Paddy Neary: A Short History of Ballyraggett

A Short History of Ballyraggett

Paddy Neary

Ballyragget is in Irish Beal Atha Ragat which means the Pass of Raggeds Ford. The ford was the broad and shallow part of the river at the present Ballyragget bridge. Ragged is the Norman French “Le Ragot”the fat or comical and refers to the Norman settler ,Richard le Ragged who held lands in the vicinity at the beginning of the 13thCentury.
The town of Ballyragget took shape between 1700 -1800 under the direction of George Butler and his grandson Robert Butler who held the Ballyraggett estates during that period. In 1801Ballyragget, had 214 houses, a brewery and two distilleries. In 1847 there were 1629 persons occupying about 300 houses.

The Castle:
Ballyragget Castle is a rectangular keep standing in the middle of a court or baun.The court is surrounded by a 15 ft wall. The keep is five storied, the fourth being vaulted. The feature of the castle and of most interest to visitors is the lookout turret that rises above the parapet in the north east corner of the keep. It is known as the “wishing chair” formerly it was known as ”Mairgeads Chair” because it was her favoured watch tower, the builder of the castle.
Mairgead Ní Ghearóid was the daughter of Gearoid Mor , the great earl of Kildare of whom King Henry V11 said “If all Ireland cannot rule this man than he shall rule All Ireland. ”Mairgead was the wife of Piers Rua, Earl of Ormond who did his utmost to sabotage the power of his father in law and later his brother in law, Garret Og who were Lord Deputies of Ireland. Piers Rua succeeded in having himself appointed as Lord Deputy for a short time.
It is said the Earl was himself a plain simple gentleman and yet nevertheless he bore out his charge of government very worthily through the singular wisdom of his wife,a lady of such port that all the estates of the realm crouched unto her that nothing was debated without her advice. She was man like and tall of stature, a sure friend, a bitter enemy. In folklore she is pictured as frequently making war upon her neighbours, riding to battle at the head of her vassals in rich trappings and always coming home victorious. Later legend tried to explain her prowess by associating her witchcraft.
Mairgead, Countess of Ormonde had the Ballyragget and Baleen portions of the Ormonde estates settled on her second son, Richard who was made first Viscount Mountgarret of Ballyragget Castle. Mountgarret is explained as Moat Garret .

Motes and Moats: Mote is often applied to the mound, usually higher than the Irish Rath on which the Normans built their early wooden castles. Such as the original castles at Castlecomer, Clogh and Threecastles. Moat strictly means the water filled trench that warded the Norman Castle and Mote.
Carnaduff, now Toor Hill north of Ballyragget was a burial place. The many raths near Ballyragget such as Grange, and Rathdug were dwelling places. All our raths were associated with spirits and ghosts because they have been the habitats of humans or contain their bones, or have been dedicated to pagan deities.
Rathbeagh has been described as the site of the palace of King Hermon, and the place of his burial.
The “mote” in Moat Park was the site of the earliest wooden Norman Castle in Ballyragget. There is no evidence of a stone castle being built as at Castle comer. On the mound in Moat Park the sand would not support a stone castle. The old name of this mound was Tullabarry, it was also the ancient name for Ballyragget. as Tullabarry included the present site of Ballyragget.

Tullabarry was the ancient name applied to the mound called Moat. The name is in Irish Tulach Ui mBarrche.i.e The Mound of Ui Barriche an ancient tribe from Wexford.
Airgod Ros:The legends of Heremon gives ussome insight into the history of the Gael. We are told Heremon erected a palace at Rathbeag and a fortress at Threecastles. The hill at threecastles was dedicated to the Firbolg god Lugaid. The Gaels called the valley of Rathbeag from Durrow to Threecastles Airgod Ros, The Plain of Silver. In ancient times silver was found in the area and Eauna made silver shields for his men.

Ui Duach: is variously written: Idough, Odagh, Ideiff ,the old name is still preserved in Odagh near threecastles and Firoda near Castlecomer.The land of Ui Duach was largely hemmed in by the Slievemargy and Coolcashin ranges, whose foothills converge at the junction of the Nore and Dinan. The ancestor of Ui Duach was Duach Cliach who led the Munster invasion conquest of Airgod Ros. Christianity came to Ui Duach in the wake of the invasion chiefly through the efforts of St. Ciaran. St. Patrick consolidated the work of Ciaran and is credited with the founding of Donoughmor near Ballyragget.

Donoughmore means “Great Sunday” and was the name commonly applied to churches founded by St.Patrick because he chose the Lords Day to consecrate churches.The ruin at Donoughmore is partly pre Norman and partly 15th Century.The church was taken over at the Reformation and was in use until1747.Within the church and graveyard are monuments to the Butler, Purcell, Cleere, Gorman, White,and Bradshaw.The Butler monument within the church commemorates the founders of Ballyragget.

More Irish than the Irish themselves: The Mountgarrets of Ballyragget seemed to inherit from Mairgead Ni Ghearoid the fiery independence of the Gearaldines. he Mountgarrets seem to have nearly always taken the Old Irish point of view. Edmund the second Viscount Mountgarret died 1602. His sons had been in open rebellion against Queen Elizabeth so that the Castle of Ballyragget was warded to the Queen in1609.The Mountgarrets tried unsuccessfully to re occupy the castle which from this time until the restoration of Charles 11 continued to be occupied by forces of England.

Ballyragget Lodge: It was completed by Robert Butler in 1788. His brother George lived at the Lodge until his death about 1880 The Lodge was then taken over by the successors to the Ballyragget estates , the Kavanaghs of Borris.

Art McMurrough Kavanagh, the most spectacular of the Kavanagh family was born in 1831.Though armless and legless , he wrote, hunted, shot, fished, and attended Parliament, making extraordinary use of his limb stump. McMurroughs tub like saddle complete with complicated straps was at the Lodge when the nuns took over but returned it to the Kavanagh family. After his death The Lancet organ of B.M.A. writing on McMurrough. noted “He was one of the most striking personalities of the 19th Century. His case was well nigh unique in the annals of gynaecology- the umbilical cord constricting and amputating legs and arms alike just below their upper third.

Fr. Edmond Kavanagh: He was Parish Priest of Ballyragget from 1729 until his death in 1761.His name is linked with the folklore of Ballyragget.His ancestors were the Leinster Kavanaghs who were the chief quarry of the first Viscount Mountgarret , in his effort to gain royal favour , through warring with them theM the Mountgarret title was gained. The descendants of these Kavanaghs later intermarried with the Butlers and finally became owners of the Ballyragget property and Lodge. Fr. Kavanagh built a private church and house near Tullabarry ,nearby is Fr. Kavanaghs apple tree. Folklore tells a story of “The Drowning of the Geese.” in connection with the priest’s garden. The geese of the local bigot used to trespass on his garden and when Fr. Kavanagh complained the bigot replied “why don’t you drown them”
Fr. Kavanagh took him at his word. The geese were there in the water with their tails up, and FR. Kavanagh said “Down geese, down geese, “and the geese went down and never came up again.

Sources:

Old Kilkenny Review 1956/57, Tom Lyng.