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General Sir Henry de Beauvoir De Lisle was a British Army Officer. He served in the First World War as commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, then as General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1st Cavalry Division and as GOC 29th Division during the Gallipoli Campaign.

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.

The O’Carrolls of Lissenhall were an old Irish Catholic family and prosperous landowners in county Tipperary. During the era of penal laws they conformed to the established religion to ensure the retention of their estates and, in a further process of Anglicisation, removed the ‘O’ and the last ‘l’ from their surname.

Perhaps the most famous of the eighteenth-century Carrols was Lieutenant-General William Parker Carrol (1776-1842), whose distinguished military career earned him a knighthood in 1816. Originally trained as a lawyer, he joined the army as a volunteer at the commencement of war with France in 1794. By 1800, he had risen to the rank of Captain and was posted to a fencible regiment in Gibraltar, where he learnt to speak fluent Spanish. Six years later, Carrol distinguished himself as part of the ill-fated British expedition against Buenos Aires. He frequently volunteered in dangerous and difficult situations and his knowledge of Spanish proved to be an essential service to the army. During the Peninsular War, he took part in 28 different engagements and was decorated by both the British and Spanish no less than twelve times. When his father died in 1816, Carrol retired from the army and took over the management of the family seat Tulla, county Tipperary. A year later, he married Emma-Sophia Sherwill (1799-1819) and by her had two children, William Hutchinson Carrol (1817-1895) and John Egerton Carrol (1819-1852). He resumed his army career in 1821 and was posted to Malta and later to the Ionian Islands, but, having contracted malaria, was forced to return home in 1830. He died at Tulla on 2 June 1842.

Carrol’s elder son, William Hutchinson Carrol (1817-1895), followed his father into the army, reaching the rank of Captain in the Iniskilling Dragoons. Upon his father’s death in 1842, he assumed responsibility of the family estate in Tulla, which his father’s long absences had left in some disarray, with large debts. In 1853, Captain Carrol purchased Lissenhall near Nenagh, county Tipperary, its demesne and several other adjoining tracts of land through the Incumbered Estates Commission. At the time of sale, Thomas Dagg was a tenant in Lissenhall and an arrangement was made for him to rent the house and demesne. This arrangement suited Captain Carrol as he at the time had not sufficient funds to undertake a relocation to Lissenhall. This turned out to be a mixed blessing however, for when in 1869 Carrol was in a position to move from Tulla to the larger house in Lissenhall, Thomas Dagg refused to move. The legal position was not resolved until 1873.

In December 1862 Captain Carrol married Elizabeth (Bessie) Leslie Griffin (d. 1887) and the couple had six children of whom one only survived six weeks. Carrol died in 1895, and the family estates passed to his only surviving son, Egerton Griffin Carrol, who died just 15 months later. The responsibility for the management of the estate was left to his three sisters, Alice Isabel (1865-1940), Maud Rose (1865-1942) and Florence Kate (1871-1935), but it was Alice who bore the bulk of it. Her succession to the management of the Lissenhall estate came about at a time when the Land Acts came into force. As the estate’s holdings eroded through the sale of lands to its former tenants, the difficulty of keeping the enterprise afloat grew increasingly complex. Alice had on-running interactions with her solicitors concerning The National Income Tax Recovery Agency, The Irish Land Commission and Lloyds Insurance. By the 1920s she also had to contend with thefts of her stock and equipment and threats to her safety by the IRA. By this time, she had to bow to the inevitable and oversaw the disposal of Lissenhall house and demesne to the Land Commission and eventually left the property in 1922. Alice continued to live in Nenagh, county Tipperary until 1927 before moving to England. She died unmarried on 23 January 1940.

Maude Rose Carrol, the second daughter of William Hutchinson, married in June 1902 George Maxwell Angas, a gentleman farmer and a consummate horseman from Yorkshire. The couple lived at the Manor Farm, Wissendine, Rutland until 1910, when they moved into Lissenhall in order that George could better manage a farm he owned nearby. During the following years and up to the time Lissenhall was vacated he was of considerable help to Alice in the management of the Lissenhall estate. However, the Angas family left Lissenhall in 1922 in the face of continuing unrest in the area. The couple’s daughter Rosaleen married Paul Johan Tausch (1899-1967), a skiing instructor from Austria and the couple made their home in The White House, Coggeshall, Essex.

Florence Kate Carrol, the youngest of William Hutchinson’s daughters, eneoyed greater freedom than her elders sisters. Outstanding in amateur theatricals and an exceptional equestrian, she found a perfect partner in Philip Clement Scott (1871-1932), son of Clement Scott, the influential English theatre critic, playwright and travel writer. Philip’s mother Isabel du Maurier was aunt to the actor Gerald du Maurier, whose daughter Daphne du Maurier reaped international fame as a writer. Florence and Philip’s only child, Anthony Gerald O’Carroll Scott (1899-1980) spent his boyhood at Lissenhall and was particularly close to his Maude and Alice during his parents’ extended absences. Like so many of his ancestors, he enjoyed a long and varied military career. His wife, Helena Gertrude James (1899-1984), whom he married in August 1926, was to follow him on each and every posting during his career. Their only child, June Mary O’Carrol Scott was born in 1928. She and her husband, James Robertson (1920-2000), an officer in the Guards Armoured Division, both trained as teachers following James’s retirement from the army in 1964. June taught at primary level in a number of locations over the next twenty years. She is the author of A Long Way from Tipperary (1994), which traced the history of her father’s Irish ancestors, and of Only Remember the Laughter (2005), an account of her own life story. In 2002, having become a widow and with no children of her own, she donated the Carroll family papers and memorabilia to Limerick Civic Trust.

The Old Limerick Journal is a journal founded by Jim Kemmy focusing on Limerick city and county history.

For a full biography of James Butler please refer to the Dictionary of Irish Biography, https://www.dib.ie/biography/butler-james-james-butler-i-a1308.

Firkin Crane, one of Cork City’s landmark buildings, was designed in 1855 by Sir John Benson to meet the needs of the city’s thriving butter market. Following the closure of this trade in 1924, the building acted as a margarine factory. It was later acquired by Joan Denise Moriarty with the financial assistance of the Arts Council to have it refurbished as a home for her professional dance company. During the refurbishment, the building was gutted by fire. It was subsequently restored with support from Cork City Council, the Irish Government, the European Union, Irish businesses, multi-national corporations and the Irish American Fund, and re-opened in 1992 as a centre dedicated to dance, living theatre, concerts, opera, art exhibitions, poetry readings and a variety of sound, visual and multimedia arts. Until 2006, Firkin Crane was also the location of the Institute for Choreography and Dance (ICD), directed by Mary Brady, which aimed to stimulate choreographic practice and dance research as a means of dance development. It provided space for interchange between choreographers to examine issues, work methodologies and goals particular to each, in a practice-centred environment. Today, Firkin Crane provides a supportive environment for professional artists in the form of a professional residency programme, Blank Canvas.

The history of the O’Mara family of Strand house and O’Mara’s Bacon Company go hand in hand. The factory was founded in 1839 by James O’Meara (1817-1899), who originated from the village of Toomevaara in county Tipperary. Having worked for some years in the woollen mills in Clonmel, he got a job as a clerk with Matterson’s Bacon Factory in Limerick and in 1839 founded O’Mara’s Bacon Company in his house on Mungret Street. It is said that he dropped the ‘e’ from his surname as he felt that O’Meara was too long for commercial purposes. James initially sold for Matterson’s but soon began to cure his own bacon in the basement of his house. As his business grew, he acquired dedicated premises for the purpose near the top of Roche’s Street.

In 1841, James O’Mara married Honora Fowley (d. 1878), who worked in the bacon business alongside her husband. A devoted nationalist, James was one of the early supporters of Isaac Butt’s Home Rule movement. He was High Sheriff of Limerick City in 1887, and acted as Town Councillor on Limerick Corporation at least from 1888 to 1898.

James and Honora O’Mara had 13 children, of whom the two eldest surviving sons, Stephen O’Mara (1844-1926) and John (Jack) O’Mara (1856-1919) were instrumental in building up the O’Mara’s Bacon Factory into a great success. The youngest son, Joseph (Joe) O’Mara (1864-1927) became a celebrated opera singer.

When James O’Mara retired from business his son John (Jack) O’Mara became manager of the O’Mara Bacon Factory. In the late 1880s, Jack was invited to Russia by Tsar Alexander III to provide instruction on bacon curing. He stayed in St Petersburg to supervise the construction of a bacon factory. In 1891, his father bought the rights of the Russian Bacon Company and the family imported bacon from Russia into London until 1903. James (Jim) O’Mara (1858-1893) acted as agent for O’Mara’s in London until his untimely death from heart disease. His nephew James O’Mara (1873-1948), son of Stephen O’Mara Senior (1844-1926), took over the agency and held it until 1914.

When John (Jack) O’Mara died in 1919, his younger brother Stephen O’Mara (1844-1926) became Managing Director of O’Mara Limited and remained in that capacity until 1923. Having entered into the family business at the age of fifteen, his great business acumen established O’Mara’s Bacon Factory as one of the most prominent commercial enterprises in Limerick city. He also purchased a bacon factory in Palmerston, Ontario, Canada, which was managed by his son Joseph (Joe) O’Mara (1878-1950) until the business was wound up in the 1940s.

Like his father, Stephen O’Mara was a strong supporter of Isaac Butt’s Home Rule movement and a member of the committee which secured Butt’s election for Limerick city in 1871. He later developed a close association with Charles Stewart Parnell and was elected Member of Parliament for Upper Ossory in Kilkenny South for the Irish Parliamentary Party in February 1886. When the Irish National League split from Irish Parliamentary Party in December 1890, O’Mara took the Parnellite side. He continued to act as trustee of the Party funds until 1908, when he resigned from his trusteeship. Towards the end of his life, his moderate political views became more radicalised under the influence of his sons James (1873-1948) and Stephen Junior (1884-1959). He had agreed with his son James’s decision to resign from the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1907 in order to join Sinn Fein, and personally supported the party in the 1918 General Election. Both Stephen and his son James were strong supporters of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty but were on friendly terms with Eamon de Valera who, it is said, spent the night at the O’Mara family home, Strand House, as the Treaty was being signed in London. In the 1925 election, Stephen O’Mara was elected as Senator to the Free State Seanad.

Stephen O’Mara was also a prominent figure in local politics. He became a Town Councillor on Limerick Corporation in the 1880s and was elected Mayor of Limerick in 1885. He was the first Mayor of Limerick to be elected on a Nationalist ticket. He also served as High Sheriff of Limerick city in 1888, 1913 and 1914.

Stephen O’Mara married Ellen Pigott in 1867, and the couple had 12 children of whom the eldest three died tragically of diphtheria in 1872. From c. 1909 onwards, the family lived at Strand House. Their third son, Stephen O’Mara Junior, was born on 5 January 1884. He entered the family business in 1903 when he travelled to Canada to work in the bacon factory established by the O’Mara family in Ottawa. In 1923, he became Managing Director of O’Mara Limited and created numerous employment opportunities by establishing bacon factories in Claremorris, County Mayo, and Letterkenny, County Donegal, in the 1930s. The three bacon companies were amalgamated in 1938 and formed into the Bacon Company of Ireland. Stephen O’Mara Junior remained the company’s chairman until his death in 1959. In 1987, the Bacon Company of Ireland merged with Hanley of Rooskey and Benesford UK (Castlebar) with assistance from the Industrial Development Agency Ireland (IDA) to form Irish Country Bacon. Shortly afterwards the old O’Mara factory in Limerick was closed down. It was subsequently demolished to make way for a multi-storey car park.

Throughout his life, Stephen O’Mara Junior played a prominent role in both local and national affairs. Unlike his father and elder brother James, Stephen was opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty but in a conciliatory manner. He was prominently identified with the Sinn Fein movement after the Easter Rising. He was one of Eamon de Valera’s strongest supporters and a member of his Fianna Fail Party since its formation in 1926.

When George Clancy, Lord Mayor of Limerick, and his predecessor Michael O’Callaghan were murdered by the British military forces in March 1921, Stephen decided to stand for election and became Mayor. He was re-elected in 1922 and in 1923 but resigned before the expiration of his term of office.

In 1921, Stephen O’Mara Junior was selected to go to America as Special Envoy appointed by Dáil Éireann to the United States to oversee one of the country’s biggest fundraising drives to finance the first Dáil and was made Trustee of the funds. The funds-drive was terminated following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Considering himself as the exchequer to the Irish Free State, O’Mara refused to hand over the collected funds to the pro-Treaty administration which resulted in his imprisonment in 1922-1923. He had also been imprisoned for seven days in 1921 for refusing to pay a fine of £10 for non-compliance with a military summons.

The bulk of the money collected during the Bond Drive was left in various banks in New York and remained untouched for a number of years. In 1927, following legal action between the Irish Government and Eamon de Valera, a court in New York ordered that money outstanding to bond holders must be paid back. Having anticipated such a ruling, de Valera’s legal team invited bond holders to sign over their bonds to de Valera, for which they were paid 58 cents to the dollar. The monies so accumulated were used to launch the national daily newspaper The Irish Press. Stephen O’Mara served on the paper’s Board of Directors until his resignation in 1935.

In 1932, Stephen O’Mara was once again sent to America on a mission involving the various consular and diplomatic offices maintained in the country by the Irish Government. Two years later, he was appointed a member of the Commission on Vocational Organisation, on which he served until 1943. In 1959, he was created a member of the Council of State following de Valera’s inauguration as President of Ireland. Stephen O’Mara died less than two months after his appointment, on 11 November 1959.

Stephen O’Mara Junior married in 1918 Anne O’Brien, third daughter of Thomas O’Brien of Boru House, and the couple had an adopted son, Peter O’Mara. Anne’s youngest sister, Kate O’Brien, became one of the most prominent novelists in 20th-century Ireland and a voice of the respectable Irish Roman Catholic middle class.

Elizabeth Darina Laracy was born on 30 March 1917 in Rathgar, Dublin as one of four daughters of Patrick Joseph Laracy and Mary Cecilia née King. She studied history and political science at University College Dublin, graduating with a BA 1937 and an MA in 1939. In 1940, she moved to Sorbonne to study for her doctorate on the strength of a scholarship. In 1940, she moved to Italy, eventually settling in Rome to work as a correspondent to Herald Tribune and the International News Service. A vocal anti-fascist, she was forced to flee Italy to Switzerland in 1941. Here, she met the politician and prominent anti-fascist novelist Secondino Tranquilli, better known by his pseudonym Ignazio Silone (1900-1978), who was also in exile. The couple returned to Rome in October 1944 to work against fascism and married two months later. Following the death of her husband in 1978, Darina finished his last, uncompleted novel, Severina, which was published in 1981. Fluent in several languages, she translated her husband's works and became an important reference point for scholars of Ignazio Silone's life and works. Darina Silone died in Rome on 25 July 2003.