Touch The Past Ireland

27/01/2020

This is a memorial inside Auschwitz Main Camp. Lest we forget - 'Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' - George Santayana.

25/06/2019

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Touch the Past Ireland, Kilkenny: See 13 reviews, articles, and 5 photos of Touch the Past Ireland, ranked No.10 on TripAdvisor among 22 attractions in Kilkenny.

25/06/2019

had a FANTASTIC time guiding and his lovely wife on a Historical Tour through Kilkenny last weekend!! Hope they enjoyed their boat trip around Ireland!!☺️

13/05/2019

14th May 2019 marks the 850th anniversary of the death of William Marshal. Widely known as the ‘Greatest Knight who ever lived’, William Marshal has been portrayed, one might even say mythologised, as a whiter than white saintly paragon of chivalric virtue. There is no doubt that he was a remarkable man but perhaps one should allow him to have been human, and remember that he was a man of his time; a warrior, courtier and statesman at the heart of the volatile Plantagenet court. Crouch notes that ‘he participated in plots and scenes that were distinctly unsavoury’ (William Marshal p. 42). He was with Henry the Young King when he raided the shrine at Rocamadour (Asbridge, The Greatest Knight, p.156) and it is possible that he was involved in the raid led by Guy de Lusignan against Bedouin nomads at Darum in October 1184, (Asbridge p.167).
Paragon of virtue, flower of chivalry, or not, there is no doubt that William Marshal was of enormous importance to Kilkenny and the Lordship of Leinster. Richard I, granted Marshal, the hand of Isabel de Clare, the lady of Striguil, (Chepstow), daughter of Strongbow and heiress to Leinster and Pembroke, as well as rights to Caversham, Long Crendon, and Longueville in Normandy.

Building on the work of Strongbow and the early colonists he developed Kilkenny into his caput with the general layout of the town remaining broadly the same as it is today. His foundation of the port of New Ross was key to the success of Kilkenny, being situated at the meeting point of the rivers Barrow and Nore, the port facilitated the import and export of commodities directly to and from Kilkenny. He built the stone quadrangle castle, and in a deal with Hugh le Rous, Bishop of Ossory, he acquired the land between James’ Street and the Breagagh river, thus extending his town. In 1207 he issued a charter confirming the burgesses of Kilkenny in their freedoms and valuable privileges which protected them and empowered them, including fixing their rent, confirming exemptions from taxes such as pontage and murage, allowing them to institute and control their own hundred court, and dispose of their offspring in marriage alliances without interference from their lord. He endowed the Augustinian foundation of St. John’s Abbey, known as the Lantern of Ireland for the five sets of triple lancet windows, which when lit with candlelight must have glowed like a lantern. As a result of William Marshal’s strategic planning coinciding with a wider European economic boom, Kilkenny and the Lordship of Leinster thrived. William Marshal died aged 72, at Caversham, on May 14th 1219, and having taken his final vows as a Templar Knight was taken to London and buried at the Temple Church.

06/03/2019

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04/03/2019

The 29th of March is a truly significant day; not perhaps for reasons beginning with ‘B’ which immediately leap to mind, but because a hundred and fifty years ago a doctor left 16 Onslow Square, London, with a painting as payment by the artist Charles Henry Augustus Lutyens for having delivered his wife, Mary Gallwey, of their eleventh child, my great-great uncle, the amazing, half-Irish architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens. Uncle Ned as we affectionately know him is perhaps publicly best known for his memorial work such as, The Cenotaph and Thiepval, and for Rashtrapati Bhavan once known as Viceregal Lodge, New Delhi, India. His repertoire in England, Ireland, Spain and the US, included many well-known private houses, commercial buildings and churches. In Ireland he carried out work at Howth Castle and Lambay Castle He designed The National Memorial Gardens at Island Bridge, Heywood Gardens, Costello Lodge in Conemara, and a holiday home at Trá na Rossan, Donegal, for the Honourable Mrs. Phillimore, as well as other projects not realised, such as the proposal of an art gallery to house the Hugh Lane collection which was designed to cross the Liffey in place of the Halfpenny Bridge. He was a spiritual man, the circle of life infusing much of his work. He was a genial man and a wit much sought after as a guest at dinner parties. He was a kindly man with a love of children for whom he designed circular nurseries, believing that no child should be put to stand in the corner. I wish I had known him personally but he died on 1st January 1944, a good few years before I was born. Happy Birthday Uncle Ned.

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21/05/2018

The McGrath tomb in St. Carthage Cathedral, Lismore shows St. Katherine with an impressive symbol of her martyrdom flanked by St. Carthage and St. Patrick as weepers

09/05/2018

KILKENNY WALLS

750 years ago on the 9th May 1266 King Henry III ratified the murage granted for three years to the men of Kilkenny to fortify their city. The walling was completed in 1275.

Tolls were levied on all goods sold at markets in Kilkenny. They were levied wherever goods were transported over or under bridges, and through gateways into towns, between the port of entry, often New Ross or Dublin, and the destination. These taxes were known as pontage and murage and the funds gathered allocated to specific tasks such as the building and repairing of town walls and bridges. The word ‘murage’ comes from the French word for wall ‘mur’ and likewise ‘pontage’ from the French word for bridge ‘pont’. During the Middle Ages Kilkenny was a popular destination for luxury goods such as silk and muslin, figs almonds and rice, ginger, saffron, cloves, pepper, mace and galangal. These goods were rated by the pound weight at 1/4d per pound. As these taxes were levied at each bridge and gate at towns along the route, the cost of transporting goods to Kilkenny was expensive. This suggests that the market for luxury goods in Kilkenny was supported by a community with enough wealth to make the journey for merchants cost effective, and the building of walls and bridges possible.

Refs:

Circle: A Calendar of Irish Chancery Letters of 1244-1509,

05/02/2018

A GREAT DAY
was had by all on the Touch The Past tour of Kilkenny with American exchange students currently studying at St. Patrick's Carlow College - pictured here at Kilkenny Castle listening to Irish and English history delivered by a Frenchman!! Brilliant!