"The Geraldine's Throw." Identification of the Spot Referred to in a Sixteenth Century Legend Related by Holinshed

"The Geraldine's Throw." Identification of the Spot Referred to in a Sixteenth CenturyLegend Related by HolinshedAuthor(s): Walter FitzgeraldSource: The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 3, No. 2(Jun., 1893), pp. 202-206Published by: Royal Society of Antiquaries of IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25508023 .

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( 202 )

"THE GERALDINE'S THROW."?IDENTIFICATION OF THE SPOT REFERRED TO IN A SIXTEENTH CENTUEY LEGEND RELATED BY HOLINSHED.

By LORD WALTER FITZ GERALD, Fellow.

TIThile I was lately looking through an old Edition of Holinshed's " Chronicles of Ireland," printed in Black Letter, and published,

I think, in 1586, I came across the following Legend dealing with the FitzGeralds of Kildare, the scene of which was in the neighbourhood of Castledermot. I think I have now identified the exact spot where it occurred.

Holinshed's legend is as follows:?

*' Not farre from Moolleaghmast, within a mile of Castledermot, or Thristledermot,

is there a place marked with two hillocks, which is named * the Geraldine his throw

or cast,' the length of which in verie deed is wonderfull. The occasion proceeded of this :?One of the Geraldines, who was ancestor to those that now are lords of Lackath, preded an Enemie of his. The Earle of Kildare having intelligence thereof, suppress ing affection of kindred and moved by zeal of justice, pursued him with a great troope of Horsemen, as the other was bringing of the prede homeward. The Geraldine having notice given him that the Earle was in hot pursuit, and therefore

being warned by a messenger to hie him with all speed possible : the gentleman being nettled that his kinsman should seem to rescue the prede of his deadlie foe : and he was in such fretting wise, frieing in his grease, he brake out in these cholericke

words, ' And doth my cousin Kildare pursue me in deed, now in good faith, whereas

he seemeth to he a suppressor of his kindred, and an upholder of my mortal enemie, I would wish him no more harm than that this dart were as far in his hodie as it shall stick forthwith in the ground.' And therewithall, giving the spurres to his horse, he hurled his dart so farre as he was abashed with the length thereof, as well his

companie as his posteritie. The Geraldine was not verie farre from thence, when the Earle with his band made hot foot after, and dogging still the tracke of the predours, he came to the place where the dart was hurled, where one pickthanke or other let the Earle to understand of the Geraldine his wild speeches there delivered. And to inhanse the heinousness of the offence, he showed how farre he hurled his dart when he wished it to he pitched in his lordship his bodie; the Earle, astonished at the

length thereof, said:?'Now in good sooth, my Cousin, in behaving himself so

courageouslie, is woorthie to have the prede shot free ; and for my part I purpose not so much to stomach his cholericke wish, as to imbrace his valiant prowesse.' And therewithall commanded the retreate to he blowne and reculed back."

In the above we are told that, " not far from Mullaghmast, within a

mile of Castledermot, is there a place marked with two hillocks," which is a great guide as to their whereabouts. Now, in the townland of Bally

vass, which is very low lying, there are two remarkable natural mounds,

about ten Irish perches apart, which are locally called "

Kenny's Moats,"

as they stand on a small holding formerly held by a farmer of that name;

they lie, as the crow flies, just two statute miles from the town of Castle

dermot, in the Mullaghmast direction, and would seem to coincide exactly with the two hillocks mentioned by Holinshed. The Ballyvass townland



THE GERALDINE'S THROW. 203

comes into the 6-inch Ordnance Survey Sheet, No. 38 of the Co. Kildare, but the moats are not important enough to be shown on it.1 The larger of

the two is now being used as a gravel pit. In a patent roll of the year 1552, this townland is styled

" Wassiston alias Waston," and in an

inquisition taken in 1638, it is called " Ballivasse alias Waston."

Mullaghmast, mentioned above, is the name of a long low hill

lying ^.ve Irish miles to the north of Castledermot, and famous in history as the scene of a brutal massacre by the English of nearly 400 of the Irish of Leix and Offaly, who had been invited to a friendly conference in the rath on its summit, on New Year's Day, 1577. The name

means Maistin's Hill; and Maistin, according to the Dinnseanchus, was

the daughter of Aengus Mac TJmor, who built the great pre-Christian stone fort on Inishmore, Isles of Aran, and called after him Dun Aengus

(vide "O'Curry's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish," vol. iii.,

p. 122). The Eitz Geralds (of which name in Latin "the Geraldines" is

an anglicized form) of Lackagh were descended from Thomas Eitz Gerald the 7th Earl of Kildare (who succeeded his father, Shawn Cam, or John the Humpbacked, in the earldom in 1427) ; he had married Lady Joan Fitz Gerald, second daughter of James, the 7th Earl of Desmond, by whom he had several children, the second son being Sir Thomas of

Lackagh.

This Sir Thomas married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Preston, 1st Yiscount Gormanston, and died in 1487. He was succeeded by his eldest

son, Sir Maurice of Lackagh, who would thus be a cousin to Garrett Oge, or Gerald the younger, the 9th Earl (grandson of Thomas the 7th Earl) and as Holinshed makes

" the Geraldine who was ancestor to those that

now are lords of Lackath " refer to the then Earl of Kildare, as his

cousin, this Sir Maurice must be the Geraldine referred to. Holinshed makes an error in placing the date as he does at 1470, as the Eitz Gerald

of Lackagh and Earl of that period were father and son.

In the year 1520, Sir Maurice and many of his adherents met with

violent deaths at the hands of the O'Mores of Leix, close to his own

Castle of Lackagh. The prey captured, as related by Holinshed, may have belonged to the O'Mores, whose territory of Leix was but a short

distance from Kilkea, and possibly they had this score to wipe out, as

well as several others. "

The Annals of the Eour Masters "

thus record

the result of the conflict:?

"Maurice, the son of Thomas, the son of the Earl, the choice of the English family of the Geraldines, was slain by Conn, the son of Melaghlin O'More, as were also many others along with him.,,

The place where he was slain was close to his own Castle of Lackagh, which is four miles to the west of Kildare. A monumental wayside cross

1 Vide their site marked on the maps, pp. 204-5.

JOUR. R.S.A.I., VOL. III., PT. II., OTH SER. Q



locoRtt. too ,,,,''_ '"^ _?w ^ _*???_ 4ooa ^frc n*o But



THE GERALDINE'S THROW. 205

was erected at the spot to his memory, probably by his wife who (accord ing to Archdall's Lodge's Peerage) was Anne Eustace. From this cross the townland it stood in took its present name of " Cross Morris "

(or Maurice). Of this cross nothing now remains except the base, which

stands near the gable end of a mud cabin occupied by a labouring man

named Martin M'Cabe, which is on the roadside a mile from Lackagh Castle, in the Kildare direction.

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\ ' ^* iff \ f?l/*on^fe ^

".--V: I ^^^n^ Jfoodhinds Lodgq-^, \ \\ /Ilk A"

v C A A T I. E^S^^P^..^^

SCALE a ? u j 4 S 2 J

O_t

The base of the cross is a diamond-shaped block of limestone, and

quite plain; in height it stands 21 inches, and from opposite point to

point it measures 50 inches one way by 40 inches the other; on the top is a socket for the shaft 9 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 6 inches deep;

while on either side of it in the two farthest apart corners is a smaller socket. This stone is locally called " the "Wart-stone " from the cures

Q2



206 ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF IRELAND.

of warts effected by the water collected in the socket. Some years ago a portion of the shaft (about a foot in length) was seen built into the coign of M'Cabe's cabin by Dr. Comerford, the present Coadjutor Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, who had it taken out and sent to the Duke of Leinster for preservation at Carton, where it still is. Other

portions are said to be built into the foundations of the cabin, but are not visible. Judging from the piece at Carton this wayside cross must have been exceptionally fine, as the fragment is richly carved in relief, on all

sides, with human figures probably representing the saints; in breadth the shaft is 13 inches and in depth 7 inches.

The Earl of Kildare mentioned in the Legend would be Gerald the 9th Earl, called by the Irish " Garrett Oge

" in distinction to his father "Garrett More"; he was the father of

" Tomais-an-teeda" i.e. the

Silken Thomas (so called from the richness of the apparel of himself and his retainers), whose rebellion and consequent excommunication for

the death of Archbishop Allen, at Artane, so preyed on his father's mind that he died of grief on the 12th of December, 1534, while in the Tower of London.1 The principal residences of the Earl in the Co. Kildare were the castles of Maynooth, Rathangan, and Kilkea, and he would appear to

have been at the latter place, which is only a mile from Ballyvass, when

the news first reached him of his kinsman's presence in the neighbour hood and the reason of it.

Lackagh means a place abounding with stones. Of its castle nothing now remains but one small portion of a very thick wall, standing in a

field to the south-west of, and bordering, the ancient burial-ground. The

Fitz Geralds of Lackagh forfeited nearly all their estates by joining the Confederate Catholics in the Rebellion of 1641 ; this family has been extinct in the male line for many years; their burial-place was in a vault

in St. Bridget's Cathedral in Kildare, where there lies the upper portion of a fine altar-tomb, bearing the effigy of a knight in armour, which was

erected to another Sir Maurice by his wife " Dame Margaret Butler " on

his death in the year 1575.

1 The Silken Thomas and his five uncles :?Sir James "Meirgeach" of Leixlip, Oliver of Killeigh and Lough Sewdy, Richard, Sir John, and Walter, were finally taken prisoners (three of them by treachery, as they had been invited to a banquet at

Kilmainham by the Deputy Lord Leonard Grey), and on the 3rd of February, 1537, were drawn, hanged, and quartered at Tyburn.



Documents

"The Geraldine's Throw." Identification of the Spot Referred to in a Sixteenth Century Legend Related by Holinshed