KILCASH TIPPERARY


I decided to put this link on my page for Kilcash, Tipperary since my 3rd great grandfather, Vincent Costigan, was born there in 1790. He left when he was an adult and emigrated to Harbour Main, Newfoundland. There he married Johanna Kennedy, daughter of John and Mary Kennedy, benefactors of the Church in Harbour Main which was coincidently named Sts Peter and Paul like the one in Ballypatrick, Kilcash, Tipperary.

Thanks to John Flood of Dublin, who details the story of Kilcash in his book: John Flood & Phil Flood, Kilcash, A History, 1190-1801 (Dublin: Geography Publications, 1999)

Here is the English translation of the Gaelic words to the song about Kilcash Castle which still exists today in Tipperary.This is the song playing in the background of this page.

Now what will we do for timber,
with the last of the woods laid low?
There's no talk of Cill Chais or its household
and its bell will be struck no more.
That dwelling where lived the good lady
most honoured and joyous of women
--- earls made their way over wave there
and the sweet Mass once was said.

Ducks' voices nor geese do I hear there,
nor the eagle's cry over the bay,
nor even the bees at their labour
bringing honey and wax to us all.
No birdsong there, sweet and delightful,
as we watch the sun go down,
nor cuckoo on top of the branches
settling the world to rest.

A mist on the boughs is descending
neither daylight nor sun can clear.
A stain from the sky is descending
and the waters receding away.
No hazel nor holly nor berry
but boulders and bare stone heaps,
not a branch in our neighbourly haggard,
and the game all scattered and gone.

Then a climax to all of our misery:
the prince of the Gael is abroad
oversea with that maiden of mildness
who found honour in France and Spain.
Her company now must lament her,
who would give yellow money and white
--- she who'd never take land from the people
but was friend to the truly poor.

I call upon Mary and Jesus
to send her safe home again:
dances we'll have in long circles
and bone-fires and violin music;
that Cill Chais, the townland of our fathers,
will rise handsome on high once more
and till doom --- or the Deluge returns ---
we'll see it no more laid low.

The Castle of Cill Chais (Kilcash) was the chief seat of one of the branches of the Butler family until well into the eighteenth century. It is situated at the foot of Sliabh na mBan, not far from Kilsheelan, near Clonmel, County Tipperary.

Today the popular Irish song Cill Chaise (Kilcash) lives, still mourning the death and the time of Lady Iveagh, while the memory of Kilcash history and monuments has faded.

Irish school texts and other sources attributed the poem to Father John Lane a Parish Priest of Carrick-on-Suir who was educated for the priesthood by Lady Iveagh, the deagh-bhean (good lady) of the song. This credit appears undeserved, as Fr Lane died in 1776 and the sale of its timber was not advertised in the local papers until 1797. The poet Pádraig Ó Néill has recently been suggested as possible author, but that is also arguable.

Here is the link to John Flood's website about Kilcash.

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