My Irish Books

Art Kavanagh :: William Hayes

William Smyth writing in Tipperary History & Society said of the Cromwellian Adventurers and Soldiers who got lands in Tipperary ‘They came with notions of exploitation and of gaining wealth; they belonged to a growing commercial nation and they were to leave a deep impression on the landscapes and societies into which they intruded….the great phase of their rule was to last only one hundred and fifty years, but within that period they were to direct the transformation of the landscape and social structures of at least half the parishes in Co. Tipperary.’

The families whose details are recorded in this book are Armstrong, Bagwell, Barton, Bianconi, Butler of Cahir, Carden of Barnane, Damer, Grubb, Hely Hutchinson, Langley, Mansergh, Mathew, Maude, O’Callaghan, Otway, Ponsonby Barker, Prittie, Ryan, Sadleir and Scully.

Price : €45 ( including postage)

ISBN :

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Turtle Bunbury 

The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of Country Wicklow by Turtle Bunbury - Retail €€49.90 Hardcover, Dust Jacket.

We all of us descend from men and women whose names we will never know. Until recent centuries, every generation simply came and fell like fields of wheat. When one contemplates the extraordinary legacy of our lost ancestors, it seems they understood the machinations of our planet better than we do. It matters not whether these forbears were from the icy Artic or the plains of Africa, the deserts of Arabia or the forests of Europe. In every land there are testimonies to the ingenuity of forgotten people. County Wicklow, the soft, mountainous terrain in which this book is set, sparkles with the granite legacy of these ancient people. Circles of rock echoing a harvest moon, standing stones pointing to a solstice morn, mounds of grassy earth where children once danced and old men fought.
County Wicklow is a gorgeous part of Ireland. Between its voluptuous mountains and rocky coastline, it has entranced everyone from philosophical hermits and Vikings marauders to Hollywood film directors and the economic whiz-kids of modern Ireland.

The nine principle families who feature in this book descend from adventurous people of courage and conviction who arrived in Wicklow when Ireland was a violent island perched on the edge of the world. Some like the Humes, Dicks and Leslies were Scottish in origin, beneficiaries of Jacobite kings and the prosperous linen trade in Ulster. Most were English. The Bartons came from Lancashire, the Childers from Yorkshire, the Wingfields from Suffolk and the Ellis’s and Tighes from Lincolnshire. Some claim descent from exciting characters; the Wingfields from a Saxon warrior, the Brabazons from a Belgian mercenary who fought at Hastings.
In the two hundred years following the Tudor invasion of Ireland in the mid-16th century, each of these families established themselves as vital cogs in the colonial system. Ownership of land, the acreage beneath one’s feet, was the most patent symbol of wealth. As such, their influence came to bear not just on their various land-holdings but also upon the whole of Ireland and, in many instance, upon the wider world beyond. Thus these families became intertwined with that extraordinary, mesmerizing, bewildering age of the Ascendancy.

Interpreting the past can be a double-edged sword and it is always worth noting where a particular author’s loyalties might lie. There is a growing awareness that history, good or bad, is made by people, real human beings with real human conundrums. Perhaps it is the influence of so many newcomers to our shores but Ireland is gradually coming to terms with its past. And not everything about it was awful.

Any family history that focuses on the bare, irreducible facts of birth, deaths and marriages will quickly become unbearably tedious to read. Without the dramatic assistance of anecdote and description, the lineage of even the most enterprising of clans can prove exceedingly dull. I hope the tales told herein add a small splash of colour to the past. Many of the characters in this book were players on a stage that circulated the entire world. A cousin of the Wingfields of Powerscourt founded the first settlement of Jamestown, Virginia. Henry Ellis of Magherymore was Governor of Georgia. The Bartons made their fortune selling French wine to rich Americans. The Dicks prospered in the Far East and the Childers in Ceylon. The philanthropic no-nonsense 12th Earl of Meath would undoubtedly have painted the globe in the colours of the Empire but, down at Glendalough, Erskine Childers would find the treatment of the Boers in South Africa soured his appetite for the imperial way. No family was unaffected by the conflicts of the 20th century. At Kilmacurragh, ownership of the ancestral estate was thrown into chaos by the death in action of all three Acton brothers.

As regards these houses today, only Kilruddery and Fortgranite remain in the hands of their original owners. Powerscourt still carries the influence of the Wingfields through their close kinship with the Slazengers. The Powerscourt estate is set to become home to the most luxurious five star hotel in Irish history. There are many in the neighbourhood of Glendalough House who recall the families of Barton and Childers though the house itself is gone. Mimi Hume passed away in 1992, since when Humewood Castle has become a popular retreat for sportsmen and celebrities. Shelton Abbey is presently a reformatory prison and Magherymore is headquarters of the Columbian Missionaries. Kilmacurragh is a ruin awaiting restoration and Rossanagh is a ghost of its former self. So now, as the story goes, I raise my glass to the past.

Price : €45 ( including postage)

ISBN :

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Art Kavanagh :: Turtle Bunbury

 Turtle Bunbury’s debut book, “The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Kildare”, offers a unique and lively historical insight into eighteen of Co. Kildare’s most influential “big house” families. The book features fifty illustrations and covers more than a thousand years of Irish history. The families profiled are those of Aylmer, Barton, de Burgh, Clements, Conolly, Guinness, Henry, Fennell, FitzGerald, Latten, La Touche, Mansfield, Maunsell, Medlicott, More O’Ferrall, Moore, de Robeck, and Wolfe. The story of these often eccentric dynasties is set against the backdrop of the past – the violent religious wars of the 17th century, the rise of the British Empire in the 18th and the run up to Irish independence in 1921. Read of
· the Celbridge connection to the Salem Witch Trials
· French Tom Barton and the vineyards of France
· the remarkable terrier who journeyed from Forenaghts to Bristol
· the Admiral from Punchestown who led the Dardanelles campaign
· the medieval ape who saved the Earl of Kildare’s life
· the assassination of Lord Killwarden
· the bizarre death of Viscount Drogheda
· the Kildare man who attempted to win the US Civil War single handed
· the rise of the Irish Quakers
· the ill-fated rebellion of Silken Thomas
· the Duke of Leinster’s romance with Wallis Simpson
· William Conolly, the innkeepers son who became the richest man in Ireland
· the Moyvalley man who gave Malta its first taste of independence
· the Celbridge gentleman who served with the IRA

Price : €45 ( including postage)

ISBN :

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Art Kavanagh

 The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of Kilkenny (Volume 1) by Art Kavanagh – The book is a 256 pg. Hardback with over 60 illustrations (black & white).

This well written book deals with the families of Agar of Gowran, Blunden of Castleblunden, Bryan of Jenkinstown, Butler of Mount Juliet, Butler of Maidenhall, Butler (Lords Mountgarret) of Ballyconra, Butler of Ormonde, Cuffe of Desart, De Montmorency of Castle Morres, Flood of Farmley, Langrishe of Knocktopher, Loftus of Mount Loftus, McCalmont of Mount Juliet, Ponsonby of Bessborough, Power of Kilfane, Smithwick of Kilcreene, St. George of Freshford and Wandesforde of Castlecomer.Here you will read all about the hitherto hidden lives of the landed gentry and aristocracy – their family feuds and hidden skeletons, their numerous exploits in the fields of politics and war, their loves and infidelities, their lives and deaths, their descendants and their properties.In the pages of this book you will meet Naughty Margaret who turned the royal heads of Europe, Henry Flood the giant of 17th century Irish politics, John Eaton who lost his estate to the Rt. Hon. Nicholas Loftus in a card game, the Blunden daughter who was obliterated from the family memory for almost a century and James Agar of Gowran who was the purchaser of the greatest amount of land in Kilkenny following the forfeitures of the 1690s.Other equally interesting stories include the Thomas Moore (the famous poet) connection with Jenkinstown, the naming of Mount Juliet by the Butler Earl of Carrick, the life and times of Hubert Butler of Maidenhall, the series of duels by the Butlers of Mountgarret with attorneys acting for plaintiffs, the antics of Herky Langrishe that resulted in his being snubbed by King Edward VII.Another most interesting character, George Agar of Callan, had no legitimate family when he died but he left sixteen illegitimate children to whom he left £1000 each when they came of age and £1000 for the education of each.
These are but a few of the delectable tidbits awaiting the reader of this most fascinating study of some of the Kilkenny gentry families. The families were chosen on a random basis having regard to geographical distribution. A second volume is planned in the not too distant future.

Art Kavanagh has written numerous books in the past - In the Shadow of Mount Leinster (1992), The Wexford Gentry volumes 1&2 (1994 and 1996) Ireland 1798 – the Battles (1998), O’Nolan the History of a People (2000), The Kavanaghs Kings of Leinster (2003), The Tipperary Gentry (with William Hayes 2003) and The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Kildare ( with Turtle Bunbury 2004).A schoolteacher in one of his past lives, Art Kavanagh has Kilkenny connections, having attended the CBS in Kilkenny in 1952. During that period he lived in Rioch Street in Kilkenny with his Doyle cousins – Joe Doyle a former An Post employee and Mairead the wife of Tom Dollard of The Black Aces showband fame.

Price : €45 ( including postage)

ISBN : 0 95384 85 6 6

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Joseph F O’ Callaghan

 The O’Callaghan Family of County Cork: A History. By Joseph F. O’ Callaghan – The book is a 284 pg Hardback with numerous illustrations (black & white). Size: 12 inches x 8.5 inches.

By the middle of the 17th century the lands of the Gaelic, Catholic O Callaghans had been confiscated and many of the great lords now became the tenants of the new masters. Some managed to survive the Penal Laws of the 18th century and became the owners of vast estates in Clare and in Tipperary. For the majority the transition was painful and they and their descendants had to endure servitude and poverty until the Land Acts of the late 19th and early 20th century, wrung from a reluctant English government, restored their dignity and paved the way for future prosperity.

In his chapter entitled The O Callaghan Diaspora the author mentions many O Callaghans worldwide who have become very successful people but of course they represent only the tip of the iceberg. The many pages of genealogical tables will be of interest to many.
What is remarkable about the O Callaghans is the fact that despite the hundreds of years of penury and subjection their native resilience and intelligence has enabled many proud bearers of the name to rise to the top in practically all areas of human endeavour.

Price : €55 ( including postage)

ISBN :

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Art Kavanagh 

The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of Meath by Art Kavanagh ISBN 095384854X Illust. 244 pg. Retail €€49.90 Hardcover, Dust Jacket. This book about the Gentry & Aristocracy of Meath is the 6th in the series and explores the background and history of 19 families. The book is packed with detail and anecdotes and sets the family histories against the larger canvas that is the history of Ireland from the 12th century to modern times. The many illustrations are aptly chosen and many have been printed in book form for the first time. Only 1000 copies of this book have been printed and so it is a limited first edition. It is a ‘must’ for anyone interested in Meath history.

Price : €45 ( including postage)

ISBN : 095384854

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 Art Kavanagh

A Book about Bunclody and its characters.

Lest We Forget by Art Kavanagh - Retail €49.90 Hardcover, Dust Jacket.
Book Size: 30cm x 21cm Over 300 photographs.

Following the success of earlier books in the popular “Landed Gentry & Aristocracy” series we are delighted to announce the launch of Art Kavanagh’s latest book, “Lest We Forget”.Art Kavanagh’s latest book is a Who’s Who of everybody who lived in the greater Bunclody area in the 1940s and 1950s, including Kildavin, Clonegal and Myshall (on the Carlow side). The book is a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of detail about numerous families and individuals. The families include the Handricks, Mahons, Kellys, Hughes, Creans, Codds, Kehoes, Meylers, Byrnes, Walshes, Perrys, Hall-Dares, Booths, Cannings, Cahills, Redmonds, Robertsons, Breens Barrys, Roberts, Murphys, Bennetts, Levinges, Skrines, Staceys, Keoghs, Furlongs, Longs, Deanes, Lennons, Moorheads, Nolans, Walkers, Cowmans, McDonalds, Kavanaghs, Mulrennans, Walls, Rothwells, Deacons, Doyles, O’Briens, Connors and O’Connors. There are succinct articles about many individuals including Nicky Rackard, Rory Murphy, Michael Deane, John Booth, Liam Conway, Larry Kinsella, Michael John Flannery, Seosamh F. O’Cuinneagain, Bobby Hall-Dare, Mickey Rooney, Canon Wadding, Ned Bond, Mattie Kinsella, Lt. James Ryan, Captain Rothwell, Anthony Ryan, and Tim Sinnott.

There are details about some of the very outstanding people who have contributed to the development and fame of Bunclody in the past half a century. These include Liam Roberts (famous artist), Kevin Whelan (famous academic), Molly Keane (Mary Skrine – the prolific writer), An tAthair S. De Vál (eminent historian) and community builders Rev. Fr. Aidan Jones, Derek Nally and Gearoid Grant.

The book has over 300 photographs some of them very rare and unusual. Because the book is a limited edition of 500 copies it is expected they will be sold out within a short time so members of the public are advised that they should purchase this unique publication at the earliest opportunity.

Price : €45 ( including postage)

ISBN : 978 1 904795 12 4

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