Shanbally Castle

Front facade of Shanbally Castle

Shanbally Castle ( Irish Caisleán to tSeanbhaile ) was a castle near the village of Clogheen in Irish County Tipperary .

history

Cornelius O'Callaghan , 1st Viscount Lismore , had it built around 1810. It was the largest building in Ireland by the well-known English architect John Nash . In 1954 the Irish Land Commission bought the castle. On March 21, 1960, it was demolished despite many protests.

demolition

The protests against the demolition of Shanbally Castle came from some local sources, An Taisce , some academics, such as Professor Gwynn , and some politicians, such as Senator Sean Moylan , the Minister of Agriculture until his death in November 1957, and the member of the Teachta Dála for Mitchelstown , John W. Moher . Politically, the Fianna Fáil government did not want the houses of the Protestant Ascendancy, and local MP Michael Davern supported the demolition.

For a short time it seemed as if a buyer could be found; the London theater critic Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville , who valued the region around Clogheen , which he had known since childhood, was interested. He agreed to purchase the castle, which is 65.2 hectares, but withdrew from the business when the Irish Land Commission refused to stop cutting trees on the land he wanted to buy.

When this sale failed, the government stated that it could no longer find a suitable buyer for the castle.

In March 1960, The Nationalist reported the final end of a building that was the pride of the neighborhood: "A big bang sealed the fate of Shanbally Castle yesterday, where large amounts of demolition gelatin and Cordtex rattled the building," it said. The explosion could be heard ten miles away.

In response to protests for the preservation of Shanbally Castle for the nation, the Irish government issued a statement following the demolition of the castle: "Except for periods of military use, the castle was completely uninhabited for 40 years."

Individual evidence

^ Robert O'Byrne: The Irish Georgian Society: a celebration: (the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment) . Irish Georgian Society. 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2019.

Web links and sources

Bill Poser: Explosions Rip Through Shanbally Castle . Mitchelstown Heritage Society. Retrieved May 15, 2019.

52.29277778 -8.043611111Coordinates: 52 ° 17 ′ 34 " N , 8 ° 2 ′ 37" W.

[OByrne7-1] Robert O'Byrne: The Irish Georgian Society: a celebration: (the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment) . Irish Georgian Society. 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2019.