Wall (Du Valle) of County Carlow

Wall (Du Valle) of County Carlow

From the time of the Anglo-Normans through until the end of the seventeenth century, a large swathe of land running east of Carlow town in Ireland was held by the Wall family. Much of this property was subsequently subsumed into the estates of the Bunbury and Burton...
The Palatines in Ireland

The Palatines in Ireland

In 1709, just over 3,000 mostly Protestant refugees from Germany's Palatine region sailed for Ireland. Their descendants include the families of Switzer, Wyse, Keppel, Cooke, Young , Embury, Miller, Teskey, Baker, Poff and Gleasure. This article looks at the origins...

Catholic Converts from Carlow (1741-1812)

(With thanks to Sue Clements) The ‘Act to prevent the further growth of popery’ was passed in 1703 and it made it obligatory on converts from Catholicism to Protestantism to provide proof of conformity. According to the Act a Protestant was a member of the Church of...

Ballintemple: Dark Knights, Blue Bells

BALLINTEMPLE: DARK KNIGHTS, BLUE BELLS Major Piers Butler had been living in America for close on 20 years when he embarked on his first return trip to his Irish homeland in the summer of 1785. Life on the 41-year-old Carlow man’s plantations in South Carolina had...