Part 1

THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.

NUMBER 33. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1841. VOLUME I.

To a large portion of our readers it will be scarcely necessary to state, that the little town of Cahir is in many respects the most interesting of its size to be found in the province of Munster, we had almost said in all Ireland; and that, though this interest is to a considerable extent derived from the extreme beauty of its situation and surrounding scenery, it is in an equal degree attributable to a rarer quality in our small towns--the beauty of its public edifices, and the appearance of neatness, cleanliness, and comfort, which pervades it generally, and indicates the fostering protection of the noble family to whom it belongs, and to whom it anciently gave title. Most of our small towns require brilliant sunshine to give them even a semi-cheerful aspect: Cahir looks pleasant even on one of our characteristic gloomy days. As it is not, however, our present purpose to enter on any detailed account of the town itself, but to confine our notice to one of its most attractive features--its ancient castle--we shall only state that Cahir is a market and post town, in the barony of Iffa and Offa West, county of Tipperary, and is situated on the river Suir, at the junction of the mail-coach roads leading respectively from Waterford to Limerick, and from Cork by way of Cashel to Dublin. It is about eight miles W.N.W. from Clonmel, and the same distance S.W. from Cashel, and contains about 3500 inhabitants.

The ancient and proper name of this town is _Cahir-duna-iascaigh_, or, the circular stone fortress of the fish-abounding Dun, or fort; a name which appears to be tautological, and which can only be accounted for by the supposition that an earthen _Dun_, or fort, had originally occupied the site on which a _Cahir_, or stone fort, was erected subsequently. Examples of names formed in this way, of words having nearly synonymous meanings, are very numerous in Ireland, as _Caislean-dun-more_, the castle of the great fort, and as the Irish name of Cahir Castle itself, which, after the erection of the present building, was called _Caislean-na-caherach-duna-iascaigh_, an appellation in which three distinct Irish names for military works of different classes and ages are combined.

Be this, however, as it may, it is certain that a _Cahir_ or stone fort occupied the site of the present castle in the most remote historic times, as it is mentioned in the oldest books of the Brehon laws; and the Book of Lecan records its destruction by Cuirreach, the brother-in-law of Felemy Rechtmar, or the Lawgiver, as early as the third century, at which time it is stated to have been the residence of a female named Badamar. Whether this _Cahir_ was subsequently rebuilt or not, does not appear in our histories as far as we have found; nor have we been able to discover in any ancient document a record of the erection of the present castle. It is stated indeed by Archdall, and from him again by all subsequent Irish topographers, that Cahir Castle was erected prior to the year 1142 by Conor-na-Catharach O’Brien, king of Thomond. But this is altogether an error. No castle properly so called of this class was erected in Ireland till a later period, and the assertion of Conor’s having built a castle at Cahir is a mere assumption drawn from the cognomen _na-Catharach_, or of the Cahir or Fort by which he was known, and which we know from historical evidences was derived not from this Cahir on the Suir, but from a Cahir which he built on an island in Lough Derg, near Killaloe, and which still retains his name. The true name of the founder of Cahir Castle, and date of its erection, must therefore remain undecided till some record is found which will determine them; and in the meantime we can only indulge in conjecture as to one or the other. That it owes its origin, indeed, to some one of the original Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland, there can be little doubt, and its high antiquity seems unquestionable. As early as the fourteenth century, it appears to have been the residence of James _Galdie_ (or the Anglified) Butler, son of James, the third Earl of Ormond, by Catherine, daughter of Gerald, Earl of Desmond--whose descendant Thomas Butler, ancestor to the present Earl of Glengal, was advanced to the peerage by letters patent, dated at Dublin the 10th November 1543 (34 Henry VIII.) by the title of Baron of Cahir.

In the subsequent reigns of Elizabeth and the unfortunate Charles I, Cahir Castle appears as a frequent and important scene in the melancholy dramas of which Ireland was the stage, and its history becomes a portion not only of that of our country generally, but even in some degree of that of England.

It will be remembered, that, when by the battle of the Blackwater in 1598 the English power in Ireland was reduced to the lowest state, and the queen felt it necessary to send Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, with an army of more than 20,000 men--the largest body, as the Four Masters state, that had ever before come into Ireland since the time of Strongbow--to subdue the rebels, that unfortunate favourite, neglectful of the instructions imperatively given to him that he should prosecute the Ulster rebels, and plant their strongholds with garrisons, marched into Munster, where the only deed of importance he achieved was the taking of Cahir Castle, and the forcing of the Lord Cahir and some other disaffected noblemen of Munster to submit, and accept the queen’s protection. The only favourable result of this misguided enterprise, as Morrison acquaints us, “was the making a great prey of the rebels’ cattle in those parts; he cast the terror of his forces on the weakest enemies, whom he scattered and constrained to fly into woods and mountains to hide themselves.” But these weak rebels did not remain long inactive, or exhibit weakness in attack; and the earl’s journey back to Dublin towards the end of July was marked by a series of disasters that sealed his doom; or, as the Four Masters remark, “The Irish afterwards were wont to say that it were better for the Earl of Essex that he had not undertaken this expedition from Dublin to Hy-Conell Gaura, as he had to return back from his enterprise without receiving submission or respect from the Geraldines, and without having achieved any exploit except the taking of Cahir-duna-iasgach.”

The taking of Cahir Castle was not effected without considerable trouble, though it is stated that Essex’s army amounted to 7000 foot and 1300 horse. O’Sullivan states that the siege was prolonged for ten days, in consequence of the Earl of Desmond and Redmond Burke having come to its relief; and the Four Masters state in their Annals that “the efforts of the earl and his army in taking it were fruitless, until they sent for heavy ordnance to Waterford, by which they broke down the nearest side of the fortress, after which the castle had to be surrendered to the Earl of Essex and the queen.” This event occurred on the 30th of May 1599.

As Morrison, however, remarks, the submission of the Lord Cahir, Lord Roche, and others, which followed on this exploit, were only feigned, as subsequent events proved. After the earl’s departure, they either openly joined the rebel party again, or secretly combined with them; and on the 23d of May in the year following, the Castle of Cahir was surprised and taken by the Lord Cahir’s brother, and, as it was said, with his connivance. Of this fact the following account is given by Sir George Carew in his Pacata Hibernia:--

“The president being at Youghall in his journey to Cork, sent Sir John Dowdall (an ancient captain in Ireland) to Cahir Castle, as well to see the same provided of a sufficient ward out of Captain George Blunt’s company, as to take order for the furnishing of them with victuall, munition, and other warlike provision; there he left the eighth or ninth of May, a serjeant, with nine-and-twenty soldiers, and all necessary provision for two months, who notwithstanding, upon the three-and-twentieth of the same, were surprised by James Galdie, alias Butler, brother to the lord of Cahir, and, as it was suspected by many pregnant presumptions, not without the consent and working of the lord himself, which in after-times proved to be true. The careless security of the warders, together with the treachery of an Irishman who was placed sentinel upon the top of the castle, were the causes of this surprise.

“James Galdie had no more in his company than sixty men, and coming to the wall of the bawne of the castle undiscovered, by the help of ladders, and some masons that brake holes in some part of the wall where it was weak, got in and entered the hall before they were perceived. The serjeant, named Thomas Quayle, which had the charge of the castle, made some little resistance, and was wounded. Three of the warde were slaine; the rest upon promise of their lives rendered their armes and were sent to Clonmell. Of this surprise the lord president had notice when he was at Kilmallock, whereupon he sent directions for their imprisonment in Clonmell until he might have leisure to try the delinquents by a marshals’ court. Upon the fourth day following, James Butler, who took the castle, wrote a large letter to the president, to excuse himself of his traitorly act, wherein there were not so many lines as lies, and written by the underhand working of the lord of Cahir his brother, they conceiving it to be the next way to have the castle restored to the baron.”

Cahir Castle was, however, restored to the government in a few months after, as detailed in the following characteristic manner by Sir George Carew:--

“Towards the latter end of this month of August, the lord deputy writing to the president about some other occasions, it pleased him to remember Cahir Castle (which was lost as before you have heard), signifying that he much desired to have that castle recovered from the rebels, the rather because the great ordnance, or cannon, and a culverin being left there by the Earl of Essex, were now possessed by the rebels. This item from the lord deputy spurred on the president without further delay to take order therein, and therefore presently by his letters sent for the lord of Cahir to repair unto him, who (as before you have heard) was vehemently suspected to have some hand both in the taking and keeping thereof. The Baron of Cahir being come, the council persuaded him to deal with James Butler (nicknamed James Galdie) his brother, about the redelivering thereof to her Majesty’s use; but his answer was, that so little interest had he in his brother, as the meanest follower in all his country might prevail more with him than himself (for he was unwilling to have the castle regained by the state, except it might again be left wholly to him, as it was before the first winning thereof); which the president surmising, told him, that if it might speedily be yielded up unto him, he would become an humble suitor to the lord deputy (in his behalf) for the repossessing thereof; otherwise he would presently march with his whole army into those parts, and taking the same by force, he would ruin and rase it to the very foundation, and this he bound with no small protestations. Hereupon Justice Comerford being dispatched away with the lord of Cahir, they prevailed so far with young Butler, that the castle, upon the twenty-ninth following, was delivered to the state, as also all the munitions, and the great ordnance conveyed to Clonmell, and from thence to Waterford.”

Notwithstanding these imputed crimes of the Lord Cahir, and the open treason of his brother, he received the queen’s pardon by patent, dated the 27th day of May 1601, and died in possession of his castle and estates in January 1628. His brother James Galdie, however, lived to take his share in the troubles that followed in 1641, and suffered accordingly.

From these stories of violence and treachery we turn with pleasure to record a fact of a peaceful character, in which Cahir Castle appears as a scene of hospitality and splendid revelry. This occurred in 1626, when the Lord Deputy Falkland, in making a tour of Ireland, after residing a considerable time at the Earl of Ormond’s castle at Carrick-on-Suir, in some time after came to the lord of Cahir, and was entertained by him in his castle with the greatest splendour.

But if these old walls had tongues, they could probably tell us of many scenes of a different character from that we have just narrated, and of which one has been dimly preserved in history. Immediately after the death of Thomas, the fourth Lord Cahir, in 1628, as already stated, his property having passed to his only daughter and heir Margaret, who was married to her kinsman Edmund Butler, the fourth Lord Dunboyne, the latter, while residing in this castle with his wife, slew in it, or murdered, perhaps, would be the more correct word, Mr James Prendergast, the owner of Newcastle, for which he was confined a prisoner in the Castle of Dublin; and his Majesty having granted a commission on the 4th of June in that year, constituting the Lord Aungier high steward of Ireland for the trial of his lordship, he was tried by his peers accordingly, but acquitted, fifteen peers voting him innocent, and one, the celebrated Lord Dockwra, voting him guilty.

During the troubles which followed on the rebellion of 1641, Cahir Castle was taken for the Parliament, by surrender, in the beginning of August 1647 by Lord Inchiquin; and it was again taken in February 1650 by Cromwell himself, the garrison receiving honourable conditions. The reputation which the castle had at this period as a place of strength will appear from the account of its surrender as given in the manuscripts of Mr Cliffe, secretary to General Ireton, published by Borlase. After observing that Cromwell did not deem it prudent to attempt the taking of Clonmel till towards summer, he adds, that he “drew his army before a very considerable castle, called Cahir Castle, not very far from Clonmel, a place then possessed by one Captain Mathews, who was but a little before married to the Lady Cahir, and had in it a considerable number of men to defend it; the general drew his men before it, and for the better terror in the business, brought some cannon with him likewise, there being a great report of the strength of the place, and a story told the general, that the Earl of Essex, in Queen Elizabeth’s time, lay seven or eight weeks before it, and could not take it. He was notwithstanding then resolved to attempt the taking of it, and in order thereunto sent them this thundering summons:--

‘SIR--Having brought the army and my cannon near this place, according to my usual manner in summoning places, I thought fit to offer you terms honourable for soldiers, that you may march away with your baggage, arms, and colours, free from injuries or violence; but if I be, notwithstanding, necessitated to bond my cannon upon you, _you must expect what is usual in such cases_. To avoid blood, this is offered to you by

Your servant,

O. CROMWELL.

For the Governor at Cahir Castle, 24th February 1649’ (1650.)

“Notwithstanding the strength of the place, and the unseasonableness of the time of the year, this summons struck such a terror in the garrison, that the same day the governor, Captain Mathews, immediately came to the general and agreed for the surrender,”--&c.

It was well for Captain George Mathews, or Mathew, as the name is now generally written, and his garrison too, that he had not the hot-headedness of an Irishman, or he would probably have set this “thundering summons” at defiance, and Cahir Castle would not only have shared the fate of most Irish fortresses at that period, but, what would have been a far greater loss, the Apostle of Temperance, who has done as much to regenerate the people of Ireland as Cromwell did to destroy them, would in all human probability never have existed.

But we are exceeding the limits assigned to us, and can only add a few words of general description. Cahir Castle is built upon a low rugged island of limestone, which divides the water of the Suir, and which is connected by a bridge with the two banks of the river. It is of considerable extent, but irregular outline, consequent upon its adaptation to the form and broken surface of its insular site, and consists of a great square keep, surrounded by extensive outworks, forming an outer and an inner ballium, with a small court-yard between the two; these outworks being flanked by seven towers, four of which are circular, and three of larger size, square. From a very interesting and accurate bird’s-eye view of the castle, as besieged by the Earl of Essex, given in the Pacata Hibernia, we find, that notwithstanding its great age, and all the vicissitudes and storms it has suffered, it still presents, very nearly, the same appearance as it did at that period; and from the praiseworthy care in its preservation of its present lord, it is likely to endure as a beautiful historical monument for ages longer.

P.

IRISH MUSICIANS OF THE LAST CENTURY, STORY OF DOCTOR COGAN.

In this grave cigar-smoking age of ours, in which Irishmen exhibit so little of the love of fun and merriment--the drolleries and _escapades_ which distinguished them in preceding ages--it is a pleasant thing to us septuagenarians to look back occasionally to our youthful days, and call up from the storehouse of our memories the merry men whom and whose merry freaks we were either familiar with, or at least had heard of or seen. One of these choice spirits is just now present with us in our mind’s eye, and we are certain that we have only to mention his name, to bring him equally before a great number of our Dublin readers. We mean the late musical doctor, John Cogan. There, now, Dublin readers, some thousands of you at least have the man before you, though many of you are unfortunately too young to have heard his exquisitely delicate and expressive hands on the piano, extemporising with matchless felicity upon Garryowen or some other melody of Old Ireland; or participated in his playful and always inoffensive merriment and good humour. Even the youngest of you, however, must surely remember the little man--little indeed in size, but every inch of him a gentleman, who but a few years since might be occasionally seen taking an airing, when the sun shone on him, in Sackville Street, sometimes leaning on his servant’s arm, and at others driven in his pony-phaeton, which his prudence in youth had enabled him to secure for his days of feebleness and old age. That pleasant intellectual countenance, bright and playful as his own music even to the last, has disappeared from amongst us; but the memory of such a man should not be allowed to die, and we will therefore, while in the vein, devote a column of our Journal to a sketch of one of the many incidents remembered of his long life, as illustrative in some degree not only of his character, but also of that of society in Dublin during the last century.

From what we have already stated, it will have appeared that Doctor Cogan was not only great as a musical performer, but also as a performer in innocent waggery. It would indeed have been difficult to determine in which performance he most excelled, or whether he most loved his music or his joke. He was not only a good theorist, but loved a bit of _harmony_ intensely, and a _laughing chorus_ was his prime delight. Those he would often accompany or direct as occasion required, to heighten the pleasures of a musical treat, when he rarely neglected a happy opportunity of introducing some _vivace_ movement of his own composing, provided he could previously prepare a _score_ of good fellows capable of performing effectively the several parts assigned them in it, which among his apt compeers was rarely a difficult task. A lover of good cheer and hospitality, which he both gave as well as partook of with a true Irish spirit, it was a settled point with the Doctor that brother professors should at all times live in harmony with each other, and receive brotherly encouragement; nor were such feelings of an exclusively national character, but extended equally to foreigners coming to Ireland, who, if at all known to fame, were sure of receiving a friendly and _cead mile failte_ reception at his hands. If, it is true, he could on such occasions indulge a little innocent joke, by playing off a specimen of Irish _counterpoint_ at the expense of such visitors, it was so much the more agreeable to him, as in the following instance of the concerted movement which he got up to do honour to the celebrated violinist Pinto, who visited our city about sixty years since. But before we detail the circumstances attendant on this reception, it is necessary that we should tell our worthy readers something of the person who was selected by the Doctor to play a leading part--the principal fiddle--on the occasion; and the more particularly as his name is unknown to the great majority of the present generation, and almost forgotten by the few who may still survive him.