THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 19. | SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1840. | Volume I. |
GARRY CASTLE, KING’S COUNTY.
Among the many singular characters who figured in Irelandduring the last century, by no means the least remarkable wasThomas Coghlan, or Mac Coghlan, the last descendant of along and ancient family, the ruins of whose fortalice are thesubject of the sketch at the head of this article, at least asthey appeared some five or six years ago. This extraordinarypersonage may justly be regarded as the last of the Irishtanistry, as well from his pertinacious adherence to the habitsand maxims of that defunct institution, as from his being untilhis death possessed of the princely domains of his race, almostunimpaired by the many confiscations and revolutions whichhave swept away so many proud names from the records ofIreland, thus uniting in himself the influence of traditionalrank, of such magical weight here, with the influence of territorialpossessions, of such magical weight every where. Althoughfor many years a member of the Irish Parliament, asrepresentative for the King’s County, the laws which he assistedin making were not at all the laws which he administered.At home every thing was on the patriarchal system,in all respects conformable to the laws and regulations of theBrehons—himself the grand centre of all authority, his willthe fountain of all justice, and his own hand in most casesthe administrator of his judgments. Such being the MacCoghlan, or “the Maw,” as he was more generally and ratherwhimsically designated, it is little wonder that he should livein the fondest remembrance of a people so deeply attached toold names and old ways as the Irish all over the King’sCounty generally, but particularly in that district of it ancientlyknown as the Mac Coghlan’s country, now the baronyof Garry Castle, so called from the castle before alluded to, theruins of which stand beside the road leading from Birr toBanagher, and about half a mile from the latter town.
These interesting remains consist of the tall square keepseen in the accompanying view, and the mouldering walls ofsome outer buildings, the entire enclosed in a considerable area,with round towers at the corners, and entered by a fortifiedgateway. They seem to be of some antiquity, this havingbeen the site, at all events, of the house of the Mac Coghlans[Pg 146]from the earliest periods, until the more peaceful circumstancesof the nation permitted them to abandon their narrowand gloomy security for the beautiful residence of Kilcolgan,an erection of the seventeenth century, the naked ruins ofwhich now form the chief feature in the landscape to the travellerby the Grand Canal before he reaches Gillen. I am notaware that any records exist to furnish a clue to the historyof Garry Castle, nor have I been able to meet any one able togive me any information about it, beyond the usual tiradeabout Oliver Cromwell, who seems doomed to bear on his backthe weight of all the old walls in Ireland. One very old man,who in his youth had been, I believe, a servant of the Maw,was the only person in fact who seemed to know more aboutit than that it was “an ould castle, an’ a great place in theould times.” From him I gathered a good many anecdotesof his former master, of which the following partly bears uponthe present subject, and gives rather a good illustration o