruin of Ardfinnan Castle. This is a scene that must be familiar to many of our readers, for the traveller must have been a dull and unobserving one, who, journeying between Cork and Dublin by way of Cahir, has not had his attention roused by its romantic features, and an impression of its grandeur and picturesqueness made upon his memory, not easily to be effaced. Ardfinnan is indeed one of the very finest scenes of its kind to be found in Ireland, and is almost equally imposing from every point from which it can be viewed. The Castle crowns the summit of a lofty and precipitous rock, below and around which the Suir winds its way in graceful beauty, while its banks are connected by a long and level bridge of fourteen arches, which tradition states is of coeval erection with the fortress, and which, at all events, is of very great antiquity. On every side the most magnificent outlines of mountain scenery form the distant back-grounds; and every object which meets the eye is in perfect harmony with the general character of the scene.
Ardfinnan is a village of considerable antiquity, and derives its present name, which signifies Finnan’s Height or Hill, from St Finnan the leper, a celebrated ecclesiastic who founded a church and monastery here in the seventh century, previously to which the place had borne the name of Druim-abhradb. Of this religious establishment there are however no remains, as it was plundered and burnt by the English in 1179; and the present castle was erected on its site in 1185, by Prince John, then Earl of Morton, of whom it has been remarked that he achieved nothing during his stay of eight months in Ireland, but the construction of this and two other castles, namely, Lismore and Tiobrad Fachtna, now Tibraghny on the Suir, which he erected with a view to the conquest of Munster. From these castles he sent parties in various directions to plunder the country: but being met by the Irish under the command of Donall O’Brien, Dermod Mac Carthy, and Roderick O’Conor, they were defeated with great slaughter, four knights having been killed at Ardfinnan; after which John was glad to return to England.
Prince John, however, or those under whose advice he acted, showed a considerable degree of judgment and military skill in the selection of Ardfinnan as the site of a fortress, which commanded one of the chief passes into South Munster; and the castle itself was of a princely magnificence, and of such a degree of strength as must have rendered it impregnable before the use of artillery. Its general form, as its ruins still sufficiently show, was that of a parallelogram, strengthened by square towers at the corners, and having a strong entrance gateway. This gateway still remains, as well as the greater part of the walls; but the edifices of the interior are in a state of great dilapidation, and only part of the roof of one room remains. It is stated by the editor of Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary, but on what authority we know not, that this castle belonged to the Knights Templars, and that on the suppression of that establishment it was granted to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, and subsequently to the Bishop of Waterford. But be this as it may, it was preserved as a military fortress till it was dismantled in 1649 by that great destroyer of Irish castles, Oliver Cromwell, who, planting his cannon on the opposite hill near the bridge, made a breach in the walls, which speedily induced the garrison to surrender. The breach there is still shown, and according to an old tourist the following story is told in connection with it:—“When the place was besieged by Oliver, a butcher was within the walls, who while the siege lasted could never be prevailed on to come out of the room where he had placed himself; but when the breach was made, and the soldiers began to storm, he took up a handspike, and defended the breach almost alone for some time, and knocked down several soldiers that strove to enter; but finding none to second him, he retired without the least hurt. When the castle was surrendered, he was asked why he would not come to the walls before the breach was made? He replied, ‘Damn them, I did not mind what was doing on the outside, but I could not bear their coming into the house,’ as he called it.”
Ardfinnan is a parish in the barony of Iffa and Offa west, county of Tipperary, above four miles S. S. E. from Cahir, and contains about nine hundred inhabitants. The village itself, which extends into the adjoining parish of Ballybacon, contains above three hundred. It was once a place of greater note, and appears to have had a corporation, as it is on record, 4th of Edward II (1311), that a grant of “pontage for three years” was made “to the Bailiffs and good men of Ardfynan” at the request of the Bishop of Limerick.
P.