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Rock of Dunamase

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  • 18-04-2021 7:06pm
    #1
    tuisginideach
    Registered Users Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭


    My mother used to picnic at the Rock of Dunamase. I think she used to tell us that the O'Mores attacked/were attacked during a banquet and slaughtered the hosts/were slaughtered by the hosts. I understand that is is folklore and probably historically incorrect but I would be interested to know if anyone knows of this 'folklore/anecdote/fable'. I may be imagining that the attackers were supposedly Cromwell and his soldiers.
    Thank you


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    #2
    Notmything
    Registered Users Posts: 975 ✭✭✭Notmything


    It's a lovely spot, my dad used to bring me and now it's somewhere I bring my kids. Always had a fear of falling off on of the steep sides.

    Bit of history: https://www.discoverireland.ie/laois/rock-of-dunamase

    And Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunamase


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    #3
    tuisginideach
    Registered Users Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭tuisginideach


    Thanks very much. Unfortunately, none of the online sources that I have found to date 'corroborate' my mother's tale.


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    #4
    mocmo
    Registered Users Posts: 135 ✭✭mocmo


    I think your Mother might be mixing up stories, it sounds like she is talking about the Massacre of Mullaghmast

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Mullaghmast


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    #5
    tuisginideach
    Registered Users Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭tuisginideach


    Thanks - I know there may be elements of truth/fiction/other stories mixed in, but I know she definitely included references to the treacherous act of slaughter at a banquet. I’m just reminiscing and wondered if others had heard the same.... I should have written down so many things that she used to tell me but I didn’t appreciate the (personal) importance of those conversations when I was younger!


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    #6
    HoteiMarkii
    Registered Users Posts: 127 ✭✭HoteiMarkii


    I vaguely remember reading a similar account of a slaughter at a feast in Carbury castle in Co. Kildare. The occupiers of the castle at the time, the Anglo-Norman de Birmingham family, invited a local chieftain and his clan (whom they were having regular territorial disputes with), to a feast to resolve their differences. It was all a ruse by the de Birminghams to rid themselves finally of their rivals, and a mass slaughter was perpetrated.

    On the massacre at Mullaghmast, I know one of the families (with an English surname) believed to have been responsible for the slaughter there still has landholdings in the general area today.


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    #7
    tuisginideach
    Registered Users Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭tuisginideach


    Thanks - probabaly lots of different events have been kaleidoscoped together!


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    #8
    tuisginideach
    Registered Users Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭tuisginideach


    I have just seen an account on the Schools (Folklore) Collection of the Massacre at Mullaghmast - I think Mocmo & HoteiM were correct - thanks!


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    #9
    endacl
    Registered Users Posts: 22,235 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    The Red Wedding of Dunamase?


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    #10
    byhookorbycrook
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 12,481 Mod ✭✭✭✭byhookorbycrook


    I have a vague recollection of the "Pass of the Plumes" close by, for the helmets of the English soldiers who died there.


    "The earliest historical reference to Dunamase is in the annals of the four masters where it states that Dun Masc was plundered by the vikings in 843AD and the abbot of Terryglass was killed. When the Normans arrived in Ireland during the 12th century the rock was refortified with the great hall and the earlier gate tower surviving from this period."

    "The Castle fell into a slow decline up to the middle of the 17th century when it is believed to have been finally finished as a stronghold by Cromwellian forces."

    http://www.megalithicireland.com/Dunamase.html


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