Are you referring to Woodstock House? Set alight by anti-treaty IRA members in 1922. I walked along the forest path that follows the River Nore to the ruin of the big house and the gardens laid out by Lady Tighe a few weeks ago, when visiting Inistioge in Country Kilkenny. A rare stand of woodland in that part of the county. Well worth visiting!
I too am confused about the name of the 'Big House', but the burning could have taken place during the War of Independence, by British forces or by the IRA in reprisal on supposed 'unionist' houses. In the later atrocity-ridden Irish Free State civil war after the split in the IRA in 1922, a concerted campaign by the anti-treaty side went on to destroy 'it is believed' 199 country houses. During that civil war, I also learn, the Irish Records Office was blown to smithereens and along with the records went many treasured manuscripts.
As an Englishwoman living in Ireland for over 30 years your wry humour made me chuckle ! And your adventuring too as I have mad furtive forays like that, watching for farmers and livestock as I climb into fields and up laneways . Such a lovely post !
The recovery of (usually) ancient wells and treasured religion, and your account this week having included the shadow history of the Big House, and it's absence, has sent me to WB Yeats, 'Meditations in time of civil war', including his opening poem 'Ancestral Houses'.
Records of old piety and the renewal of springs it seems are cared for as much as modernity can manage these things these days. Thank you for these personal introductions and an intrepid project😊👍. County Clare I learn has a Heritage Office and there are more photographs. Goodness me: in Clare 233 Holy Wells, plus 2 in Iniscealtra and the one in Curratober. bit.ly/4d66AhZ
Indulge you? Gladly!! This sharing today was such a delight. Your sense of humour and ability to poke fun at yourself is so endearing. Have a wonder filled holiday… I must admit I’m wishing the wells journey were never ending, so I’m welcoming the fortnight break as it will stretch out the journey!
Agree re wells journey. Surely there are fifty of some other religious symbol you could spend a year tracing. I will so miss these weekly forays when they are done.
These holy well stories of yours are wonderful and have me plotting a trip to Ireland for my own holy well pilgrimage. Have a nice vacation. I look forward to the next installment.💦
That was a sweet and lovely tale, thank you for pressing on to the reedy wet source!
I enjoy the grey and unflattened terrain of non-PC truths, befuddling to my principles. Planting non-indigenous woods you say? Trees that will out compete the native plants and perhaps invade, and and dry up wetlands that hold all manner of little indigenous life?
... And yet, so lovely a good Wood is!
History is full of these, "and yet, and yet, and yet's"
Intricate irreducible complexity of a holy spirit at work in his beloved creation.
Thank you for wet boots and your peoples for great deciduous woods!
I do wonder how far we might go back to find a Wood there, before the English, before even the memory of the Irish?
a completist too (I had never heard this word before but I recognised myself). Like you, I’m also British and Irish (and Orthodox - though hanging by a thread these days) - it’s a weird place to be. So this was a somehow comforting post to read. As always, thank you.
There is truly something charming and beautiful in the photo of the actual well. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there it is, striking. Blessed feast of Transfiguration
Nice post, Paul. Brave of you to raise the British Question. Doesn't seem to have attracted adverse comment so far. Much of it rings bells with me. I am English but my wife is from Waterford, and still has family in Tramore and I love visiting there and Ireland generally. The question of retirement in Tramore has been raised but I couldn't bear it as the lack of footpaths drives me mad. We've rented a gorgeous house just outside Tramore three times. It's about half a mile down a tarmaced road from the main coast road towards a nice beach where you can swim at high tide but there is better swimming, not tide dependent at the Guillamene and Newtown Coves on the west edge of Tramore. It would be a ten minute walk along the cliffs but the farmers make that impossible in any direction, and so we end up driving (I'm not a very confident cyclist in traffic even if we had bikes there)about three miles to get to it, passing lots of power walkers taking their constitutionals on the tarmac. I asked a neighbour about a track marked on old map, which gives up after about 50 yards. He said he used to keep it clear of nettles and brambles at his end but the farmer at the far end blocked it so it's no longer passable. I can understand why Irish farmers having finally gained control of the land in the 19th century from the British landlords defend their patches fiercely but it's a cost to everyone else. I just feel trapped when I'm there.
The point about large landlords being responsible for planting woodland etc raises interesting points in Scotland these days where the Greens and the Nats want to pass legislation to break up large estates. I'm not saying all big estate owners are good by any means - I know all about the Enclosures in England and the Clearances in Scotland - but a lot manage their lands in way that don't maximise profits at all costs. In England, this year I've read articles about how the Duke of Norfolk has managed his estates in Sussex to raise the population of the native grey partridge a hundredfold (https://www.peppering.co.uk/). Yes, he allows some of them to be shot but passive conservation measures had done nothing to raise numbers in the past. Similarly Nature England has given over the management of a National Nature Reserve adacent to the Earl of Leicester's estate at Holkham over to the earl because his land managment strategy with a gamekeeper has greatly increased its bird numbers (https://www.gwct.org.uk/blogs/news/2021/may/an-interview-with-jake-fiennes,-director-of-conservation-at-the-holkham-estate/). It strikes me as all very Wendell Berryish - the highest praise I can give anyone. Quite a change for someone who was once a paid-up student member of the League against Cruel Sports.
The native Irish were well aware of the destruction of their native woodlands by the English, (there is a beautiful song about it https://kilcash.org/song/.....) and in the nineteenth century a little known after effect of the Famine was the conversion of much of the land into vast cattle ranches, another environmental disaster.
And while the Big Houses did surround themselves with mini Capability Brown landscapes, the alien species that they imported weren't always as benign as the beech, the rhododendron was a disaster in particular, even if it does look very pretty.
Unfortunately by the time the Irish did get the land back, in my opinion they had thoroughly internalised the values of The Market, and joining the EU had a particularly deleterious effect on the countryside.
There are recent attempts to reverse this, but in my view, the work should begin in schools and educate the next generation on the precious natural heritage we all share. This book is an excellent introduction.
Great! Thank you for plodding on in wet boots, it is worth it. Coming down in the world seems to be better for the soul, doesn't it?
Very interesting! Enjoy your holiday. We'll look forward to more pilgrimages upon your return!
So, you indulged your spirit of adventure and savored a small triumph. This qualifies that reedy well as a holy place in my book.
Are you referring to Woodstock House? Set alight by anti-treaty IRA members in 1922. I walked along the forest path that follows the River Nore to the ruin of the big house and the gardens laid out by Lady Tighe a few weeks ago, when visiting Inistioge in Country Kilkenny. A rare stand of woodland in that part of the county. Well worth visiting!
No, it's Woodlawn, in Clare. A lot of old estates begin with the word 'wood', for reasons described above. The English love a good wood.
I too am confused about the name of the 'Big House', but the burning could have taken place during the War of Independence, by British forces or by the IRA in reprisal on supposed 'unionist' houses. In the later atrocity-ridden Irish Free State civil war after the split in the IRA in 1922, a concerted campaign by the anti-treaty side went on to destroy 'it is believed' 199 country houses. During that civil war, I also learn, the Irish Records Office was blown to smithereens and along with the records went many treasured manuscripts.
So funny!
As an Englishwoman living in Ireland for over 30 years your wry humour made me chuckle ! And your adventuring too as I have mad furtive forays like that, watching for farmers and livestock as I climb into fields and up laneways . Such a lovely post !
Love the English humor (Barbara Pym was favorite ). What we all need these days.
When that roving Englishman Paul Kingsnorth arrived on the shores of Ireland, he spoke these famous words:
"Veni, vidi, velcro".
"I came, I saw, I stuck around". :-)
The recovery of (usually) ancient wells and treasured religion, and your account this week having included the shadow history of the Big House, and it's absence, has sent me to WB Yeats, 'Meditations in time of civil war', including his opening poem 'Ancestral Houses'.
Records of old piety and the renewal of springs it seems are cared for as much as modernity can manage these things these days. Thank you for these personal introductions and an intrepid project😊👍. County Clare I learn has a Heritage Office and there are more photographs. Goodness me: in Clare 233 Holy Wells, plus 2 in Iniscealtra and the one in Curratober. bit.ly/4d66AhZ
Indulge you? Gladly!! This sharing today was such a delight. Your sense of humour and ability to poke fun at yourself is so endearing. Have a wonder filled holiday… I must admit I’m wishing the wells journey were never ending, so I’m welcoming the fortnight break as it will stretch out the journey!
Agree re wells journey. Surely there are fifty of some other religious symbol you could spend a year tracing. I will so miss these weekly forays when they are done.
Have a wonderful, restful vacation as we say in the USA.
These holy well stories of yours are wonderful and have me plotting a trip to Ireland for my own holy well pilgrimage. Have a nice vacation. I look forward to the next installment.💦
That was a sweet and lovely tale, thank you for pressing on to the reedy wet source!
I enjoy the grey and unflattened terrain of non-PC truths, befuddling to my principles. Planting non-indigenous woods you say? Trees that will out compete the native plants and perhaps invade, and and dry up wetlands that hold all manner of little indigenous life?
... And yet, so lovely a good Wood is!
History is full of these, "and yet, and yet, and yet's"
Intricate irreducible complexity of a holy spirit at work in his beloved creation.
Thank you for wet boots and your peoples for great deciduous woods!
I do wonder how far we might go back to find a Wood there, before the English, before even the memory of the Irish?
I loved this - it made me laugh. I’m
a completist too (I had never heard this word before but I recognised myself). Like you, I’m also British and Irish (and Orthodox - though hanging by a thread these days) - it’s a weird place to be. So this was a somehow comforting post to read. As always, thank you.
May God bless your thread.
been somewhere like there.
-mb
There is truly something charming and beautiful in the photo of the actual well. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there it is, striking. Blessed feast of Transfiguration
Nice post, Paul. Brave of you to raise the British Question. Doesn't seem to have attracted adverse comment so far. Much of it rings bells with me. I am English but my wife is from Waterford, and still has family in Tramore and I love visiting there and Ireland generally. The question of retirement in Tramore has been raised but I couldn't bear it as the lack of footpaths drives me mad. We've rented a gorgeous house just outside Tramore three times. It's about half a mile down a tarmaced road from the main coast road towards a nice beach where you can swim at high tide but there is better swimming, not tide dependent at the Guillamene and Newtown Coves on the west edge of Tramore. It would be a ten minute walk along the cliffs but the farmers make that impossible in any direction, and so we end up driving (I'm not a very confident cyclist in traffic even if we had bikes there)about three miles to get to it, passing lots of power walkers taking their constitutionals on the tarmac. I asked a neighbour about a track marked on old map, which gives up after about 50 yards. He said he used to keep it clear of nettles and brambles at his end but the farmer at the far end blocked it so it's no longer passable. I can understand why Irish farmers having finally gained control of the land in the 19th century from the British landlords defend their patches fiercely but it's a cost to everyone else. I just feel trapped when I'm there.
The point about large landlords being responsible for planting woodland etc raises interesting points in Scotland these days where the Greens and the Nats want to pass legislation to break up large estates. I'm not saying all big estate owners are good by any means - I know all about the Enclosures in England and the Clearances in Scotland - but a lot manage their lands in way that don't maximise profits at all costs. In England, this year I've read articles about how the Duke of Norfolk has managed his estates in Sussex to raise the population of the native grey partridge a hundredfold (https://www.peppering.co.uk/). Yes, he allows some of them to be shot but passive conservation measures had done nothing to raise numbers in the past. Similarly Nature England has given over the management of a National Nature Reserve adacent to the Earl of Leicester's estate at Holkham over to the earl because his land managment strategy with a gamekeeper has greatly increased its bird numbers (https://www.gwct.org.uk/blogs/news/2021/may/an-interview-with-jake-fiennes,-director-of-conservation-at-the-holkham-estate/). It strikes me as all very Wendell Berryish - the highest praise I can give anyone. Quite a change for someone who was once a paid-up student member of the League against Cruel Sports.
The native Irish were well aware of the destruction of their native woodlands by the English, (there is a beautiful song about it https://kilcash.org/song/.....) and in the nineteenth century a little known after effect of the Famine was the conversion of much of the land into vast cattle ranches, another environmental disaster.
And while the Big Houses did surround themselves with mini Capability Brown landscapes, the alien species that they imported weren't always as benign as the beech, the rhododendron was a disaster in particular, even if it does look very pretty.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/the-30-years-war-the-fight-against-rhododendron-1.2317249.
Unfortunately by the time the Irish did get the land back, in my opinion they had thoroughly internalised the values of The Market, and joining the EU had a particularly deleterious effect on the countryside.
https://www.irishtimes.com/special-reports/2023/01/27/irish-agriculture-has-changed-beyond-recognition-since-1970s/
There are recent attempts to reverse this, but in my view, the work should begin in schools and educate the next generation on the precious natural heritage we all share. This book is an excellent introduction.
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/ireland-s-rainforests-hiding-in-plain-sight-1.4778681
Thanks, BM, for these very interesting links.