A beautifully-tranquil 2017 photo by Sabrina Brien of the ruins of Kilmeaden Castle at Oldcourt on the River Suir, masking the violent end to its days as a Le Poer/Power holding. It was taken and destroyed by Cromwell and his pillaging troops (shortly after assailing the one at Butlerstown) in late 1649.

Overcoming the occupant’s staunch resistance, Cromwell commanded that the castle be destroyed, and the lands confiscated and parcelled out among his favorite soldiers. The then-owner, John Power, a cousin of the Dunhill and Curraghmore branches, was, according to many historical accounts, hung on an adjoining tree. However, this supposed execution has been discounted by, among others, Waterford historian Julian Walton (see below).

The shares in the lands, stretching from Kilmeaden to Tramore, were later sold by the ignorant grantees to a John Ottrington (whose tomb, erected by his granddaughter Elizabeth, aka Viscount Doneraile, is still extant in Kilmeaden churchyard). He duly “planted” several families from Ulster in the locality.

The side of the Manor, which originally contained the stairs, survives 370 years on.

Footnote

Courtesy of Ivan Fitzgerald, this is from one of Julian Walton’s lectures: Ethnic cleansing 17th-century style:

By the mid-17th century, there were many branches of the Powers who owned landed estates in county Waterford. They were mostly Catholic, and most of them sided with the Irish rebels in the wars of the 1640s. Cromwell’s policy was to dispossess all Catholic landowners, and transplant them west of the Shannon, where they would be given new estates. Of the 79 transplanters’ certificates issued for co. Waterford, no fewer than 19 were issued to Powers. One of these was John Power of Kilmeaden and Dunhill. His estate in Dunhill was granted to Henry Cole, ancestor of the Earls of Enniskillen; Kilmeaden went to John Otterington, ancestor of the Earls of Doneraile. What became of his family? A daughter married Power of Gardenmorris – more about that family on Sunday. But there was also a son.