Matthew Barrington was born on 21 May 1788 in Limerick as the eldest of five sons and two daughters of Joseph Barrington and Mary née Baggott. He was educated in Limerick and King's Inns and established a highly successful solicitor's practice in Dublin and Limerick. In 184, he was appointed a crown solicitor for Munster. From the 1840s he acted as solicitor and adviser to the Great Southern and Western Railway and was instrumental for the establishment of the railway station known as Limerick Junction. He was the founder of Barrington's Hospital and City of Limerick Infirmary (1831), the first general hospital in Limerick to provide for the poor. He owned extensive estates in Limerick and was the builder of the massive Norman revival castle, Glenstal. Matthew Barrington died on 1 April 1861 and is buried in St Mary's cathedral in Limerick.
William Monsell was born on 21 September 1812 as the only child of William Monsell and Olivia née Johnson-Walsh of Tervoe, county Limerick. He was educated at Winchester College and Oriel College, Oxford, which he left in 1833 without taking a degree. He sat as MP for county Limerick from 1847 to 1874, during which time he became a Roman Catholic and shifted his political allegiance from Tory to Whig. His chief interests during his political career revolved around education. He was co-founder of St Columba's College (1843), closely associated with Mungret Agricultural School, particularly during its conversion into a Catholic college in 1882, and instrumental in the establishment of the Royal University (1879). He died at Tervoe on 2 April 1894 and was buried in the family vault in Kilkeedy cemetery.
James Grene Barry of Sandville, county Limerick was a local magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of county Limerick. He served as a Justice of the Peace from 1864, was a member of the county Limerick Grand Jury from 1867 and acted as Land Commissioner from 1881 to 1886. A distinguished antiquarian, Barry joined the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1877 and remained a member until his death, serving as the society's honorary secretary for many years.
John J. Hassett was born in Ballytarsna, Cashel, Co. Tipperary on 22 September 1937, the eldest of eight children of William Hassett and Mary née Gooney. He grew up immersed in local lore and stories of Ireland’s struggles for freedom. From an early age, he listened to tales of the Troubles and the War of Independence, developing a lifelong passion for history and its impact on ordinary people. Though he left school early to help his family, Hassett became a voracious reader, linking national events to local narratives and sharpening his historical insight.
A committed GAA man, John played hurling for Dualla and later founded Ballytarsna Athletic Club, eventually serving as President of the National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland (NACAI). Professionally, he worked in insurance, but his organisational skills also made him a key figure in rural advocacy as General Secretary of the Irish Farmers’ Association during the 1960s and campaign manager for T. J. Maher’s European Parliament bid in 1979.
Hassett’s deepest commitment was to preserving memory. In the early 1980s, he purchased one of Tipperary’s first tape recorders and began visiting homes to capture the voices of an older generation – men who played hurling in the early 1900s and veterans of the Irish Volunteers and War of Independence. Later, with Pat O’Donnell and others, he expanded this work to video interviews, ensuring these stories were told in the participants’ own words. His respectful, easy manner encouraged candour, creating an invaluable archive of firsthand testimony.
John Hassett championed commemorations, notably reviving the Soloheadbeg anniversary and honouring figures like Seán Treacy and the women of Cumann na mBan. He resisted historical revisionism, arguing for nuanced understanding of Ireland’s armed struggles and the complexities of Civil War divisions. His vision was of an inclusive Irish Republic rooted in equality and care for all citizens. Generous with his knowledge, Hassett shared documents, tapes and insights freely with researchers, believing history belonged to the people.
John Hassett died on 3 December 2019.
Mary O’Donnell née Daly was a resident of Limerick city with an interest in Republican history.
The Sandville branch of the Barry family is descended from David Barry, who received a grant of land in county Limerick having saved the life of an Englishman during the 1641-42 war. Originally called Fryarstown, the name of the estate had been changed to Sandville by the time of the marriage of John Barry in 1804 to Mary O’Shaughnessy. Their eldest son, James, established himself at Bellevue, Croom, county Limerick, while the Sandville property passed to the third son, John. Following the latter’s death without issue in 1860, both properties passed to James Grene Barry (1841-1929), James’s eldest son.
The Leamlara branch of the family is often referred to as Standish Barry to distinguish it from the other Barry families in the area. The Leamlara estate near Carrigtwohill, county Cork, was granted to the Barrys at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion. A castle built on the property in the fourteenth century was utilised in the mid eighteenth century for the construction of Leamlara House. It remained the family seat until the death of Henry Standish Barry in 1945, when his two surviving daughters sold the property to the Irish Land Commission. Leamlara was the birthplace of Garrett Standish Barry, the first Catholic Member of the Parliament to be elected after the 1829 Emancipation Act.
The Coote family’s association with Ireland began with Sir Charles Coote (1581-1642), who in 1621 was granted one of the first baronetcies in Ireland for his military service to the crown during the Nine Years War. In 1628, he founded the town of Mountrath in county Laois. His son and namesake was created Earl of Mountrath in 1660. The title became extinct in 1802 on the death of Charles Henry Coote, 7th Earl of Mountrath. However, the title Baron Castlecoote, granted to Charles Henry in 1800 for his support of the Act of Union, passed to his distant cousin and namesake, Charles Henry Coote (1754-1823) of Leopardstown Park, county Dublin, eldest son of the Very Reverend Charles Coote, Dean of Kilfenora. Along with the title, he also inherited the 7th Earl’s Irish properties. This title, too, became extinct on the death of Eyre Tilson Coote (1793-1827), the third baron, but his widow, Barbara née Meredyth, retained ownership of the Coote estate. Following her death in 1874, the estate passed to Sir Eyre Coote (1857-1925) of West Park, Hampshire, grandson of the younger brother of the second Baron Castlecoote. The Coote Papers reflect this rather complex network of family relationships and resulting problems of succession.
The Earls of Limerick are descended on their maternal side from Edmond Sexten (1486-1555), who held the office of Mayor of Limerick in 1535 and was the first mayor of native Irish extraction. Originally closely associated with the Earl of Kildare, Sexten changed allegiances and ingratiated himself to King Henry VIII. He was given custody of Derriknockane Castle and remained active on the Crown’s behalf, carrying out much of this work at his own expense and at times pleading financial hardship to the Crown. By way of compensation, Sexten was granted the dissolved priory of St. Mary’s in 1537. St Francis’s Abbey came into his possession in the same year. Bartholomew Striche, who succeeded Sexten as Mayor, made an attempt to overturn the grant of St Mary’s by alleging that the expenses which Sexten claimed had not been paid out of his own purse but at the expense of the city of Limerick, and that by implication the grant should therefore have fallen to the corporation. In 1538, Sexten was committed to Dublin Castle for high treason on grounds dating back to his time as Mayor but was later released and continued to enjoy the favour of the Crown. His grandson and namesake Edmond Sexten (1595-1636) was four times Mayor and five times High Sheriff of Limerick city. He, too, was engaged in a series of disputes with Limerick Corporation, primarily concerning the immunity of the lands of the two dissolved abbeys mentioned above, and whether Sexten alone, or the parish generally, was responsible for the upkeep of the church of St John the Baptist, Limerick, whose tithes were appropriate to St Mary’s. His only sister Susan Sexten married Edmond Pery of Limerick (1599-1655) and succeeded as sole heiress to the Sexten property. Her son, Colonel Edmond Pery married Dymphna Stackpole, a wealthy heiress, and when Colonel Perry died in 1721, his son the Reverend Stackpole Pery succeeded to the Sexten, Pery, and Stackpole fortunes. His second son, the Reverend William Cecil Pery (1721-1794) became Bishop of Limerick in 1784, and six years later was created Baron Glentworth. The peerage title was derived from his maternal great-grandfather Sir Drury Wray of Glentworth, Lincolnshire. Three of William Pery’s sisters married in to Limerick families of note: Dymphna to William Monsell of Tervoe, County Limerick; Lucy to Sir Henry Hartstonge of Bruff, County Limerick, Baronet and MP for that county; and Jane to Launcelot Hill of Limerick city. William Pery’s only surviving son, Edmund Henry Pery (1758-1844) was created Viscount Limerick in December 1800 and the Earl of Limerick in February 1803. He fell out with his eldest son and heir apparent because of the latter’s recklessness with money. In order to protect the family’s future, the 1st Earl made a will in which he vested the estate in a trust and made his heirs tenants for life. He was succeeded in the title by his grandson, William Henry Tennison, who did not mix much in society and who died from a sudden attack of bronchitis at the relatively early age of 56. He was twice married, and was succeeded by his son William Hale John Charles Pery from his first marriage to Susanna Sheaffe. In 1868, the 3rd Earl commissioned Edward William Godwin to design Dromore Castle in the Gothic Revival style near Pallaskenry, County Limerick as a country retreat. The building was completed in 1874. In the event, it was rarely used as a residence and eventually sold in 1939. Like his father, the 3rd Earl was twice married. With his first wife, Caroline Maria Gray, he had one son, William Henry Edmund de Vere Sheaffe, who succeeded him as the 4th Earl. He married May Imelda Josephine Irwin but the marriage ended in a separation in 1897. The couple’s only son Gerard, Viscount Glentworth was an RAF pilot and was killed in action near the end of the First World War in May 1918. The title then passed to the 4th Earl’s half-brother, Colonel Edmond Pery from his father’s second marriage to Isabella Colquhoun. His eldest son Patrick succeeded to the title as the 6th Earl in 1967. The current holder of the title is his son, Edmund Christopher, 7th Earl of Limerick. For a more detailed pedigree of the Earls of Limerick and associated families, please refer to P51/9/5-7.
The Odellville estate passed from the Morony to the Lloyd family through the marriage of Helen Mary Matilda Morony to Edward Locke Lloyd of Heathfield, county Limerick, in 1917. Their only child, Helen Lucia Lloyd, married in 1945 Michael Allott of Dublin.
The Knights of Glin are a Geraldine family whose title can be traced back to Sir John FitzJohn or Seán Mór na Sursainge who lived ca. 1260, and whose grandfather, Maurice FitzThomas had been granted the barony of Shanid, near Glin. John FitzJohn had established much authority in west Limerick, having built castles at Glin and Beagh (near Askeaton) in 1260. In 1299, he was holding half a tuath in Glancarbery which corresponds to the present parish of Kilfergus or Glin.
The romantic title, The Knights of Glin, can be attributed to the gaelicising of the Anglo-Normans of Desmond, the titles being similar to Gaelic chieftainships. Up to the end of the 17th century, the Knight of Glin was sometimes referred to as the Knight of the Valley, valley being the English translation of ‘Glin’, a corruption of the Irish ‘Gleann’, itself an abbreviation of Gleann Corbraighe (Glancarbery).
The history of the Knights of Glin is an interesting one as it reveals the struggle of a Catholic landed family against English rule, and ultimately its’ capitulation when the Penal Laws came into effect. The eighteenth century is indeed one of the more interesting periods in which they moved from being medieval Norman overlords and Irish chieftains to become Anglo-Irish gentry . John FitzGerald succeeded as the 19th Knight of Glin in 1732. When the Penal Laws swung into force, whereby a Catholic owned estate could be handed on intact only if one of the sons became protestant within 3 months of the father’s death, John was under enormous pressure to convert and convert he did.
John’s brother Edmond, succeeded as 20th Knight of Glin and ran up huge gambling debts. He was imprisoned in the Four Courts Marshalsea Prison for non-payment of debts and consequently his brother Richard, succeeded as the 21th Knight. One of Richard’s more famed hobbies was that of duelling which he is said to have learned on the continent. He also excelled at horseracing and Byrne notes that it was during his time that a race-course was established at Glin. He also raced at Clogheen, Co. Tipperary and the Curragh, Co. Kildare. Thomas, the next brother in line, succeeded Richard in 1775. He, like his brothers before him, was frequently in debt and passed this debt to his son John Bateman FitzGerald in 1781. Despite great financial difficulties, this most enterprising of individuals initiated the building of Glin Castle, which has been lived in by the Knights of Glin and their families ever since. By the time of his death, the family had successfully transformed themselves from medieval Irish chiefs to Anglo-Irish gentry, due to John Bateman’s marriage to an English lady, Margaretta Maria Fraunceis Gwyn, and the building, against all odds, of a Georgian pile.
The beginning of the tenure John Fraunceis Fitzgerald, 24th Knight of Glin coincided with a bankruptcy sale at Glin, but fortunately, he was able to replenish the family coffers through gambling. He was particularly interested in his Gaelic background and was a fluent Irish speaker and antiquarian. Known locally as both ‘Ridire na mBan’ (Knight of the Women) due to his extra-marital activities, and Seán Gruama (Grim-faced John) due to his bouts of temperamental behaviour, John Fraunceis was indeed a colourful character. A ballad from 1830 illustrates his detractors views:
His vices have made, and still make him so poor
That bailiff or creditor is ne’er from his door.
And deep tho’ in debt, he’s deeper in sin,
That lecherous, treacherous, Knight of the Glin
This hoary old sinner, this profligate rare,
Who gloats o’er the ruin of the virtuous and fair;
In gambling and drinking and wenching delights
And in these doth spend both his days and his nights.
Yet there is the man who’s heard to declare
‘Gainst O’Grady he’ll vote if the priests interfere.
But the priests and O’ Grady do not care a pin
For the beggarly, profligate, Knight of the Glin!
It is interesting to note, however, that John Fraunceis was also recognised for his generosity towards tenants, particularly during the famine. He died of cholera in 1854 which he contracted while attending to the unfortunates in the Poor House in Glin. His obituary in the Limerick Chronicle of 26 April 1854 stated ‘…the influence of his position and his personal exertions were ever directed to relieve the wants of the poor…’
Like his father before him, the 25th Knight, John Fraunceis Eyre, known as ‘The Cracked Knight’, was a somewhat eccentric character prone to being ‘temperamental’. Folklore surrounding his antics and erratic behaviour abound. Among the many mentioned by Gaughan include his habit of riding his horse into the homes of those he was visiting, going so far on one occasion as attempting to ride the horse up the stairs; the time he publicly whipped Colonel Henry H. Kitchener (his ‘pet aversion’) at the Tralee races; and his curious fascination with chamber-pots. He was sympathetic to his tenants however, and was popular with the locals.
Continuing with the custom of nick-naming the Knights, the moniker of the 26th Knight, Desmond John Edmund, was ‘the Big Knight’. He married Isabella Lloyd Apjohn in 1861 and she proved to be instrumental in managing the estate, which was just as well, as her husband ‘showed little interest or inclination in this matter’ (Gaughan, p. 124). Desmond John Edmund was a deputy lieutenant and a justice of the peace of county Limerick, and in general, had a the typical Anglo-Irish gentleman’s life which was taken up mainly with hunting, shooting, fishing and entertaining. It was during his tenure that the Long Rock Weir on the Shannon was refurbished and salmon fishing in the area became a profitable enterprise. It was also, however, the time of the Land League and agrarian unrest, which resulted in various outrages committed on farms of evicted tenants in Glin. Desmond John Edmund came under extreme pressure as a result of the Land League and the National League and ‘bitter denunciations between him and the supporters of the League continued in the press’. (Gaughan, p. 132). The Big Knight was under much financial pressure. In 1867 he borrowed £2000 by way of mortgage and this raised the principal sums charged on the Glin estate to £17,091. It seems by the numerous mortgages created in the 1860’s and the 1870’s that he was simply borrowing from one creditor in order to pay the other. (Ballinderry de Pauillac, p. 4)
By the time the 27th Knight, Desmond FitzJohn Lloyd FitzGerald, inherited in 1895, the estate was in a state of semi-permanent insolvency. He had made the wise move of marrying Lady Rachel Charlotte Wyndham Quin, younger daughter of the 4th Earl of Dunraven, who brought with her much needed funds. She tragically died after the birth of their first child, Desmond Windham Otho, in 1901. The respite was brief, however, and under the Land Act of 1903, he sold 3,200 acres of the estate, as well as the Riddlestown Park estate, which he had inherited, and a further 800 acres of the Glin estate a few years later. During FitzJohn’s tenure, the Irish revolution took place, and life for the Knights of Glin took another dramatic turn. Unusually, he remained resident in Glin Castle during the War of Independence, when anti-treaty forces had destroyed great houses of other landed families, and it was this lofty defiance that ultimately saved Glin Castle from being burnt down by a band of rebels in February 1923. As the present Knight of Glin recounts: ‘ When a gang came to burn the house down in 1923, he roared at them from his chair, “Well, you will have to burn me in it boys”. The “boys” repaired to Glin for a few libations and it was said that the locals got them so drunk they never returned to finish the job.’ FitzJohn’s main interests in life were attending shooting parties in Adare Manor, Curragh Chase, Hollypark or playing in golf tournaments in Lahinch. He suffered a stroke in 1914 which left him partially paralysed and in later life became reclusive.
The 28th Knight of Glin, Desmond Windham Otho, was educated at Winchester and then Lancing. In 1924, when in his early twenties, he moved to London and, having always been mechanically minded, set up a garage in the fashionable St James Street area with a Captain Alistair Miller, the son of a Scottish baronet. The business was called Miller & FitzGerald Ltd and specialised in buying and selling exclusive cars such as the ‘Voisin’. While in London, he was one of the “Bright Young Things” socialising in the Bachelor’s Club and the Savoy. When the high life got too much, he set off with his grandfather, the 4th Earl of Dunraven, and some of his Blennerhassett cousins on sailing trips to the Mediterranean and back, some lasting as long as 3 or 4 months. Monte Carlo was a favourite resting place as too was Cowes, where they attended the famous yacht races. Unfortunately, the business back in London went under and a protracted court case between the former business partners ensued. In 1929, Desmond Windham Otho married Veronica Villiers, a cousin of Sir Winston Churchill, and a veritable tour de force who set about restoring Glin Castle while her husband set about improving the farm. Desmond Windham Otho contracted tuberculosis and was ill for a long period. He sought treatment in Arizona and Switzerland but finally succumbed to the disease in 1949, leaving a young widow and three children. Veronica remarried in 1954 to Horatio Ray Milner, a very wealthy Canadian businessman, and subsequently relocated to Canada. Milner was instrumental in saving Glin Castle and the estate from certain financial ruin by investing £60,000 in restoration work in the late 1950s.
Desmond John Villiers, the 29th Knight of Glin, was educated in Stowe, England; Trinity College, Port Hope, Ontario; University of British Columbia; and Harvard University. He was a leading figure in Irish architecture and decorative arts and for many years was Christie’s representative in Ireland. A keen family historian, he left The Glin Papers on permanent loan to the University of Limerick in 1998. The Knight married Madam Olda FitzGerald and had three daughters. He died in 2011, and with him also died the most illustrious and romantic of titles.