What the Butlers saw

Ormond Castle, a fortified Elizabethan manor house, adds to Carrick-on-Suir's medieval quality, writes Eileen Battersby.

There was a moment, in architectural history, when the castle, built as a statement of power and defence, became the fortified house. Ormond Castle, on the banks of the River Suir in the town of Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary, illustrates that moment.

Pre-dating another such transitional castle house, Portuma Castle (circa 1618) in Co Galway, Ormond is a discreet and imposing Elizabethan manor house, dating from about 1560, which survives in the main street of a busy, unpretentious Irish town that has, through its narrow laneways, retained a sense of its medieval self.

Aside from its stately demeanour, the first impression of Ormond Castle is of windows, so many watching eyes, and these are stone-mullioned, large and continuous. But this is a serene house from which the outside world was glimpsed. Whereas a castle invariably creates the sensation of watchers within peering at the enemy without, of the possible frenzy of siege, to have been inside Ormond Castle - unless as a servant - would have been to experience comfort.

Built over two centuries by the Butler family, one of the great Anglo-Norman clans, Ormond Castle includes two battlemented towers and some ruined remains from an earlier period, but it is dominated by the work of Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond (1531-1616), "Black Tom", a product of an Ireland torn by social and political conflict. It was an era of conquest with the Tudor dynasty continuing the business of making Ireland a colony. Once-powerful Anglo-Norman lordships were collapsing. It was the age of the Reformation. By 1541, Henry VIII, previously the Lord of Ireland, had declared himself King of Ireland. The Protestant religion was being imposed on Ireland.

Thomas Butler, who succeeded to his titles and lands in 1546 at the age of 14 or 15 - the sources differ - was a child of court. He had been raised in the English court and had shared a tutor with the future king, Edward VI. Thomas Butler attended Edward's coronation in 1546, at which he became a Knight of the Order of Bath. The young king died. Thomas remained at court, a player in the circle surrounding the boy's elder sister, Queen Mary.

But his life as a leading courtier began to flourish when Elizabeth I took the throne in 1558. Within a year, she had appointed Thomas Butler Lord Treasurer of Ireland. Regarding him as her "Black Husband", she also made him Privy Councillor, presented him with the Order of the Garter and excused him of all debts.

Their bond was close and it was a relationship Thomas never allowed anyone to forget. He stayed at court until he was 22. Even today, a visitor admiring the plasterwork of the famous Long Gallery will note the presence of Elizabeth I. One of the two majestic chimneypieces bears a large stone overmantel. Above it is the Ormond coat of arms with a Latin inscription announcing that in the year 1565, the seventh year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Butler more or less hit the jackpot in terms of securing royal favour.

Images of the lady prevail. Thomas Butler was intent; no one could possibly visit his home and remain unaware of his connection with the queen of England. A plaster frieze runs much of the length of the 100-foot gallery depicting allegorical figures with heads of Elizabeth and her brother, Edward, Butler's boyhood friend, and their family coat of arms. The ceiling plasterwork includes the Tudor Rose and other Tudor heraldic devices as well as the queen's personal arms.

Ormond Castle is, in more ways than one, a Tudor house. It is easy to imagine this long narrow chamber, the only one of its kind surviving in Ireland, rich tapestries hanging from the walls, rugs covering the wooden floor. By day, the sunlight would have flooded the space, by night great fires would have blazed from the huge fireplaces. This was a lord's manor.

Thomas Butler was an interesting character, a man who was considered by the English to be "wholly English", whereas the FitzGeralds of Desmond were considered dangerously "Irish". Ormond was well regarded as a friend of the Crown in Ireland.

Interestingly, this Protestant gentleman also appears to have been well liked by the Gaelic Irish. In an age of short life spans, he lived to the age of 83, surviving three wives (the first of whom he had divorced) and all his legitimate male heirs.

Judging by the beauty of the manor house, which is the north front of Ormond Castle, Thomas was a sophisticated Renaissance man of style who was shaped by his time at court. Near the end however, this servant of the English Crown fell out of favour. Old and blind, he returned to his house on the Suir, always his favourite home. He is buried in St Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny city.

Once the house would have stood in extensive parkland. Records show there was a deer park, orchards, gardens, a peach house, and after the Restoration, the then Duke of Ormonde kept a large stable of horses. Except for the remains of a walled garden to the east of the castle, no traces of these remain, although a definite sense of what it must have been like - much later - it is evident from the first Ordnance Survey map. The centuries and social change have caught up with Ormond Castle and now the site it occupies is relatively small.

Yet that site, peaceful and scenic if not quite romantic, has a long association with the Butlers who probably first came here in 1309, when Edmund Butler was granted the land by Edward II. Edmund built the earliest Butler fortification, which culminated in Edmund Mac Richard Butler's medieval towers. It would have been a key position, with access to Clonmel, with the port of Waterford on the south-east and, of course, the city of Kilkenny little more than 20 miles away, with its extensive lands even closer. Carrick was sufficiently important in the 16th century to feature, under its old name of Carrickmacgriffin, on Boazio's famous 1599 map of Ireland.

The inner courtyard at the house is typical of many surviving courtyards of the period in England. A near neighbour, Rothe House in Kilkenny city, is slightly later in date and has two courtyards as well as its atmospheric arcade feature where once the merchant owners traded. At Ormond Castle, Thomas Butler's legacy dominates. The house, which is only one room deep, appears to tell much of its story through the existence of that long gallery. What conversations must have once been held here? It is likely events at the often volatile court of Elizabeth I were discussed as freely as the local political gossip.

The Butlers finally left in the 18th century and so began a period during which various tenants came and went. Initially these tenants were prosperous. A Waterford wine merchant named Galwey rented the castle in the 1780s. Later, Wogan, a solicitor, moved in. His occupancy proved significant for what must be now regarded as the wrong reasons; Wogan had many of the old buildings demolished from 1816 onwards. As each tenant was poorer than the last, the rooms were subdivided. Poverty asserted. What had been a seat of wealth become a mere shelter for the hungry. Ormond Castle's decline was dramatic.

In 1947, the castle, then derelict although still roofed, was placed under the guardianship of the Office of Public Works, and so passed into State ownership. Restoration work began. Central to this has been the revival of the Renaissance plasterwork, which is some places was so badly damaged it required remoulding made from casts taken of the original, which is Flemish in style.

This is one of the quietest of the built heritage sites in Ireland, attracting about 5,000 visitors each summer. More than 400 years after its construction, as an addition to the much earlier Butler castle, this manor house remains dignified and elegant, the restoration has been geared towards conservation rather than pastiche reconstruction. Housing a fascinating collection of charters, Carrick's architectural treasure offers an insight into the life of the new aristocrats in an Ireland suspended between the English court and the emerging Irish chiefs, yet its story somehow seems far more about Europe than it does about Ireland. To visit Ormond Castle is to experience European style as adopted by a courtier who brought his ideas to Co Tipperary.

Ormond Castle in Carrick-on-Suir is open daily 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. (last admission 5.15 p.m.) until mid-September and is accessible only by guided tour. Admission: €2.75 adult, €1.25 student/child. For information: 051-640787. Jane Fenlon's illustrated booklet on Ormond Castle, published by the Heritage Service, is invaluable background reading