Wednesday 30 September 2020

Royal Visit

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall have arrived in Belfast on a one-day visit.

Their Royal Highnesses were greeted by the Lord-Lieutenant of Belfast, Mrs Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle CBE.

During their engagements TRH will visit the Florence Nightingale Exhibition at the Ulster Museum, and meet newly qualified nursing staff and museum staff.

Saturday 26 September 2020

Fountain Pen Ink


When I attended Primary and Prep school in the 1960s and early 1970s some of the wooden desks had little ink wells.

These old desks had a lid at the top which opened upwards for storage of books, writing pads etc.

Fountain pens were still commonly used in the 1960s, though ballpoint pens were beginning to supersede them.

I seldom use my fountain pens today; I hardly use any writing instruments, in fact. Instead I type on desktop, iPad, and iPhone keyboards.

Nowadays I use the fountain pen for signing documents, cards, and so on.

It's a shame, really, that I don't use my fountain pens more frequently.

I inherited a lovely vintage De La Rue Onoto pen from my father in 2002.

About 2000, I think, I purchased a very grand Mont Blanc fountain pen and ballpoint.

I wrote an article about the Onoto here.

Dear reader, do you have any notion of how difficult it is to purchase fountain pen ink in Belfast today?

I mean ordinary black ink, not the Mont Blanc or calligraphic premium variety.


I sent out a plea for help on Twitter and Facebook; and, lo and behold! My friend Mags asked me if I had tried Proctor's of Belfast, printers, suppliers of offices, arts and crafts, wedding stationery, not to mention a vast array of miscellaneous goods.

I called them and inquired about fountain pen ink. To my surprise they sell it, Parker Quink, to be precise.


Proctor's, 201-213, Castlereagh Road, Belfast, was established about 1966.

What a Godsend.

Tuesday 22 September 2020

Johnstown Castle

LORD MAURICE FITZGERALD WAS THE SECOND LARGEST LANDOWNER IN COUNTY WEXFORD, WITH 15,216 ACRES 


LORD MAURICE FITZGERALD (1852-1901), second son of Charles, 4th Duke of Leinster, of Carton House, County Kildare, married, in 1880, the Lady Adelaide Jane Frances Forbes, daughter of the 7th Earl of Granard, and had issue,
GERALD HUGH, his heir;
Geraldine Mary; Kathleen; Marjorie.
Lord Maurice, Lord-Lieutenant of County Wexford, 1881-1901, was succeeded by his son and heir,

GERALD HUGH FITZGERALD (1886-1914), Captain, 4th Dragoon Guards (Royal Irish), who wedded, in 1914, Dorothy Violet, daughter of Spencer Calmeyer Charrington (of the famous brewing family), though the marriage was without issue.

Captain FitzGerald was killed in action during the 1st World war.


JOHNSTOWN CASTLE, near Wexford town, is a spacious, castellated mansion, built entirely of Carlow granite, and equal in beauty and magnificence to many of its ilk in the British Isles.

It occupies the site, and embodies one of the towers, of a very ancient structure.

Immediately adjoining it is a fine lake, formed at huge expense, decorated at its edges tastefully and closely overlooked at the margin by several turrets of carved stone.


The mansion has been home to two prominent County Wexford families.

The first owners were the Esmonde Baronets, a Norman family who settled in the county in the 1170s.

They constructed the tower houses at Johnstown and Rathlannon during the 15th or 16th century.

During the Cromwellian period of 1640s the estate was confiscated and changed hands several times before being acquired by John Grogan in 1692, whose descendants remained at Johnstown until 1945.

Following the death of Hamilton K Grogan-Morgan, Johnstown passed to his widow who married, as her second husband, the Rt Hon Sir Thomas Esmonde, 9th Baronet, a descendant of the original owners.

The demesne subsequently passed to Grogan-Morgan's daughter Jane, Countess of Granard; thence to Lady Granard's daughter, Lady Maurice FitzGerald.

The old tower house was the home of Cornelius Grogan, who was unjustly executed for treason after the 1798 Rebellion.

By 1863, Johnstown Castle estate was at its peak of development and comprised of a large demesne of over 1,000 acres.

The demesne occupies a hollow at the head of a fertile valley, a brief distance from the base of a picturesque mountain.

It was divided in two, with a deer park to the north, and the castle, pleasure grounds, home farm and two lakes (with a third lake under construction) to the south.


In 1945 Maurice Victor Lakin presented Johnstown Castle estate as a gift to the Irish state.

Today Teagasc, the Irish Agricultural and Food Development Authority, owns Johnstown Castle estate and has a research facility on site.

The Irish Agricultural Museum is housed in the old stable and farmyard buildings of the demesne.

Burke's guide describes Johnstown as being,
An old tower house of the Esmondes, engulfed in an impressively turreted, battlemented and machiolated castle of silver-grey ashlar built about 1840 for H K Grogan-Morgan MP, to the design of Daniel Robertson, of Kilkenny.

The entrance front is dominated by a single tower with a porte-cochere projecting at the end of an entrance corridor and a Gothic conservatory at one end. The garden front has two round turrets, a three-sided central bow with tracery windows.
First published in November, 2011.

Monday 21 September 2020

Portmore Lough


On Sunday, 20th September, 2020, I paid a visit to Portmore Lough and a section of the disused Lagan Canal.

A stretch of the towpath runs from just beyond Lock 26 (Chapel Lock), under Crannagh Bridge, to Annaghdroghal Bridge.

Annaghdroghal Bridge was the first bridge on the journey from Lough Neagh to Belfast on the Lagan Canal.

The walk terminates abruptly at this old humped-back bridge because the stretch of land from here to Lough Neagh is privately owned.

I watched an equestrian event for awhile at Portmore Equestrian Centre, which is beside the lake.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) maintains Portmore Lough today. 

I enjoyed a packed lunch seated on a bench overlooking the lake.

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, dated 1844-45, describes Portmore thus:-

"PORTMORE, or Beg Lough, is a lake in the parishes of Glenavy and Ballinderry, barony of Upper Massereene, County Antrim.

It lies half a mile south and east of the nearest parts of Lough Neagh, ¾ north-west of the village of Ballinderry, and 2¾ miles south-west of the village of Glenavy.

It is nearly circular in outline, and covers an area of 283 acres.

It is stored with pike, bream, trout, perch, roach, and eels, and is frequented by a variety of wildfowl.

About 1740, Arthur Dobbs, author of a pamphlet on the Trade of Ireland, then agent to Lord Conway, and afterwards Governor of North Carolina, drained or rather emptied the lake by means of a windmill and buckets; but the water returning either through springs or by a subterraneous communication with Lough Neagh, he was compelled to abandon his attempt to convert its bed into arable land.

On the flat shores of the lake are the prostrate ruins of Portmore Castle, erected in 1664 by Lord Conway; and either within the walls of this castle, or in a sequestered spot in the lake called Sally Island, the learned and pious Jeremy Taylor, chaplain to CHARLES I, and Bishop of Dromore, and Down and Connor, found a retreat during the Protectorate of Cromwell, and composed some of his celebrated and justly admired works.

The preface of the Ductor Dubitantium, in particular, is dated from his study in Portmore, in Killultagh, on the banks of Lough Beg."

Tuesday 15 September 2020

The Hon Barry Bingham VC OBE

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND, 31ST MAY-1ST JUNE, 1916
REAR-ADMIRAL THE HON EDWARD BARRY STEWART BINGHAM VC OBE


The Hon Edward Barry Stewart Bingham (1881-1939), of Bangor Castle, County Down, third son of John, 5th Baron Clanmorris JP DL, ADC to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Matilda Catherine, daughter of Robert Edward Ward JP DL, of Bangor Castle.

This is a branch of the noble house of BINGHAM, Earls of Lucan.

The Hon Barry Bingham joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman, after school at Arnold House, Llanddulas, Carnarvonshire; and a spell on HMS Britannia, a permanently-moored training ship at Dartmouth, Devon.


He was commissioned Lieutenant RN and served a year (1904-5) on HMS Cormorant based at Gibraltar; then was given his own command, of the torpedo boat destroyer HMS Star.

In 1915, Bingham was promoted Commander RN, and given HMS Hornet, a destroyer.

Clanmorris arms

In May, 1916, during the Battle of Jutland, Commander Bingham commanded a destroyer division.

He led his division in their attack, first on enemy destroyers and then on the battle cruisers of the German High Seas Fleet.

Once the enemy was sighted Bingham ordered his own destroyer, HMS Nestor, and the one remaining destroyer of his division, HMS Nicator, to close to within 3,000 yards of the opposing battle fleet so that he could bring his torpedoes to bear.

While making this attack, Nestor and Nicator were under concentrated fire of the secondary batteries of the German fleet and Nestor was subsequently sunk.

For his actions, Commander Bingham earned the Victoria Cross, one of relatively few awarded for naval bravery during the 1st World War

The citation reads:
For the extremely gallant way in which he led his division in their attack, first on enemy destroyers and then on their battlecruisers.
He finally sighted the enemy battle-fleet, and, followed by the one remaining destroyer of his division (Nicator), with dauntless courage he closed to within 3,000 yards of the enemy in order to attain a favourable position for firing the torpedoes.
While making this attack, Nestor and Nicator were under concentrated fire of the secondary batteries of the High Sea Fleet. Nestor was subsequently sunk.
Bingham was picked up by the Germans at Jutland, and remained a prisoner of war (latterly at Holzminden) until the Armistice.

After the war, he stayed in the Royal Navy, was promoted several times and retired in 1932 with the rank of Rear-Admiral, having for a year held the position of Senior Officer of the Reserve Fleet, Devonport.

He had several commands, including HMS Resolution, in the Mediterranean.

Admiral Bingham served as Chief of Staff in the Nore Command, 1927-9, and was appointed ADC to GEORGE V.

Outside the Navy, he interests were equestrian; he was a keen jockey and polo player.

In addition to his VC, Bingham was also awarded the OBE and was mentioned in dispatches.

He was also awarded the (Tsarist) Russian Order of St Stanislaus.
He published a memoir of his naval career in 1919, notable for his description of the worst part of naval life being, not nearly being blown to pieces in battle, nor the nervous hours and minutes before battle; it was the ordeal, in that pre-diesel age, of coaling.
Bingham had, in 1915, married Vera Temple-Patterson; this was dissolved in 1937 though they had a son and a daughter.

His nephew, the 7th Baron Clanmorris, was a successful novelist, as John Bingham, whose daughter Charlotte in turn would follow in these of her father's footsteps.

Some maintain that his espionage activity during the 2nd World War provided a model for the fictional writings of John le Carré, the successful English writer of spy fiction.

Admiral Bingham, who latterly resided at Evershot, Dorset, died in London.

First published in May, 2013.

Sunday 13 September 2020

The Plain Loaf

I happened to be entering a major supermarket one morning when I was accosted by Hazel, a reader of the blog, from Portaferry, County Down.

Hazel was quite effusive about my alter ego, Lord Belmont, reminding me of past articles including the one about Irwin's Nutty Krust high-fibre wholemeal plain loaf, which was made until March, 2020.

Mark Thompson the wrapper, in fact.


Here was a loaf of bread which was a perennial favourite of mine: Irwin’s Nutty Krust high-fibre plain loaf.

It toasted very well indeed.

Some batches had a tendency occasionally to be slightly misshapen upon purchase, which necessitated trimming the edges a little for insertion into the toaster.

No matter.

The lucky birds used to get the crumbs.

The standard white Nutty Krust loaf remains on the shelves and continues to be popular.


THE PLAIN LOAF  is a traditional Ulster-Scots style of loaf.

It has a dark, well-fired crust on the top and bottom of the bread.

There is no crust on the sides due to the unbaked loaves being stuck together in batches, baked together then torn into individual loaves afterwards.

This style of bread does not fit well in most modern toasters due to the greater height of the loaf.

This was once the more widely available style of loaf in comparison to the now more common pan loaf.

Irwin's bakery is based in Portadown, County Armagh.

First published in November, 2012.

Wednesday 9 September 2020

Prince William in Belfast

THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE, Baron Carrickfergus, has been greeted by the Lord-Lieutenant of Belfast, Mrs Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle CBE, on a visit to the city.

His Royal Highness is undertaking a range of engagements with the Northern Ireland emergency services and frontline responders.

HRH has been received at the Police Training College, Garnerville, Belfast, by the Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Belfast, Sir Nigel Hamilton KCB DL, where he has met members of the fire, police, and ambulance services.

Prince William afterwards visited the Community Rescue Service at Cave Hill Country Park, Antrim Road, Belfast, and was received by Mr Mukesh Sharma MBE DL (Deputy Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast).

Thursday 3 September 2020

Shanbally Castle

THE VISCOUNTS LISMORE WERE THE LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY TIPPERARY, WITH 34,945 ACRES

This was one of the very few native families which had been dignified by the Peerage of Ireland.

The O'Callaghans were formerly princes of the province of Munster, and were seated at Dromaneen Castle.

Their Chief,

CORNELIUS O'CALLAGHAN, enjoyed very extensive territorial possessions in 1594, according to an inquisition taken by Sir Thomas Norris, Vice-President of Munster, in that year.

From this Cornelius descended 

CORNELIUS O'CALLAGHAN (c1681-c1742), a very eminent lawyer, MP for Fethard, 1713-14, who married Maria, daughter of Robert Jolly, and had three sons, the youngest of whom,

THOMAS O'CALLAGHAN, wedded, in 1740, Sarah, daughter of John Davis, and had, with a daughter (married to Robert Longfield, of Castle Martyr), an only son,

CORNELIUS O'CALLAGHAN (1741-97), MP for Fethard, 1768-85, who was elevated to the peerage, in 1785, in the dignity of Baron Lismore, of Shanbally, County Tipperary.

His lordship married, in 1774, Frances, second daughter of Mr Speaker Ponsonby, of the Irish House of Commons, and niece, paternally, of William, Earl of Bessborough, and niece, maternally, of William, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, and had issue,
CORNELIUS, his heir;
Robert William (Sir), GCB, lieutenant-general;
George;
Louisa; Elizabeth; Mary.
He was succeeded by his eldest son,

CORNELIUS, 2nd Baron (1775-1857), who was created, in 1806, VISCOUNT LISMORE, of Shanbally, County Tipperary.

He married, in 1808, the Lady Eleanor Butler, youngest daughter of John, 17th Earl of Ormonde, and sister of the Marquess of Ormonde, by which lady he had issue,
Cornelius;
William Frederick;
George Ponsonby;
Anne Maria Louisa.
His lordship, Privy Counsellor, 1835, Lord-Lieutenant of County Tipperary, 1851-57, was succeeded by his second son,

GEORGE PONSONBY, 2nd Viscount (1815-98), an officer in the 17th Lancers, High Sheriff of County Tipperary, 1853, Lord-Lieutenant of County Tipperary, 1857-85, who wedded, in 1839, Mary, daughter of George Norbury, and had issue,
George Cornelius Gerald (1846-85);
William Frederick Ormonde (1852-77).
His lordship's sons both predeceased him, when the titles became extinct.



SHANBALLY CASTLE, near Clogheen, County Tipperary, was built about 1812 for Cornelius O'Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore.

It was said to have been the largest of John Nash's Irish castles.

Shanbally was long and irregular, of a silver-grey ashlar.

This great mansion was 281 feet above sea-level, and about 80 feet above the level of the adjacent brook.

Shanbally Castle had numerous machicolations, towers and battlements.

The entrance front was pointed-arched, with a vaulted porte-cochere under a porch-tower.


The garden front had a round tower at one end and an octagonal tower at the other, with a central feature boasting two square turrets.

There was a stylish Gothic veranda.

Shanbally demesne is beautifully situated on low ground, in the centre of the valley, between the Galtee mountains on the north and the Knockmealdown mountains on the south.

It commands the most magnificent views of the slopes, escarpments, summits, and groupings of both of these alpine ranges.

Shanbally Castle was situated in a picturesque landscape, bounded to the north and south by two mountain ranges, the Galtees and the Knockmealdowns.

It is said that Shanbally bore a remarkable resemblance to Nash and Repton's joint venture, Luscombe Castle in Devon, though Shanbally was considerably larger.

The 2nd and last Viscount left Shanbally to his cousins, the Lady Beatrice Pole-Carew and the Lady Constance Butler, daughters of the 3rd Marquess of Ormonde.

Shanbally was sold in 1954 by Major Patrick Pole-Carew.

Following attempts by the Hon Edward Sackville-West (5th Lord Sackville) to rescue the Castle, it was demolished in 1957 and its ruin was blown up.

The following is a composition by Bill Power of the Mitchelstown Heritage Society:

Few acts of official vandalism rival the decision by the Irish Government in 1957 to proceed with plans to demolish Shanbally Castle.

Built for Cornelius O'Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore, ca 1810, the mansion was the largest house built in Ireland by the famous English architect, John Nash.

When the Irish Land Commission purchased the Shanbally estate in 1954, one of the immediate questions which it addressed was what should become of the castle.

For a brief period it seemed that a purchaser could be found in the form of the London theatre critic Edward Sackville-West, 5th Lord Sackville, who had a tremendous love of the Clogheen area, which he had known since childhood.

He agreed to buy the castle, together with 163 acres, but pulled out of the transaction when the Irish 
Land Commission refused to stop cutting trees in the land he intended to buy.

Consequently, by 1957, the fate of the mansion was sealed.

The Irish Land Commissioners, with Irish Government approval, decided to proceed with plans to demolish the castle on the grounds that they had no use for it and that it was in poor condition.

They ignored suggestions that a religious community might be found for the building, and also 
rejected its suitability as a forestry school.

In that year, Professor Denis Gwynn, wrote an article in the Cork Examiner in which he exhorted the authorities to reverse their decision:
"Shanbally Castle has been well known for years as one of the most graceful and original examples in Ireland of late Georgian architecture," he said. "Its formal gardens, which have run wild, could easily be brought back to order."
The Professor pointed out that Shanbally Castle was designed by one of the most famous of all modern architects, who also planned all the well known terraces that surround Regent's Park in London, and so many other celebrated buildings in England, `What conceivable justification can there be for incurring the great expense of demolishing this unique Irish mansion,' he asked.
"All around the house, with its long avenues, the land has been admirably laid out and planted with fine trees in groups to enhance the views and to produce valuable timber,' he continued. `More recently there has been wholesale clearance of the timber. Last summer I saw cutting in progress at many places, and big gaps had been made in the boundary walls to assist removal of the felled trees.
Describing the order to demolish the castle as an `act of vandalism,' Professor Gwynn called for an inquiry into the circumstances of the decision. There is no sense whatever in squandering public money on the destruction of a beautiful house which is well known to students of Nash's domestic architecture,' he added.
But Professor Gwynn's article was already too late: Despite some local opposition and widespread critical comment, the roof was removed and some of its impressive cut stones were being removed by hand and broken into smaller pieces for use in road building.

The house, with its twenty stately bedrooms, extensive drawing rooms, dining room, library, marble fireplaces and mahogany staircase was rapidly reduced to a state of ruin.

In 1960, The Nationalist newspaper reported the final end of a building which was once the pride of the neighbourhood: "A big bang yesterday ended Shanbally Castle, where large quantities of gelignite and cortex shattered the building", it said.

In the weeks prior to the explosion, demolition workers bored 1,400 holes, 18 inches above ground, into the cut stone of the castle.

Each hole was then filled with explosives which were detonated on the 21st March, 1960.

Almost all of this material was used for road building.

The protests against the demolition of Shanbally Castle came from some local sources, An Taisce and a few academics such as Professor Gwynn.

Politically, the Fianna Fail Government had no love for houses of the ascendancy.

However, remarkably, it was from within the ranks of Fianna Fail that the only political voices were raised against the demolition plans, albeit privately.

One was Senator Sean Moylan, the Irish Minister for Agriculture until his death in 1957, and the other was his close friend and TD from Mitchelstown, John W Moher.

They were over-ruled by the Cabinet and failed to get wider political support, even from opposition deputies.

When the explosion finally came, the Irish Government saw fit to issue a terse public statement in response to protests favouring the retention of Shanbally Castle for the nation.

"Apart from periods of military occupation the castle remained wholly unoccupied for 40 years," said the statement.

First published in October, 2011.