Parish of Drimnagh

*(i.e., Druimneach or the ridgedd lands). *

This parish consisted in the seventeenth century of the townland of Drimnagh. It now contains the townlands of Bluebell, Drimnagh, Jamestown, and Robinhood.

The objects of antiquarian interest are Drimnagh castle, and a fragment of the parish church in the modern cemetery at Bluebell. **

Drimnagh Castle**

The castle of Drimnagh stands to the east of the parishes of Clondalkin and Ballyfermot, which its lands adjoin, and - lies about four miles to the south-west of Dublin between the Crumlin road and the highway to the South of Ireland.

In its present form the castle dates from Jacobean or later times, but the higher portion of the building was of much earlier origin, and is one of the oldest structures in the County Dublin still inhabited.

This part of the castle is in itself a complete dwelling furnished with a staircase in one of the turrets and with a chimney flue. It is pierced with a large gateway which gave entrance to an enclosed bawn or courtyard, and was protected by a moat supplied with water from a stream called the Bluebell. Its windows were originally small and narrow, and those with which it is now lighted were doubtless inserted in the seventeenth century when the extension on the southern side was added.

Drimnagh Castle was for many centuries one of the principal seats of the great Anglo-Norman family of Barnewall, which became ennobled in Ireland under the titles of Trimlestown and Kingsland, and the owners of its lands can be traced in almost unbroken succession from the beginning of the thirteenth century.

The founders of the Barnewall family in Ireland are said to have arrived in this country at the same time as Strongbow, and to have settled in Munster at Berehaven. There we are told they were attacked by the original inhabitants, and ruthlessly slaughtered. Only one youth escaped, and according to an ancient historian, this hero, who had studied law in London, was the first of his name to possess Drimnagh.

The earliest owner of Drimnagh, whose name is recorded in the State papers relating to Ireland, appears in 1216 in the person of Hugh de Barnewall, who, as already mentioned in the history of Terenure, was then granted protection for his possessions at Drimnagh and the former place.

He had, however, been preceded in Ireland by another member of his family, Sir Hugh de Barnewall who, in 1209, came to this country as a messenger from King John, and in the next year accompanied that monarch in his Irish progress.

Sir Hugh de Barnewall’s namesake, the first recorded owner of Drimnagh, was sent to Ireland in 1212 at the King’s expense, and is subsequently mentioned as giving counsel about grants of land and as acting as guardian of the persons and estates of more than one ward. His death took place before 1221, and the lands of Drimnagh and Terenure after having been for a time in the custody of John de de St.. John, came into the possession of Hugh’s brother, Reginald, as his next-of-kin.

At the time of Hugh de Barnewall’s death Reginald Barnewall appears to have been in England, and it is not until 1223 that we find him in Ireland, where he had come on the King’s service to defend Anglo-Norman rule. Afterwards we find him released from military duties in England, and given many marks of Royal favour in the form of grants of money from the Irish Exchequer.

He was probably succeeded at Drimnagh by another owner of the same name, and later on it came into possession of Wolfran de Barnewall, who has been already referred to as one of the defenders in 1277* *of Saggart, and as donor of a rent-charge on the lands of Terenure to the Leper Hospital of St. Laurence near Palmerston.

Wolfran de Barnewall was for a time Constable of Dublin Castle and Sheriff of Dublin County, and in the latter capacity had the duty imposed upon him of conveying an important prisoner to Edward I., while that monarch was in Wales. He died before the close of that century, leaving by his wife Johanna a son, Reginald. The latter greatly distinguished himself in the Scottish wars of his time, in which, we are told, he served manfully.

(Holinshed’s “Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland,” vol. vi., p.55; Sweetman’s Calendar, 1171-1307, *passim. *Several writers of fiction have taken the inhabitants of Drimnagh Castle at this period as their subject-see “Marion of Drymnagh,” by Matthew Weld Hartstonge,London, 1814; “The Bridal of Drimnagh,” by John Christopher Fitzachary, Dublin, 1884 ; and “The Rose of Drimnagh,” by R. D. Joyce.).

As we have seen in the history of Ballyfermot, in 1316 he arranged a marriage between his son, another Wolfran de Barnewall, and Nichola, daughter of Robert de Clahull, then the owner of that place, and thus secured for his descendants not only the greater portion of the lands in Ballyfermot parish, but also large possessions in the northern part of the County Dublin.

Wolfran Barnewall was succeeded in his turn by his son, Reginald Barnewall, and the latter at the time of his death, which took place before 1395, was owner, in addition to Drimnagh and Terenure, of Ballyfermot and of various lands in Fingal, including those of Bremore, Balrothery, and Balbriggan. By his wife, Katherine Bellew, Reginald Barnewall left a son, Wolfran, who in 1435 vested his lands and other property, including three houses, two mills, and a dovecot, in the hands of a trustee, Luke Barnewall, a clergyman, for the benefit of his sons. Of those he had three, John, Reginald, and Wolfran, and in 1451 the second son is described as of Drimnagh, and the eldest, John, as of Ballyfermot.

But in 1460, when he was sheriff of the county, John Barnewall was living at Drimnagh, as he was also at the time of his death. This occurred before 1482, when he was succeeded by his son Robert, who married Elizabeth Burnell.

Drimnagh Castle was then one of the principal castles in the metropolitan county, with a mill and mill-race which were accounted important possessions. Its owner took high rank amongst the landed proprietors of the county, and when he died in 1535, Robert Barnewall owned no less than three manors, Drimnagh and Balrothery in the County Dublin, and Ardee in the County Louth.

His property descended to his son, Edward, who was, however, little more than an infant, and during Edward’s long minority Drimnagh Castle was occupied by James Bathe, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who married Robert Barnewall’s widow.

The Chief Baron appears to have made Drimnagh his principal residence until his stepson came of age, when he removed to the seat of his own family at Drumcondra. It was in 1553 that Edward Barnewall obtained livery of his estate. A few years later we find him taking part in person as well as contributing a mounted archer and carts in the military expeditions to Ulster, and subsequently acting as one of the Commissioners of the Muster.

He married a kinswoman, Elizabeth, daughter of Patrick Barnewall, of Grace Dieu, and left on his death, in 1590, two sons, Marcus and Peter. The former succeeded to Drimnagh and the latter to Terenure where, as we have seen, he was living in 1641 when the rebellion broke out.

Not long after succeeding to Drimnagh Castle, Marcus Barnewall, who was twenty-eight years old at the time of his father’s death, and had married, like him, a kinswoman, a sister of Robert Barnewall, of Dunbro, took steps to break the entail on the male line, under which the estate was held, as his only child was a daughter.

In legal proceedings which arose after his death we obtain some information as to the events of his life, and find that he served, in 1597, in the expedition against the Earl of Tyrone, in which the Lord Deputy of that time, Lord Burgh, died. There are also references to the appointment of various trustees, and a long account of his recovering the estate on one occasion from some of them. We are told how he proceeded to a place then called Goodman’s. Hill, near his castle, and had sods cut there, and on the lands of Ballyfermot, and how after these had been given to him with sundry deeds, he returned to the castle with much satisfaction to himself, saying that he was now Marcus Barnewall of Drimnagh once more. He died in 1606, and prolonged litigation ensued between his daughter, Elizabeth, who had married a kinsman, James Barnewall, of Bremore, and her uncle, Peter Barnewall, of Terenure.

For a long time Peter Barnewall, who was a man of importance in the county, and was returned in 1634 as one of its representatives in Parliament, kept men near Drimnagh trying to gain entrance on the lands for him, but he was not successful, and failed to make good his claim to his brother’s estate.

The castle of Drimnagh, with its lands, was then in possession of* *Sir Adam Loftus, afterwards appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and created a peer as Viscount Loftus of Ely, to whom it had been leased by Marcus Barnewall before his death.

Sir Adam Loftus was a nephew of the famous Archbishop Loftus, the builder of Rathfarnham Castle, and it was probably the proximity of Rathfarnham to Drimnagh that led to his settling at the latter place. He had been given by his uncle, in his dual capacity of Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the Archdeaconry of Glendalough, for which he had qualified by taking holy orders, and a Mastership in Chancery, and also became Vicar-General of the Dublin diocese and Judge of the Marshal Court. In these places he enjoyed the confidence of Archbishop Jones, his uncle’s successor in both his great offices, and of the Lord Deputies of that time, Lord Mountjoy, by whom he was knighted, and Sir Arthur Chichester, by whom he was called to the Privy Council board.

In the early part of his tenure Drimnagh Castle was doubtless much occupied by Sir Adam Loftus, who, according to Peter Barnewall, injured the place by cutting down a wood and other great timber; but subsequently Sir Adam Loftus acquired Monasterevan Abbey, now the seat of his descendant, the Earl of Drogheda, and after his appointment in 1619 as Chancellor, Drimnagh appears to have seen little of him.

In the great family cause which led to Lord Chancellor Loftus’ fall under the imperious Earl of Strafford, Drimnagh is mentioned as part of the provision for his eldest son, Sir Robert Loftus, but the latter died in 1640, and by whom the castle was occupied during the troublous times that ensued does not appear.

We find Sir William Parsons writing to Ormonde, when the latter was returning in February, 1642, from his expedition to Newcastle Lyons and Naas, to beware of the dangerous pass at Drimnagh, and Ormonde, some years later, when encamped at Rathmines, before his disastrous battle with the army of the Parliament, thought of moving his headquarters to Drimnagh, and entrenching himself there.

During the Commonwealth the castle of Drimnagh, which was described then as an old castle made habitable, came into the possession of Philip Ferneley, Clerk of the Irish House of Commons, and a lieutenant-colonel in the army, who had married Lord Chancellor Loftus’ eldest daughter, Lettice.

ith the castle Ferneley and his wife were sold the contents, which were valued by the sheriff and “by good and lawful men of his bailiwick” as worth just ninety pounds. More than half that amount was assessed as the value of nineteen feather beds, many of them said to be old and broken, and of sundry bolsters, pillows, quilts, and covers, one of these last being of velvet, and another of laced plush; while amongst the other items the principal are five pieces of old tapestry and six Arras hangings on the walls, three Turkey carpets, a brass grate, and a black velvet saddle and leather coach curtains.

About the time of the Restoration, Drimnagh Castle is believed to have afforded shelter to Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Walker, who is said to have been on the scaffold, with his face concealed in a vizor, when Charles I. was beheaded.

In the Hearth Money Roll for 1664, when the castle was rated as containing three chimneys, the name of the occupant is blank, but in one for 1667, when the castle was rated as containing six hearths, Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Ferneley is stated to have been the occupant. Before his death, which took place in 1677, the lease under which Ferneley held the castle expired, and the castle and lands reverted to the Barnewalls of Bremore.

Their male line became extinct early in the eighteenth century, and the Drimnagh and Bremore estates were sold in 1727 by Walter Bagenal, who married the heiress of the house of Bremore, to Henry Earl of Shelburne, whose representative, the Marquis of Lansdowne, is now lord of the soil.

Amongst the denominations of the Drimnagh lands at that time we find the Hales, the White house, the Blue Bell, the Chapel field and Red Lion, the Mill Hill, Santry Hill, Robin Hood, Portlester, Knockangorlagh, and the Slip.

Early in the eighteenth century a wood near the castle known as Drimnagh Wood was in possession of the Honourable Godfrey Boate, a justice of the King’s Bench, who has been immortalised by Dean Swift, and in his will Boate desires no less than eight thousand trees to be cut in it. The castle was then occupied by a family called Archer, and there in 1735 died Mr. Arthur Archer, whose widow substituted an earlier will for his real one, as was discovered two years later, on her own death.

The lands of Robin Hood appear to have been at that time the site of a well known house of entertainment. In some contemporaneous verses its rounds of beef and the beverages with which they were accompanied are extolled, and an invitation is given to join a club of archers, who then met and dined at Robin Hood.

A reference to the castle is made in 1761 by a French tourist, who remarks that it is built in the style of some of the castles in his own country, and it was visited in 1780 by Austin Cooper, who mentions its narrow stairs, its thick walls, and irregular wainscotted rooms, particularly a small dark room near the gateway, with a large staple and enormous ring in the wall. The castle was then occupied by a Mr. Reilly, who had built a permanent bridge over the moat, and who told Cooper that the entrance with steps was built by a Mr. Ennis, grandfather of the owner before him. **

Ecclesiastical History**

The remains of the parish church of Drimnagh lie on the opposite side of the Naas road to the castle, and are now enclosed in a large graveyard. The church was a small oratory of late date, measuring inside twenty-seven feet two inches by fourteen feet nine inches. The south-east angle, the western half of the north wail, and the west end, are standing. The portions first mentioned are covered thickly with ivy. The west end is of unusual height for the proportions of the church. It has a rudely arched pointed doorway with a slightly curved rough arch inside.

The keystones are of the almost triangular shape found in buildings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. High over the door is an oblong window of the plainest description, with dressed jambs and a steep sill, the uneven arch nearly flat and with a wedge-shaped keystone. From the existence of a corbel it is possible that there was originally a gallery at the west end of the church.

Of the history of the church nothing is known, but it appears to have been in use in 1547 at the time of the dissolution of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as the altarages arc returned then as worth thirteen shillings and sixpence.

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