Castles of Ireland: Some Fortress Histories and LegendsAdams, Constance Louisa
History
Castles of Ireland: Some Fortress Histories and Legends
Adams, Constance Louisa
Castles -- Ireland; Legends -- Ireland
It seems hardly possible that the Lord Thomas FitzGerald could have
heard of the mishap so quickly unless treachery had been employed. Be
that as it may, he and a band of armed followers arrived at Artane in
the early morning, being the 28th of July, and surrounded the castle
while the Archbishop still slept.
Among the party were the young Vice-Deputy’s uncles, Sir James and
Oliver FitzGerald, James Delahide, and about forty men.
He sent two Dublin yeomen, John Teeling and Nicholas Wafer, into the
house to bring out the Archbishop. They dragged him out of bed, and
brought him before the Lord Thomas “feeble for age and sickness,
kneeling in his shirt and mantle, bequeathing his soul to God, his
body to the traitor’s mercy.” He “besought him not to remember former
injuries, but to consider his present calamity, and whatever malice he
might bear to his person to respect his calling.”
It seems that the “Silken Thomas” was touched by the appeal of his
helpless foe, and turning his head aside, he said, “_Beir naim an
bodach_,” meaning, “Take the churl away from me,” and, no doubt, as he
afterwards said, he only intended them to imprison him. His followers,
however, put a different interpretation upon his order, and immediately
murdered the Archbishop, who was in the fifty-eighth year of his age.
Some say he was dragged within the castle hall, and there put to death,
while others say that the spot on which he was slain was hedged in and
shunned as an unholy place for many years.
Lord Thomas could not have been ignorant of what had occurred, as he
sent Robert Reilly the same day to Maynooth with a casket which had
belonged to the murdered prelate.
Lord Offaly was excommunicated for the crime in St. Patrick’s Cathedral
with great solemnity.
Shortly after this Thomas Howth, _alias_ St. Laurence, one of young
Hollywood’s guardians, went to live at Artane.
This Nicholas Hollywood also died while his son Christopher was a
minor, and in 1570 the wardship and marriage of the boy was granted to
John Bathe, of Drumcondra. In 1585 a Charles Hollywood is referred to
as being of Tartaine.
Nicholas Hollywood possessed the manor and lands of Artane in 1587.
They contained one castle, six messuages, and one hundred and ninety
acres of land held of the King, _in capite_ by knight’s service. He
died in 1629.
During the rebellion of 1641 Lord Netterville’s son, Luke, possessed
himself of the castle, and established a body of Royalist troops in
the stronghold. He met with no opposition, as one of the Hollywood
family named Christopher was a partisan, who afterwards sat in the
Council of Confederate Catholics at Kilkenny.
Nicholas Hollywood forfeited the estate at this time, and John
Hollywood, one of the signers of the Roman Catholic Remonstrance, came
into possession.
In 1680 the King granted the estate for one thousand years to Sir
Arthur Forbes, one of the Commissioners of the Court of Claims.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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