A Visit to the Site of the McGrath Castle in Abbeyside, Dungarvan

Long ago, when a part of the O'Brien Family had to flee from County Clare because of warfare among the O'Briens, the McGraths who were their bards and supporters fled with them. This was in the 14th century, when Turlough O'Brien was deposed by his brother Mahon O'Brien, in Co. Clare. The losing O'Briens and their McGrath supporters moved into Co. Limerick, Co. Tipperary and Co. Waterford. They gradually spread out through the Comeragh Mtns.and Tallow and Lismore and down to the coast at Dungarvan. At one time there were 14 McGrath castles in Co. Waterford. With the help of Cromwell, they have all fallen to wrack and ruin. God bless the community that will restore one of these
Irish Castles of old.

Dungarvan was attractive to the McGraths and O'Briens, who were eager to find a strong refuge and a place for business. An ancient Celtic dun fort was for a long time on the Abbeyside of Dungarvan harbour, and this was rebuilt and occupied by the McGraths and O'Briens. On the side of the sea, they set up an Augustinian Monastery in 1290 AD. We visited it today, and there read on a plaque erected in 1990 that O'Briens and the McGraths were the founders of the Augustinian Abbey, and its benefactors.

In the old monastery graveyard there is an ancient slab of stone which claims that Donal McGrath was buried there in 1400 AD, having died on March 17th, {his] seventieth [year]. The Latin says: Hic jacet Donaldus Macrath qui obit xvii die mensis Marcii anno do' MCCCC septuagesimo.

Now just as they had built castles up country in many other places, such as McGrath Castle Fernane, Castle Clonagh, Castle Reigh, Castle Cloncoscorin, Castle Kilmanehan, Mountain Castle and Sleady Castle, so they here built McGrath Abbeyside Castle to protect the Augustinian Monastery Abbey they had founded. The McGraths built their castle on the site of the old Dun to the North of the Abbey church. While the Abbey church was confiscated for a few centuries by the English 'reformers', the McGrath Castle at Abbeyside continued to be in fairly good condition. Engravings and drawings of it survived showing it nearly intact, until 1746. Meanwhile the Sleady McGrath Castle at Modeligo, built in 1628 was burned by 1641-50. [When we examined the Sleady Castle closely today, it looked like the front side had been completely blown out, perhaps by gunpowder]. The Abbeyside Castle only gradually decayed until most of it collapsed in 1916. The remaining walls were levelled in 1960.

The land where the Abbeyside McGrath Castle survived from perhaps 1218 AD to 1916, almost 700 years, is now farm land. Since there are descriptions and drawings of the shape and size of the castle, would it not be appropriate for such a historic town as Dungarvan to stir up its historic sentiments and restore that castle now? This year of 2002, the 1000th anniversary of the crowning of Brian Boru is a great year to consider restoring such historic places as the Abbeyside McGrath Castle.

Instead of another housing estate, would it not be more patriotic to restore this ancient castle, and turn it and its grounds into a Hereitage Centre which could become a world-wide pilgrimage place for the 88,000 McGrath families of the world, and the O'Briens, and the Ahearnes and the Hickeys and the many other people from Co. Clare who settled successfully in Dungarvan?

Dungarvan's own
native sons are smart enough to rebuild such a Castle and surround it with a lovely heritage centre, park and parking, and let it act as a magnet for thousands of tourists to come from many countries every year. We talked today with an eldery man in Abbeyside who remembered as a child playing among the stones of the Abbeyside McGrath Castle. Would Dungarvan not need such a Heritage Centre more than another factory, another housing estate, or another commercial site? It would act as a magnet to draw visitors from all over the world, fill Dungarvan's hotels and B & B's and restaurants, and create many customers for her stores, restaurants and supermarkets. Of course the land would be expensive to buy and the building to restore, but who can help value such a Heritage Centre more for the generations now and to come, more than the profits of one merchant? Abbeyside Church needs its twin, Abbeyside Castle.

Too many of the great Irish castles are still owned by foreigners, and who will be brave enough to restore one of our own, for the benefit and pride of us all? Oh that we could point out to our children and children's children an Irish castle in Co. Waterford, restored in its splendour, like Bunratty Castle, or Blarney Castle. What distinction it would give to the historic dignity of Dungarvan. It would be more dignified than an amusement park, or a shopping centre, or a factory, or a fast food dispenser. In another town, Downpatrick up North, a community with a vision for preserving its priceless heritage, built the St. Patrick Centre, and people from all over Europe and America are beating a pathway to it. It is equipped with the best interactive media and conference centre for school children, tourists, people hunting up genealogy, and church men of all denominations. A cultural centre is Big Business in Europe today. It earns more income than you could imagine, for the whole community. .

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