| Ballymore Castle | |
|---|---|
 Castles of Connacht- Ballymore, Galway | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Town or city | Lawrencetown |
| Country | Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°14′0″N8°11′0″W / 53.23333°N 8.18333°W |
| Construction started | 1585 |
Ballymore Castle in Lawrencetown, County Galway, Ireland was originally a 15th-century tower house belonging to O'Madden. A house was added in 1620, and the castle has been much altered since then.
The castle was built in 1585 by John Lawrence on land he had acquired through his marriage to a daughter of O'Madden, Lord of Longford. In 1603 John Lawrence's eldest son, Walter Lawrence, married Cecily Moore, the granddaughter of Richard Burke, 2nd Earl of Clanricarde. The Castle of Ballymore suffered much during the subsequent wars and was repaired by Walter Lawrence, who erected a commemorative marble chimney-piece in one of the upper rooms of the Castle, bearing his initials W.L. 1620. [1]
John Lawrence Jr. was dispossessed by Oliver Cromwell in 1641, having espoused the royalist cause in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, under the leadership of Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde. [1] The castle and much of the estate was given to Sir Thomas Newcomen, who leased the castle to the Lawrences for many years.[ citation needed ]
During the Williamite wars, Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan sent Ulick Burke, 1st Viscount Galway to hold Ballymore. In early June 1691, Burke and about 1200 defenders encamped in a fort on the shores of Lough Seudy. A smaller force occupied the castle, which de Ginkell attacked first. The sergeant and his small band resisted, and when eventually they were captured, de Ginkell hanged the sergeant before turning his attention to the fort. [2]
The fort was besieged by artillery on the land side, approached on the water by boats, the governor, Colonel Ulick deemed it right to surrender on the following day". [3] De Ginkell remained at Ballymore for a further ten days, to prepare his troops for their next engagement at Athlone.[ citation needed ]
On Newcomen's death, it passed to his stepson, Nicholas Cusack of Cushinstown, County Meath, who sold it to John Eyre of Eyrecourt about 1720. [4] At the time the estate was leased by the Seymour family. The castle was modernised and a two-story house added to the castle in 1815, featuring a central bow with a curved fanlighted doorway. Thomas Seymour purchased the castle and lands outright from Giles Eyre around 1824. [4] He was married to Matilda Margaret Lawrence. Their son, Queensland Police Commissioner David Thompson Seymour, was born at Ballymore Castle in November 1831.[ citation needed ]
Mrs. Hale, a relative of the Seymours, inherited the estate which was somewhat reduced at this time, a large portion having been acquired by the Irish Land Commission. [5]
"Ballymore Castle" is also the name of a brown gelding racehorse. [6]
Earl or Lord of Clanricarde is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland, first in 1543 and again in 1800. The former creation became extinct in 1916 while the 1800 creation is extant and held by the Marquess of Sligo since 1916.
Sir Uilleag (Ulick) de Burgh (Burke), 1st Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and noble who was leader of one of the three factions who fought the Burke Civil War in the 1330s. By the end of the conflict he had established himself and his descendants as Clanricarde, also known as Mac William Uachtar, independent lords of Galway. He was succeeded by his son, Richard Óg Burke, 2nd Clanricarde (d.1387).
Richard Óg Burke, 2nd Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and nobleman who was the son of Sir Ulick Burke or Uilleag de Burgh, 1st Clanricarde (d.1343/1353).
Clanricarde, also known as Mac William Uachtar or the Galway Burkes, were a fully Gaelicised branch of the Hiberno-Norman House of Burgh who were important landowners in Ireland from the 13th to the 20th centuries.
Ulick na gCeann Burke, 12th Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar, 1st Earl of Clanricarde was an Irish noble and son of Richard Mór Burke, 9th Clanricarde by a daughter of Madden of Portumna.
Lawrencetown or Laurencetown (Irish: Baile Mór Shíol Anmchadha or simply Baile Mór), historically called Oghilmore and later Ballymore, is a village in County Galway, Ireland. Located on the R355 regional road nine miles south of Ballinasloe, it lies in the barony of Longford, the civil parish of Clonfert, the Catholic parish of Lawrencetown and Kiltormer, and the townland (earlier) of Lissreaghaun and (later) of Laurencetown or Ballymore; it was historically in the poor law union of Ballinasloe.
Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde was an Irish nobleman and politician.
de Burgh is an Anglo-Norman surname deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (c.1160–1206) had the surname de Burgh which was gaelicised in Irish as de Búrca and over the centuries became Búrc then Burke and Bourke.
William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde, PC (Ire), was an Irish peer who fought in his youth together with his brother Richard, 6th Earl of Clanricarde under their cousin, Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde against the Parliamentarians in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. He succeeded his brother as the 7th Earl in 1666.
John Burke, 9th Earl of Clanricarde ; 1642–1722) was an Irish soldier and peer who was a Colonel during the Williamite War in Ireland.
Ricarde Mór Burke, 9th Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and noble.
Máire Lynch, Countess of Clanricarde, fl. 1547.
John mac Richard Mór Burke, 10th Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar, was an Irish chieftain and noble.
Ulick Óge Burke, 8th Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and noble who was Clanricarde for barely a year.
Richard Óge Burke, 7th Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and noble who was the ancestor of the Burkes of Derrymaclachtna.
Ulick Fionn Burke, 6th Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and noble.
John Lambert of Creg Clare was an Irish soldier and Royalist.
Ulick Burke, 1st Viscount Galway was an Irish army officer slain at the Battle of Aughrim while fighting for the Jacobites during the Williamite War in Ireland.
Helen Burke, Countess Clanricarde, also styled Helen FitzGerald, was brought to France by her mother fleeing the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, against which her father, the 2nd Earl Muskerry, resisted to the bitter end. In France, she was educated at the abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs together with her cousin Elizabeth Hamilton. She married three times. All her children were by her second husband, William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde. She was the mother of Ulick Burke, 1st Viscount Galway, Margaret, Viscountess Iveagh, and Honora Sarsfield.
The Governor of Galway was a military officer who commanded the garrison at Galway in the west of Ireland. The post became a sinecure and in 1833 was to be abolished from the next vacancy.
