Mocollop Castle, Co. Waterford:
A history of a medieval castle
Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
Chapter three
In 1177 Robert Fitz Stephen
and Milo de Cogan were granted the Kingdom
of Cork kingdom of Cork
stretched from the Blackwater at Youghal to Dingle and encompassed most of
modern counties of Cork
and Kerry.[1] Robert
Fitz Stephen then granted some of his land to his nephew Raymond “le Gros”
Fitzgerald which included the area of north east Cork
around Glanworth, Kilworth and Clondulane as well as property in County Wexford
Meanwhile the Roche (de Rupe)
family came to settle in County
Wexford County Cork
Back in north-east Cork the Condon family
divided into two branches; the senior line held Kilworth while the junior
branch of Nicholas Condon held Glanworth. Nicholas left a daughter as sole heir
called Amicia who had married David Roche around 1250. When Nicholas died in
1260 Glanworth became Roche property. But David Condon of Kilworth claimed to
be overlord of Glanworth and Glascarrig in Wexford which David Roche also came
to own.[4]
For a time friendly relations
were kept between the two families. When Maurice Condon, grandson of David,
became head of the Kilworth family in 1289 a legal battle began over Glanworth.
The court proceedings progressed slowly. By 1302 old David Roche was dead and
his grandson David Roche was now at Glanworth.
Glanworth Castle from discoveringcork.ie
David Roche II showed that
Maurice Condon was not the overlord. He proved that Maurice De Carew as
successor of Robert Fitz Stephen was the true overlord. David also showed the
courts that de Carew had given Condon illegal powers of overlord by not getting
royal licence to give such powers.
King Edward I decided to
settle that matter by taking the land off everyone. He then regranted two
thirds of the cantred of Condons to David Roche II as a direct tenant of the
crown. Maurice Condon also became a direct tenant of the crown but only for the
Kilworth area (the other third of the cantred).[5]
Maurice Condon was not happy
and about 1305 started a war against the Roches. The ensuring war did not just
occupy north-east Cork but involved substantial
areas of County Wexford
But the Barry owners of
Mocollop had their own problems. David Fitz David de Barry, Lord Barrymore and
his brother Sir John de Barry disputed the leadership of the Barry family and
the two men supported different sides in the Roche/Condon war.[7] What
part Mocollop played in the war is unknown. So close to the war zone and with
the Barrys involved would suggest that some military activity occurred at
Mocollop. Eventually the Barrys supported the Roche side and closed Mocollop to
the passing Condon army. If the war continued for any longer the Condon
presence in north-east Cork
could have been wiped out.
The Bruce invasion of 1315
saved the situation. All the Norman families turned their energy to repelling
the invasion. A settlement was effected between the families. The Roches kept
Glanworth but lost Clondulane while in County wexford
Mocollop Castle - south-west corner
If the Bruce invasion saved
Mocollop from local warfare the weather must have had some negative effect.
Early in the spring of 1315 the rain started to fall and kept falling for most
of the year. Meadows could not be mowed for hay and any idea of saving the cut
grass was pure pie in the sky. Tillage crops were also lost and turf could not
be harvested because it was too wet. Animals died as did the people. Starvation
and epidemics depopulated the countryside. For three years until 1318 the
weather was one bad day after another. Annals in their wonderful language
record that mothers eat their children and even the dead were dug up and eaten.[10]
Manors across Ireland were
ruined and trade routes started to cease as there was no crops or animals to
trade. Mocollop was already weakened by the local Roche/Condon war and the
three bad years must have had a big impacted.
Chapter four
The end of the Bruce invasion
and the bad weather in 1319 should have given some respite for the Mocollop
area. But the peace was uneasy. In 1320 Richard de Burgo, Earl of Ulster came into Cork to defeat the united forces of the
Barrett and Barry families. Towards the end of the 1320s the tided changed and
the Barrys joined de Burgo in war against the Earl of Ormond in Kilkenny and
William de Bermingham in Galway . In this later
war Lord Barrymore’s troops killed some Condons.[11]
We do not know if Mocollop played any part in these military activities. What
we do know is that Mocollop did play a part in the coming civil war in the
Barry family during the 1340s.
The origins of this civil war
began long before when David óg de Barry II died in 1278 and was buried at
Buttavant Friary. With his death the unity of the Barry family began to fall
apart. His eldest son, David Fitz David de Barry III should have become the
undisputed leader of the family but his younger brother Sir John de Barry. Sir
John de Barry was knighted in 1283 and founded a Carmelite Friary at
Castlelyons in 1307.
As early as 1292 David de
Barry brought two legal actions against Sir John who acknowledged that David
was the chief Barry. David de Barry then demised that leadership to Sir John
for David’s lifetime. David de Barry died in 1329 and was succeeded by his son,
David de Barry IV.
When David IV died in 1344 he
left as a minor heir his son David de Barry V.[12]
Adam de Barry of Rathcormac (ancestor of Captain James Barry of Ballyclogh,
Glanworth who married Olivia Maria Drew of Mocollop in 1841) refused to
recognise David as Lord Barrymore.[13]
Adam’s refusal was not just because of his own ambitions but he was encouraged
by other persons. One of these others was Maurice Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond
since 1324. The Earl of Desmond had ambitions to control Munster by acquiring strategic points. One
of these points was Mocollop castle as it controlled the middle Blackwater
river traffic. If the Earl could have the Barrys declared as English rebels
then the Dublin
government may seize their property. The Earl could then get Mocollop on the
premise that he could better protect the peace.
Early in 1344 Adam de Barry
went into rebellion against Lord Barrymore. Adam was joined by John de Barry of
Dungourney, William de Barry of Carrigayna, Odo de Barry of Conna and a large
contingent of Condons. The killing of the 1329 war was now coming back against
the Barrys. Adam firstly attacked Lord Barrymore’s property at Rathcormac and
then moved onto Castlelyons. After a battle and siege Adam took Castlelyons Castle Barryscourt Castle Mocollop Castle County
Waterford
Adam de Barry now controlled a
big part of east Cork
from Rathcormac to Castlelyons and over the border into Mocollop. But he had
got restless from years of war. Using the office of county sheriff Adam made
war on anyone who he took offence from. Groups of Waterford
lords made complaints to Dublin
and Adam got the sack in 1349.[15]
It seems that David; Lord Barrymore recovered Mocollop around this time. The
Barry civil war ceased around 1350 and a few years later David got a royal
title to all his lands including Mocollop.[16]
If there were local
celebrations they were of short duration. The infamous Black Death arrived in Dublin and Drogheda in
1348.[17]
It spread quickly across the English part of the country and killed many
thousands. Urban areas were active sites for the plague. The Irish lived in
dispersed settlements and so not many Irish died as English descended settlers.
Mocollop was in the English area and so a victim of plague. How many died and
what long term effect it had on the area is unknown. To add further misery was
that the Black Death was only the start. Plague returned in 1361 and 1370 and
into later times.[18]
In 1529 Maurice, only son of Thomas, 12th Earl of Desmond died of
plague at Rathkeale.[19]
A few villages across Ireland were so
damaged by plague as to be abandoned. The village at Mocollop existed in the
fifteen century and later. This would suggest that people died at Mocollop but
enough people survived to keep the community alive and then they lost their
parish.
During all this warfare, economic
mood swings and plague Mocollop was an independent parish. In 1363 the two
dioceses of Lismore and Waterford
were joined under one bishop. The two cathedrals were in need of repair and
reform. Bishop le Reve established a group of vicar’s choral at Lismore. To
fund this group Mocollop was joined to Lismore and remained so joined until
1844. The church at Mocollop was now reduced to a chapel served by a vicar in
Lismore.
In 1377 Mocollop was placed on
a war alert when the Condons kidnapped David, Lord Barrymore. The Dublin government got
involved to prevent another local war. Two Condons were taken as hostages until
Lord Barrymore was released. Shortly after his lordship was released and so
were the hostages. Peace was restored again.[20]
Yet peace did not bring
economic prosperity. Tillage production needs lots of people and the Black
Death caused such a population decline as to make tillage production near
impossible. In around 1300 Ireland
was a major exporter of corn but after the 1350 the country had to import most
of its needs. Manorial revenues declined and money to upkeep the castle became
in short supply. Much of Mocollop
Castle
The organisation of
agriculture in the early Norman manors followed the two or three open field
system. One field would be left fallow every year to allow regeneration. A
field was divided into long narrow strips with people owing a number of strips
which were not coterminous. Farmers earned income from their own strips but
also helped each other to work all the strips. After the Black Death some
farmers died and their strips were left unused. The reduced population meant
the arable farming declined and pasture farming replaced it.
The strips had no division
between them and legal disputes kept the manorial court busy. But livestock
farming needed a dividing fence and so the length of hedgerows expanded. Two of
these hedgerows can be seen today as snake like hedgerows stretching across the
landscape.
If we find these snake
hedgerows then we can find where the medieval strip farming was performed. The
two snake hedgerows lie in the dividing line between the modern day townlands
of Garrynagoul and Sheanbeg and between Sheanbeg and Marston. The name
Garrynagoul means “garden of the foreigners” and arable farming of the Normans would look a fine
garden compared to the hill and mountainous country in the rest of the Mocollop
manor. These two snake hedgerows were there before 1571 when the boundary
between Counties Cork and Waterford
was made as the county boundary follows the line of the two hedgerows. As the
hedgerows mark the land ownership between the Condons and the Fitzgeralds in
the early 16th century it is possible that the hedgerows were
planted between 1350 and 1400.
Ballyderown Hall House, Kilworth, Co. Cork - south-east corner
Law and order had declined and
some castles were abandoned. In 1365 Maurice Fitz Richard and Raymond son of
Peter Condon discovered many felons and robbers in the act of robbing Ballyderown Castle Ireland arrived. He promptly had
the robbers put to death.[21]
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Link to chapters five and six = Chapters five and six
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[1] Paul McCotter, ‘The Sub-infeudation and Descent of the
Fitzstephen/Carew Moiety of Desmond’, in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, vol. 101
(1996), p. 64
[6] Thomas S. Flynn, The Dominicans of Rosbercon 1267-1800 (St. Mary’s Priory, Tallagh, 1981), p. 14. The Annals of
Innisfallen for the years 1309 and 1311 record war between Roches and Condons
and so many experts talk of 1308 or 1309 as the start year for the war. But on
page 14 of Thomas Flynn’s book the income for part of Rosbercon was
exceptionally low in 1307 because of the Roche/Condon war. This would make 1305
or 1306 as the start of the war and closer to the court settlement of 1302.
[8] Billy Colfer, Arrogant Trespass: Anglo-Norman Wexford
1169-1400 (Duffy, Enniscorthy, 2002), pp. 110, 112
[10] Colin McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces: Scotland , England
and Ireland
[13] Burke’s Landed Gentry,
1912, p. 28
[15] Ciarán Parker, ‘Local
Government in County
Waterford
[18] John Cannon (ed.), The Oxford companion to British History (Oxford
[21] Philomena Connolly
(ed.), Irish Exchequer Payments 1270-1446
(Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1998), p. 522. The two Condons got £10
for their efforts at community watch.
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