The noble ivy-clad ruin of Kilcash Castle, on the southern slopes of Slievenamon, was added to the State's portfolio of national monuments in a modest ceremony in the south Tipperary village last week.
The castle, one of the important ancient residences of the Butler Earls of Ormonde, is now in the care of the National Monuments Service, with other imposing Butler residences such as Kilkenny, Carrick-on-Suir and Roscrea Castles, and the Main Guard in Clonmel, from which they ruled the whole county of Tipperary as though a palatinate.
The Main Guard is being restored. Kilcash Castle, largely demolished in 1800, is beyond restoration but will be made safe, stabilised and conserved as a ruin. What survives there is just the massive tower house and some remains of the great hall.
An Ormonde Estate representative, Mr Robert Haughton, came to Kilcash to present the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, with a twig and a handful of clay - a very ancient and symbolic family tradition for the handing over of property.
He explained that the castle, reputedly built in 1540, passed through several lines of the Butlers and eventually to John Butler, the 17th Earl of Ormonde, who was the last to keep it in repair.
The last function at the great castle was his funeral in 1795, when he was buried, like most of his family up to then, in the adjoining graveyard.
A contemporary account mentions the great hall hung with historic paintings, the extensive park stocked with deer and the tasteful demesne.
His son Walter, the 18th Earl, had no interest in Kilcash and eventually sold off its materials to a Carrick-on-Suir merchant, who demolished most of it.
The poem Lament for Kilcash (Caoineadh Cil Chais), which begins: "Cad a dheanfhaimid feasta gan adhmad", is familiar to generations of Irish schoolchildren in this century.
It mourns the felling of the proud ash woods, and it also harks back to the famous Lady Iveagh, the castles most celebrated lady.
She was Margaret Burke, a daughter of the Earl of Clanrickard and the widow of Brian McGuinness, Viscount Iveagh, from Co Down.
She was married to Thomas Butler, and during their lifetime, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Kilcash was at the peak of its glory. Her kindness and hospitality were legendary, and the castle was a well-known house of refuge for Catholics. Judging by the comments of local people, the Ormondes are still held in high esteem in the area.
Charles Butler, Lord Ormonde, who was one of the last survivors of the original Butler line, died on October 26th this year, aged 99.
Mr Michael Kehoe, chairman of Slievenamon Failte, expressed gratitude and delight on behalf of the community that the castle ruins have been donated to the State.
Mr Kehoe suggested this marked "the beginning of the end of the decay of the great house of Kilcash."
The history of the Butler family, closely intertwined with the history of Ireland since the 12th century, will be highlighted in the future by the development of a "Butler Route" through counties Kilkenny and Tipperary, linking the family's various residences and strongholds.
Ms de Valera said it was appropriate the remains of the castle will be preserved as they are, because the poem by which it is best known laments it as a ruin.
She quoted part of one of the best-known English translations of the poem, the version by Frank O'Connor:
"What shall we do for timber/ The last of the woods is down/ Kilcash and the house of its glory/And the bell of the house are gone
The spot where the lady waited/Who shamed all women for grace/When earls came sailing to greet her/And Mass was said in the place".
The community hall in Kilcash, where last week's ceremony was held, also has associations with the Butlers, for it was formerly the old school house built in 1815 largely at the expense of the Marquess of Ormonde.