Croom Castle

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Croom Castle
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Alternative name (s): Crom Castle, Castle of Crom
Caisleán na Croma
Creation time : 13th Century
Castle type : Niederungsburg (Tower House)
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Irish nobility
Construction: Quarry stone
Place: Croom
Geographical location 52 ° 30 '52.9 "  N , 8 ° 43' 4.4"  W Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '52.9 "  N , 8 ° 43' 4.4"  W.
Height: 19  m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference
Croom Castle (Ireland)
Croom Castle

Croom Castle (or Crom Castle , Castle of Crom , Irish Caisleán na Croma ) is the ruin of a lowland castle in the town of Croom in Irish County Limerick . The 13th century Tower House is known as one of the main residences of the Kildare branch of the FitzGerald dynasty . Their old war cry "Crom a Boo" ( Irish Crom abú , German: Crom forever!) Is derived from the strategic fortress. Before the time of the FitzGeralds, it was an older O'Donovan fortress .

The castle is located on a strategically important bend in the Maigue river, its name is derived from “cromadh” (dt .: river bend).

O'Donovan's fortress

Until the Anglo- Norman conquest of Ireland, the land on which Croom lies was the territory of Uí Cairpe , where the O'Donovans were the leading family. Uí Cairpe was part of the larger, regional kingdom of Uí Fidgenti , the remains of which were then between the Kingdom of Demond in the south and the Kingdom of Thomond in the north, mutual rivals. Uí Fidgenti was besieged by Domnall Mór Ua Briain in 1178 , but some O'Donovans stayed in the area and a certain Dermot O'Donovan left - according to Samuel Lewis' Topographical Description of Ireland from 1837 - sometime during the reign of Johann Ohneland or shortly before build the first fortress and croom. According to Lewis, this was done to secure the lands that they had recently taken from the McEnirys (their relatives in Uí Fidgenti). The line of the O'Donovans was already connected to Croom long before that: they were mentioned in a manuscript from the 1130s in the Caithréim Chellacháin Chaisil (German: The victorious career of Cellachán von Cashel). There, an ancestor of the O'Donovans, Uaithne mac Cathail (around 960), is mentioned and associated with Cromadgh , as Croom was called in the middle of the 12th century.

Some oral traditions mention that the O'Donovans from Barony Carbery of Crom Ua Donnabáin be descended († 1254), who in the annals At Crom is called (the "crooked"). They also link him to the construction of the Castle of Crom, but this association between An Crom and the Castle of Crom, based on the similarities in names and spellings, has been refuted several times.

An early source around 1690 mentions no builder of the castle by name:

“(...) the O'Donovans, a family of royal origin among the Irish. They came here from Coshma in County Limerick and built the famous Castle of Crome here, which later fell to the Earl of Kildare and gave him his motto "Crome aboo", which is still written on his coat of arms. "

A branch of the O'Donovans and a remnant of Uí Fidgente lived in Croom almost continuously for more than eight centuries; They have owned their current farm for more than four centuries, but have not lived in the Tower House since the Earls of Kildare took up residence there.

It is believed that the Tower House was built in the early 13th century after earlier attacks on the city. One such attack was recorded in 1151, when Ruaidhri , son of Toirdhealbhach Ua Conchobhair , made a great raid on Thomond, took many cows and burned Cromadh.

Today the castle is little more than a large, difficult to identify ruin. Two walls of the tower have remained, even though both have collapsed to half their original height. The other two walls of the tower have collapsed into a very large pile of rock and bricks .

Crom a boo

The motto of the FitzGerald family is "Crom-a-boo" ( Irish Crom abú , German: Crom forever).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Home . In: Welcome to Croom Castle . Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  2. ↑ Annals of Inisfallen .
  3. ^ Samuel Lewis: Topographical Description of Ireland . 1837. Archived from the original on January 12, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 28, 2019. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.from-ireland.net
  4. ^ Paul McCotter: Medieval Ireland: Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions . Four Courts Press, Dublin 2008. p. 185.
  5. ↑ Alexander Bugge: Caithreim Cellachain Caisil . Christiania: J. Chr. Gundersens Bogtrykkeri. P. 15 + 73.1905. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  6. ^ O'Donovan (No. 1) family genealogy - Irish Pedigrees - Lords of Clancahill . Library Ireland. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  7. ^ Rev. Canon John O'Mahony: A History of the O'Mahony Septs of Kinelmeky and Ivagha in Journal of the Cork Archæological and Historical Society . Part IV.
  8. ^ Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet, Carberiae Notitia . In: Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society . S. 147, 1690. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  9. ^ John O'Donovan: Annala Rioghachta Eireann, Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, from Earliest Period to the Year 1616. 7 volumes . Royal Irish Academy. P. 2437. 1848-1851. Retrieved February 28, 2019.

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