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History Trail

Last week, Ms. Burke and Mr. Gallagher took their classes on a local history trail of Castletroy. We visited the Black Castle on the banks of the River Shannon and learned about the fascinating stories of war, love and terror that surround this magnificent 800 year old Norman castle.

 

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Castle Troy, after which the large suburb of Castletroy is believed to be named, or the Black Castle was built during the reign of King Henry III (1216-1272), by the O’Briens. It was built  on the banks of the Shannon, upstream from where the University of Limerick is located today.  The Earl of Desmond was overlord of the whole territory around the 1500s but he lost his title after his rebellion against Queen Elizabeth in 1583.He was never to rule these lands again. The estate went to the Bourkes of Brittas and Castleconnell.

Castle Troy  or Black Castle was owned by Mahony Keogh (or Mac Keogh)  in the mid 1600s.  The Keoghs were a warlike tribe, often in conflict with neighbouring chiefs.  Keogh had a very beautiful daughter, whose hand was sought in marriage by a certain chieftain, but the young lady sent him about his business and would have nothing to do with him.  One night he returned with his men and overcame the guards.  Then he rushed up the spiral stairs, grabbed the maiden, but Keogh and his warriors rushed to the rescue.  After a grim hand-to-hand fight, the thief lay dead, his head split open.  Alas, Keogh’s lovely daughter was dead also, a spear thrust through her breast.  Even today, the night-faring fisherman sometimes hears her death shrieks ring out from the castle ruins.

A grandson of Mahony Keogh (Dr. John Keogh) was a famous mathematical and oriental scholar.  An inscription over the doorway in one of the Halls of Oxford testifies to his having solved a mathematical problem in which all others had failed.  (He was certainly fond of large numbers because he had at least 21 children.)

Castle Troy itself was severely battered by Cromwell’s cannon which he set up on Harty’s Hill, and after the last siege of Limerick it was dismantled and blown up, together with other castles which defended the passes to the city. Today all that remains is a ruin on the bank of the river Shannon.

 

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