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00:00Castles are our most dramatic landmarks from the Middle Ages, built as monuments to domination
00:09and power. Scattered all over the Irish landscape, these ancient buildings with their soaring
00:16walls and great towers lead you with no doubt about their military and defence of purpose.
00:20I just hope we brought a ladder. The Anglo-Norman aristocrats who invaded Ireland in the 12th
00:27century built their castles to control and intimidate the unruly Irish. As English rule
00:35was consolidated, the castles served as administrative centres, garrisons and jails, as well as lavish
00:42homes for the English lords. In this series I'll be telling you stories about dramatic
00:50sieges, bloody battles, lavish lifestyles, ghostly presences, warring families and feudal lords.
00:59After all, the history of Irish castles is the history of Ireland itself.
01:04The late 19th century saw the concept of empire challenged as pressure from Irish home rule
01:23grew alongside the growing disintegration of the landlord system. The Act of Union in 1800,
01:29when the Irish Parliament was merged with Westminster, had seen many of the Anglo-Irish landlords
01:35turn their backs on the country. And for those who remained, finances were precarious.
01:40They're always thinking about developing their assets, how they can make more from rents,
01:50enclose more land, how they can asset strip. Because you need whatever landed income you're
01:56able to generate to sustain your lifestyle as a great lord.
02:00As the 19th century progressed, a rising population, poor summers and then famine exacerbated the
02:09desperate conditions of the tenant farmers.
02:11Rural Ireland, along with the Irish castle, was in terminal decline.
02:20Famine in the second half of the 1840s pushed a lot of landlords over the edge because they
02:30weren't getting in any rents. So they had very little income. In the 19th century, certainly
02:35when you read letters and novels and so forth, an Irish peer effectively is synonymous with
02:40someone who's a penniless adventurer, by and large.
02:43Many of these people were deeply in debt. Others were just, I was going to say almost animals.
02:49In other words, they just didn't care. And all they wanted to do was clear their land
02:54of people who were no longer in any way productive for them.
03:02Ah, God bless the poor old landlords. I mean, standards must have been impossible to maintain
03:08when you're looking after 14 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, 4 drawing rooms, stable yards and walled gardens.
03:15Not to mention the gardeners, the butlers, the upstairs maids, the downstairs maids.
03:20So when the income from the lands collapsed, many of the houses just fell into disrepair.
03:25Some of them were sold off or just closed up as the Anglo Irish gentry packed up and went back to England.
03:32Even without the famine, the likelihood was that many of them were actually going to go bankrupt.
03:39So this organisation called the Encumbered Estates Court was established.
03:45It was really the Narmer of its day, precisely to take over responsibility for these indebted estates and to sell them on.
03:53The indebted estates were sold off to a new breed of industrialists, flush with cash.
03:59Most famous were the Guinness dynasty from Kildare, renowned for brewing, banking,
04:04as well as restoring castles and country houses the length and breadth of the country.
04:08One of their purchases was the beautiful Ashford Castle on the Mayo-Galway border.
04:13In every century, new people make money.
04:18And once you've got money, you want to buy a title.
04:21You want to buy status by having a posh castle, ideally.
04:25And so we see generations of Arabists, of upstarts, who rise.
04:31We had the boils of cork in the 17th century, and we would have the Guinnesses in the 19th century.
04:36They could make as much money as they liked, if you like, from the brewing industry.
04:40But what they didn't have was social status or political status.
04:45And that came with land ownership.
04:48A lot of people at the time would have been slightly sneery about what was considered new money,
04:55particularly new money made in trade.
04:57And when the Guinnesses, beginning with Lord Ardalaunt, got a title,
05:01they were known as the Beerage, because it was a way of being disparaging about the family.
05:08Yeah, absolutely buy the titles, and unashamedly so.
05:12I'm not saying that they don't earn them, but let's not glorify titles in this period.
05:18The vast majority of them are bought, or they're given as some sort of reward.
05:23The new owners modernised their homes, in many cases obscuring the original Norman castles.
05:29The remaining landowners, with little income except shrinking rents,
05:33were struggling literally to keep a roof over their head, and the peasants from the door.
05:41In County Offaly, Lep Castle is a tapestry of architectural styles spanning 700 years of Irish history.
05:48The original keep, built in the 14th century, has all the detail of an Irish tower house.
05:53But when Cromwell gave it as a reward to an English officer called Derby,
05:58it had to be transformed into a suitable home for the Anglo-Irish gentry.
06:04However, the Derbys gained more than just an architectural legacy.
06:08Lep Castle was renowned for stories of hauntings and ghostly apparitions,
06:12an inheritance from its original owners, the O'Carroll clan.
06:17The O'Carroll clan, they were a rough, warring bunch,
06:23with a reputation for dealing with their enemies,
06:26well, let's say decisively.
06:28Troublesome family members were often unceremoniously dispatched.
06:33They were thrown off the ramparts, thrown in dungeons.
06:37They were disemboweled, having their innards removed.
06:40Or maybe they were decapitated, and their heads were held high as trophies.
06:45It's no wonder they say that their ghostly presences still walk the halls and towers of Lep Castle.
06:54Of all the castles in Ireland, Lep is a place where your imagination really does run riot.
06:59When you hear the tales of the O'Carroll clan and their gruesome history,
07:03you can see where it gets its reputation as the most haunted castle in Ireland.
07:08The general gist of the stories that you hear,
07:22you're in a room, and you feel there's somebody else there.
07:25You don't know, but you get this feeling,
07:28and then you hear a fluttering, or there's a breeze, or there's a wind.
07:32Some people have seen this lady dressed in red briefly.
07:36Some people have described the bedclothes being taken off.
07:41There's another story told about servant girls
07:43that wouldn't go into certain rooms
07:45because they could never dress the beds,
07:47because the bed covers were always removed from them.
07:50You know, from them was really something that you had to conjure up a name for.
07:55And that's why various states was called the Elemental or the Thing.
08:02When the estate passed to Jonathan Darby,
08:05it was almost the end of an era.
08:07The land wars had begun,
08:08and the War of Independence was coming down the tracks.
08:12Jonathan Darby inherited the domain and estate
08:16of about 4,000-plus acres in 1880, unmarried.
08:21From what we know of him, he was a tempestuous, arrogant man.
08:26It's just like every landlord in Ireland,
08:29you get one generation that's benevolent,
08:31and you get a tyrant that follows.
08:35One of the turning points in terms of the relationship
08:39between landlords and tenants
08:41is obviously the land war which began in 1879,
08:45characterised by an escalation in agrarian violence,
08:51by the invention of boycotting,
08:53by rent strikes,
08:55by evictions by the landlord,
08:57and the landlord is seen to be
08:59the instigator of all social and political and economic ills.
09:03And therefore, the house is often represented
09:06as the symbol of oppression.
09:09Jonathan Darby was typical of the times,
09:12asset rich, but cash poor,
09:15and disliked by the local population.
09:18A wealthy wife was one way out of the money problems,
09:21and so in 1889, a Mildred Dill came to live in Lep.
09:28Seemingly, they had four or five children,
09:31and things started to go awry.
09:34She was too strong.
09:35He expected a docile woman that would know her place and so on.
09:39She was having none of that.
09:40She was a very independent spirit
09:42and wanted to be a writer.
09:44She was very sympathetic towards the plight of the Irish.
09:46She felt that the English had done wrong,
09:49were dominant throughout all of the centuries,
09:52and now they were paying the price for this dominance.
09:55So she was very much on the side of the Irish peasant.
10:00Mildred was inspired by the atmosphere at Lep.
10:02She began holding seances in the castle,
10:04and then, without the knowledge of her husband,
10:06writing Gothic novels and articles about the supernatural.
10:10And whether she had heard the stories
10:12of the elemental, of the happenings here at Lep or not,
10:15we don't know.
10:16But she started to write,
10:17all under a pseudonym,
10:18a man's name of Andrew Merry.
10:21Nobody knew at the time
10:23that it was a woman writing these stories.
10:26They were all full of masculinity,
10:28masculine language, and so on.
10:30But it wasn't the place of a Victorian lady
10:32to write under her own name.
10:34Her books describe the elemental in lurid details
10:38as a ghoulish, subhuman spectacle
10:40with holes for eyes, drooling jaws
10:42and a rancid, nauseous smell.
10:47When her husband found out,
10:49he was totally against it.
10:51He was really, he says,
10:53look it, the only spirits in this castle
10:56are in the cellars.
10:57That's all.
10:58There's nothing else, you know, like that.
11:00Jonathan Darby asserted his power,
11:03banning his wife from writing any more books.
11:10I think she was a lonely woman
11:12who, when she was writing,
11:14was able to find some contentment.
11:18I suspect that much of her writings
11:21about the elemental
11:22maybe had got to do
11:24with her difficulties with her husband
11:26and maybe she was trying to get her own back.
11:32In the dying years of the 19th century,
11:34Dublin Castle,
11:35still the centre of English authority,
11:37was home to the succession of viceroys
11:39and the backdrop to all the pomp
11:40that accompanies court life.
11:45Queen Victoria's visit in 1900
11:47was an attempt to rally support
11:49in the face of the growing movement
11:51of her home rule.
11:52However, by the time Britain entered
11:54the First World War in 1914,
11:56the nationalist movement
11:57had taken a more radical turn
11:59and the volunteers were on the streets.
12:01When the 1916 rebellion broke out,
12:03the castle was a Red Cross hospital
12:05for soldiers from the battlefields of France.
12:08Men who fought for the Empire
12:10in the belief that
12:11they would be rewarded
12:12for their sacrifice
12:13with home rule.
12:16After the 1916 rise
12:19and its aftermath,
12:21politics become much more radicalised
12:23in Ireland
12:24with the rise of Sinn Féin.
12:26And then you have the outbreak
12:28of the War of Independence in 1920.
12:30Now, during that period,
12:34more than 300 houses
12:36were actually destroyed.
12:40I think you can't escape the fact
12:42that the castles
12:44and the great houses
12:45were such symbols of colonialism
12:47and of empire
12:49and of imperialism.
12:50They were very obvious targets
12:52for any insurgent.
12:531641, 1798
12:56and again during the Civil War.
12:58Down in Offaly,
13:00Jonathan Darby's poor relationship
13:02with his tenants
13:03made Lep a prime candidate
13:05for burning.
13:10Very hard for some families
13:12to continue
13:13because they themselves
13:15become objects of hate.
13:19Jonathan Darby at the time
13:22was not a popular landlord.
13:24The IRA at the time
13:26were targeting people
13:28like Jonathan Darby
13:29and they knew
13:30what was going to happen.
13:31I mean, they weren't here.
13:32They got out of the place.
13:35With the Darbys in England,
13:36it was the caretaker
13:37who was woken in the early hours
13:38of a Sunday July morning 1922.
13:40He was given at gunpoint
13:4220 minutes to get his wife
13:43and child out of the building
13:45before the rooms were doused
13:46in petrol and set on fire.
13:48So it was looted,
13:49it was burned
13:50and everything was lost
13:52including the archive
13:54which must have been
13:55a fabulous archive.
13:58Jonathan Darby
13:59never came back to live here again.
14:00He claimed 35,000 pounds
14:02compensation
14:03for the loss of the castle.
14:06While Lep was burnt out,
14:07not all castles
14:08met the same fate.
14:09History was kinder
14:11to the Lesleys in County Monaghan
14:12where, despite John Lesley's
14:13anti-home rule politics,
14:15his grandmother's legacy
14:16saw the castle spared
14:18and the family survive.
14:21It was a wonderful
14:22Christina Lesley,
14:23widow lady,
14:24ran the place in the famine.
14:26She built the famine wall
14:27to provide labour
14:28for people from other states
14:29and that wall
14:31protected the castle
14:34in a way
14:35that she could never have imagined
14:36because
14:371922,
14:42our neighbours were burnt out.
14:44The Lucas Scudamores arrived,
14:46terrified children
14:47in soot-covered dressing gowns
14:49and the
14:51Irregulars took over the village
14:53and they just didn't have the petrol.
14:55So they went to the post office
14:56and said,
14:57send,
14:57we want a ring to Monaghan town
14:59to get the petrol
14:59to burn the castle.
15:01The villagers
15:02cut the phone lines
15:03and said no.
15:04And they said,
15:04but it's Sir John Lesley,
15:06UVF,
15:07Lord Carlsons,
15:08and they said,
15:09famine wall.
15:10His grandmother
15:11fed us all
15:12during all the years
15:13of the famine.
15:15Go and burn somewhere else.
15:17Having the right landlord
15:19in the right community
15:20at the right time
15:21could mean the difference
15:22of a family surviving
15:24into the next generation
15:25or not.
15:26Those who were sympathetic
15:27to the nationalist cause
15:29were protected
15:30by the local community.
15:31Obviously,
15:32those who weren't
15:33were not.
15:34After three years
15:37of bitter fighting
15:38between England
15:39and Ireland,
15:39a truce had been agreed
15:41in 1921.
15:45The Anglo-Irish Treaty
15:46was signed in December 1921
15:48and it was one month later
15:49on January 22, 1922
15:52that Michael Collins arrived
15:53to receive the handover
15:55of Dublin Castle.
15:56Now, the story goes
15:57that the Viceroy reprimanded him
15:59for being seven minutes late.
16:01Collins' retort was,
16:03we've been waiting for 700 years.
16:05You can have the extra seven minutes.
16:07The Irish Times reported
16:09that Dublin Castle,
16:10having withstood the attacks
16:12of generations of rebels,
16:13was quietly handed over
16:15to eight gentlemen
16:16in three taxicabs.
16:18Peace would not last long,
16:20however.
16:21With the outbreak
16:21of Civil War
16:22in June 1922,
16:23the destruction
16:24of our built heritage
16:25continued.
16:26During the War of Independence
16:27and the Civil War,
16:28300 houses or so
16:30are destroyed.
16:31But the decades after
16:34the 20s, the 30s and the 40s
16:36are much more harmful
16:38to castles in Ireland.
16:40They're abandoned
16:41and they're allowed to fall
16:42into dereliction and decay.
16:44The material is sometimes recycled.
16:46It's sometimes used
16:47to build, for example,
16:48local power stations,
16:50roads, labourers' cottages.
16:53So that by the,
16:56probably the 1980s
16:58and the 1990s,
16:59you only have a fraction
17:01of the original number
17:02of houses in existence.
17:06Figures vary,
17:08but, you know,
17:09it's usually put at around 10%.
17:10In Kilkenny,
17:15the last of the butlers
17:16of Ormond,
17:17the dynasty which had ruled
17:18for centuries,
17:19handed the castle over
17:20to the state in 1935.
17:22It only took 10 days
17:23to auction off
17:24what it took the owners
17:25800 years to accumulate.
17:27When the family left in 1935,
17:37they held a public auction,
17:39selling the entire content
17:41but not the castle.
17:42And, of course,
17:43left vacant for over 30 years.
17:46and then Arthur Butler,
17:48the sixth marquis,
17:49gave it to the city
17:50for a nominal fee
17:5250 Irish punt.
17:5450 punt.
17:5550 punt.
17:5650 punt.
17:57That's not bad for a castle,
17:58is it?
17:59Not really, no.
18:00What happens with the butlers
18:01is basically they can't
18:02produce a male heir.
18:03And if you're going to be
18:04a great lord,
18:05you've got to have an heir
18:06and a spare.
18:07And they can get neither the heir
18:09nor the spare.
18:10So you have a problem
18:11of securing the male line
18:13and combined with
18:14they're bankrupt.
18:15And so very sensibly
18:17they hand it over.
18:18They know that
18:19it's the end of the line
18:20for them.
18:21So when was the last butler here?
18:231935.
18:25Arthur Butler,
18:26the sixth marquis.
18:27What was it like
18:28as a family home?
18:29It wasn't a dilapidated
18:30It would have been.
18:31You can bear in mind,
18:32of course,
18:33the number in residence
18:35would have nothing
18:36compared to what
18:37it would have been.
18:38How many people are rattling
18:39around this big building
18:40in 1935?
18:41I'd say you're talking
18:42to family of six maybe.
18:43Really?
18:44What must that have been like?
18:46Well, of course,
18:47the gentleman who gave
18:48the castle to the city
18:51when he passed on,
18:53sadly,
18:54his title,
18:55his title passed
18:56to a relative
18:57who lived in Chicago,
18:59Charles Butler,
19:00the seventh and final
19:01marquis of Ormond.
19:02Again,
19:03the titles be
19:04primogenitor,
19:05it passes to a son,
19:07not a daughter.
19:08and he had two daughters.
19:11You know,
19:12Kilkenny Castle represents
19:13hundreds of years
19:14of our history,
19:15both good and bad.
19:16And to let that
19:18go to rack and ruin
19:19would be an absolute travesty.
19:21Whereas now,
19:22what we've done
19:23is we've restored it,
19:24we've created
19:25a great tourist attraction,
19:26it's generating income,
19:27but more importantly,
19:28it's a very powerful reminder
19:30of who we are.
19:32Not all great castles
19:36would be as lucky
19:37as Kilkenny.
19:38Down in Limerick,
19:39the new Irish state
19:40found an original use
19:41for the prime piece
19:42of real estate
19:43on the banks
19:44of the Shannon.
19:45One of the curiosities
19:48about Limerick Castle
19:49is that when these monuments
19:50to our English conquerors
19:51fell out of favour
19:52after independence,
19:54it was decided
19:55that they'd knock down
19:56one of the walls
19:57and build a housing estate
19:58in the middle of it.
19:59And that must have been
20:00pretty cool as a kid,
20:01having a castle as your back garden.
20:02Not to mention
20:03having a pretty fancy address.
20:05In the run-up to the 1932 election,
20:08De Valera pledged
20:10to do something
20:11about the housing crisis
20:12in Limerick.
20:13Under pressure
20:14from the cabinet,
20:15the corporation built
20:1622 houses
20:17within the Anglo-Norman castle.
20:19You know, the Irish state
20:20has a lot to answer for as well
20:22in terms of the destruction
20:24of some of our great medieval castles.
20:27I think because these buildings
20:29were such symbols,
20:30if you want,
20:31of imperialism,
20:32of colonialism,
20:33there was no interest
20:35on the part of the state
20:36to say,
20:37actually, let's invest in them.
20:38Let's make them part
20:39of our common heritage.
20:41It seems bizarre.
20:43Unless, of course,
20:44you were a kid growing up there.
20:46And Simon Spratt was just that.
20:48So you lived here, Simon,
20:50until when?
20:51In 1991.
20:52What an amazing place to live.
20:54Oh, it was fantastic.
20:55Would you believe
20:56in this space
20:57there were 22 houses.
20:59So 22 houses
21:00and three houses
21:02three generations of families.
21:04The people who lived here
21:05fight it over the years
21:06and say,
21:07we're not moving.
21:08Oh, absolutely.
21:09Why would you go?
21:10What a place to grow up.
21:11I mean, what a playground to have.
21:13It was fantastic.
21:14If you think about it,
21:16I mean, it's a dream
21:17to live in the courtyard
21:19of a castle.
21:20Other people, you know,
21:21would just watch that in a movie
21:23or read about it in a book.
21:25As kids, we lived it.
21:27You were in the castle.
21:28Yeah, we were in the castle.
21:29So where was your house
21:30in terms of where we are now?
21:32Simon, our house was basically
21:34about in line with what we knew
21:36as the gate.
21:37Right.
21:38So it's just about down here
21:40where you see the railing
21:42and the arch.
21:43Just about there.
21:44And kind of everywhere.
21:45In terms of actually, you know,
21:46moving out,
21:47was it a gradual thing?
21:48It was house by house?
21:49It was really tough.
21:50I mean, we didn't.
21:52No one wanted to move.
21:53What we had really here, Simon,
21:55was a village.
21:57Very strong local community
21:58in a real sense of a place.
22:01It's tough because, you know,
22:02my grandparents would have lived here
22:05and would have died here.
22:07It was only in the 1980s
22:08that our attitudes
22:09to these buildings
22:10began to thaw.
22:12The families in the Limery Castle
22:13estate were rehoused,
22:15allowing for a major archaeological dig.
22:18And millions has recently been spent
22:20on a visitor centre
22:21that brings the castle's dramatic history
22:23vividly to life.
22:28For 800 years,
22:29our castles represented conquest,
22:31colonisation,
22:32and English power.
22:34Now, they are just symbols.
22:36And how we treat them
22:37will define us.
22:42I think Ireland's grown up.
22:43We're in a post-colonial world now.
22:46We are independent.
22:48We're about to celebrate
22:49100 years of independence.
22:51So, these buildings
22:53are very much a part
22:54of our history,
22:55of our past.
22:56As I say,
22:57maybe they have unsavoury associations,
22:59but that doesn't mean
23:00we blot them out.
23:01We have to actually engage
23:02with them
23:03and what their story represents
23:05to better understand
23:06who we are today.
23:08No castle epitomises that sentiment
23:10more than Luttrell's town.
23:12Just a stone's throw from Dublin
23:14on the banks of the Liffey
23:15near Castle Nock.
23:18This house and the grounds
23:20in which it's in,
23:21it's probably one of the finest locations
23:23in Dublin.
23:24Queen Victoria visited here twice.
23:26Sir Geoffrey Luttrell was the first Luttrell
23:29to come to Ireland.
23:30He came from France
23:32and the name Luttrell comes from Luttre,
23:35the French for an otter.
23:37Well, the first bunch of them,
23:39they were very good,
23:40but later ones, they degenerated.
23:44And that's putting it mildly.
23:47Henry Luttrell was infamous
23:49as the traitor responsible
23:50for the defeat of the Irish
23:51at the Battle of Ockram
23:53and later members
23:54were renowned as Rakes.
23:56Henry's son, Simon,
24:01was a member of the outrageous society
24:04known as the Hellfire Club.
24:07They carried out the most awful debauchery.
24:11One friend of Luttrell's,
24:15Lord Barry of Santry,
24:17poured brandy over a waiter
24:20and set him on fire
24:22because the waiter had spilled
24:23some brandy on him
24:24and the waiter subsequently died.
24:26That's the sort of thing
24:28that they went all along.
24:29They got away with these things.
24:31The Luttrell family line
24:33became extinct in 1829
24:35and a wealthy Dublin bookseller
24:37and businessman, Luke White,
24:38purchased the estate
24:39for £180,000.
24:42And then, almost 100 years later,
24:44it was wished into the hands
24:46of one of the world's
24:47most glamorous women.
24:52When we think of Ireland
24:54in the 1950s,
24:55we tend to think of it
24:56as being a rather gloomy, grey place.
24:58But there were a few high spots
25:00and Luttrell's town
25:01would have been one of them.
25:02My father used to say
25:03that some cities
25:04have a green belt round them.
25:05Dublin was planned
25:06with a Guinness belt around it.
25:08By now,
25:09the Guinnesses were one
25:10of the richest families
25:11in the world.
25:12Dubliner, Ernest Guinness,
25:13headed up the brewery business
25:15and his three daughters
25:16were renowned
25:17for both their beauty
25:18and their wit.
25:21Once they all achieved adulthood,
25:22they became famously known
25:25as the Golden Guinness Girls,
25:26not least because of the expectations
25:29of very great wealth
25:30that they had
25:31and the flamboyance
25:33of their personalities
25:34and the fact
25:35that none of them
25:36were averse to publicity.
25:40Michael de la Casas,
25:41Eileen's grandson,
25:42has many fond memories
25:43of visits to the castle.
25:45The story is, and it's true,
25:50when she was small,
25:52she came here
25:53and sat on the wishing seat
25:54which is down in the Glen,
25:56as we called it.
25:57It's a Gothic folly
25:58and there's a wishing seat
25:59just there.
26:00And she sat on it,
26:01aged about five or six,
26:02and wished that Luttrell's town
26:04would be hers.
26:05And sure enough,
26:07in 1928,
26:09her father bought Luttrell's town
26:12for her as a wedding present.
26:14So her wish came true.
26:18So Eileen was the oldest
26:19of the three Golden Guinness Girls
26:21and definitely the most chic
26:22and the most stylish.
26:24And she had very good taste.
26:27That's the one thing
26:28you could say absolutely
26:29about Eileen,
26:30although not necessarily in men.
26:32New Year's Eve was always
26:34a big ball.
26:35Horse Show Week was always
26:37a couple of balls
26:38or certainly one big ball.
26:40She called them balls
26:41rather than parties.
26:42She'd even had a kitchen party
26:44once, a place where
26:45she didn't often go.
26:46And there were endless house parties
26:48which went on
26:49where she would invite
26:50most interesting people
26:51from around the world
26:53to come and stay.
26:54If you lasted into the 1960s
26:57and managed to hold on
26:58to your house
26:59and had sufficient funds,
27:00then you tended quite often
27:02to import your entertainment.
27:05In the 1960s
27:07when the twist became fashionable,
27:10she had a twist party here
27:13and she got Chubby Checker.
27:15She flew over Chubby Checker
27:16who was a great twist person
27:17from America
27:18to teach everyone
27:19how to do the twist.
27:21That one I have fond memories of
27:24as a small person.
27:25and she'd invite all the grandees
27:27of Ireland ambassadors
27:29and presidents
27:31and film stars
27:32and so on.
27:33And then she'd also invite
27:34local people as well.
27:35So she wasn't exclusive
27:37with one type of person.
27:39You must have been up
27:40and down these stairs
27:41a hundred times, were you?
27:42Mary Lawless worked
27:43as Eileen's lady-in-waiting
27:44for twenty years.
27:45Are they all lead up to
27:49Madame's room?
27:50Madame's bedroom, yes.
27:52So this is the Madame's room?
27:54Madame's bedroom, yes.
27:56Look at this, it's beautiful.
27:58And in through here then,
27:59what's in through here, Mary?
28:00In through here is the bathroom.
28:02Now that's a bathroom, Mary.
28:04That's a bathroom and this.
28:06Why is there so many cupboards?
28:09Well, it was all her personal clothing.
28:13It was all her gowns.
28:14Really?
28:15Yes, were here.
28:18All her gowns were here.
28:20And there was certain gowns
28:22for certain occasions.
28:24And this was a wash-in basin.
28:28It was a wash-in basin.
28:31This is her and that was his.
28:33Oh, so did his and hers lose?
28:34Yes.
28:35This is a connecting door
28:36through another bedroom.
28:38Another bedroom.
28:39It goes to another bedroom.
28:40It goes to another bedroom.
28:41It goes to another bedroom.
28:42The glorious Guinness girls,
28:43because all of them partied
28:45and all of them had many friends,
28:48you know, male friends
28:50over their period of life.
28:52Right, so where does this lead to, Mary?
28:54This leads to...
28:58So this is another bedroom.
29:00This is another bedroom.
29:01My grandmother was...
29:02Eileen was asked once,
29:03could we do...
29:05write a biography of you?
29:07And she said,
29:08oh, you can't possibly do that,
29:09my dear,
29:10because most of my lovers' wives
29:11are still alive.
29:12You know, so...
29:13So, um,
29:15the biography was never done.
29:18The 70s life went on pretty much as before,
29:21but by the late 70s
29:22and certainly the early 80s,
29:24for someone like Eileen Plunkett
29:26at Luttrellstown,
29:28it was time to move on.
29:31Her spending was beyond her means
29:33and she was depreciating her fortune,
29:37because all she knew
29:38was how to give really good parties.
29:42It simply wasn't sustainable,
29:44that kind of life any longer.
29:46And so, in 1983,
29:48the biggest auction of its time took place,
29:50catching the public imagination.
29:52The castle, along with 570 acres,
29:56is now expected to fetch
29:57almost three and a half million pounds.
30:00And the contents of the house
30:01should bring in a million pounds.
30:04Fortunately,
30:05the new owner bought most of the furniture
30:07and so the castle remains
30:08much as it did in Eileen's day.
30:10It was, I think, you know,
30:15Ireland is very lucky
30:16that the people who bought Luttrellstown
30:19from my grandmother
30:20did actually save it again.
30:23Every old house needs tender loving care.
30:26I believe there was quite a lot of damp
30:28and dry rot and whatever have you,
30:30but they completely saved it
30:32and kept it for the next however many hundred years.
30:35To paraphrase Monty Python,
30:41what have the Anglo-Normans ever done for us, eh?
30:44Well, they gave us rabbits,
30:46deers, knights on horseback,
30:49the cannon,
30:50some slaughtering,
30:51a bit of pillaging
30:53and thousands of castles.
30:55Scattered across most of the countryside,
30:58they mark a transition
30:59from an old form of life
31:01to what many people would recognise as Ireland today.
31:04And remember,
31:06around every castle,
31:07towns grew
31:08and businesses flourished.
31:11In the last 30 years,
31:13it seems that we are coming to terms
31:14with our tumultuous history
31:16and starting to appreciate
31:18these fantastic buildings
31:19for all their romance and grandeur.
31:22Yes, they are symbols to our English conquerors,
31:25but they're also a monument
31:27to a very colourful past
31:29and to all the Irish architects
31:31and craftsmen who built them.
31:33They are buildings that should be appreciated
31:35and cherished.
31:38The thing about castles is
31:40we regard them as objects of romance
31:42and, actually,
31:43that's why so many castles in Ireland
31:45were built in the late 18th,
31:46early 19th century,
31:47because they were perceived as being romantic.
31:50And all of us regard them,
31:52those sort of buildings,
31:53castellated buildings
31:54with lots of towers and turrets
31:56and so forth,
31:57as giving us instant access
31:59to a very romantic past.
32:01And I think that's the reason for their allure.
32:04Oh!
32:05Nothing can beat a medieval castle
32:06in terms of romance.
32:07You know, you look at
32:08Carrickfergus Castle, you know,
32:10or Trim,
32:12another stunning example
32:14of a great medieval castle.
32:16We've got Dunluce Castle,
32:17which is absolutely fabulous.
32:19Kilkenny Castle.
32:22Think about Lismore down in County Waterford.
32:25These are all extraordinary,
32:27beautiful buildings,
32:29great examples of architecture of their day
32:32that have now been beautifully restored
32:34and are great tourist attractions.
32:36Everyone,
32:37both us Irish and our tourists,
32:39love to visit a castle,
32:41whether it's the hundreds of ruins
32:42that dot the landscape
32:44or those that have survived intact
32:45as family homes or luxury hotels.
32:48Castle Leslie was put on the world map in 2002
32:51when the ex-Beatles' second marriage
32:54brought the world's press there in force.
32:57Of course,
32:58everybody knows about Castle Leslie
33:00ever since Sir Paul McCartney got married there.
33:02Remember that?
33:04Neither was he.
33:05Not supposed to tell anybody anything.
33:08So what we're going to do
33:09is basically a family wedding.
33:11So we're going to have family and friends
33:13and we're just going to have a bit of fun.
33:15I also heard about Sammy Leslie,
33:17the woman who turned a dilapidated country estate
33:20into one of the biggest employers of Monaghan today.
33:22She has restored Castle Leslie
33:24back to what it was in the 17th and 18th century.
33:27A working, thriving family estate.
33:30And I want to find out how she did it.
33:32One of the great achievements,
33:34obviously of the Lesleys,
33:36is that they're still there.
33:37And in other countries
33:39that mightn't seem to be
33:41such a substantial achievement.
33:43In Irish terms,
33:44it's a very big one indeed.
33:46Just holding on is quite something.
33:50It's not bad, is it?
33:51Huh?
33:52I'd say it costs a fortune to heat it though.
34:04Originally given to a Bishop Lesley
34:06for defeating a Cromwellian army in 1642,
34:09the history of the castle is as complicated as it is colourful.
34:13From nationalist politicians to British war heroes,
34:16UVF leaders to UFOs,
34:18Winston Churchill to Doctor Who,
34:20and an uncle who at 97 still goes to the local nightclub,
34:24the Lesleys are synonymous with both eccentricity and staying power.
34:28Oh, and they say the castle had the first inside bath in Ireland.
34:32So this is the eagle's nest.
34:34It is.
34:35It's one of my favourite rooms.
34:37Like a lot of my ancestors,
34:39I have a fascination for Victorian plumbing.
34:42And this room actually had the first plumb bath in Ireland.
34:46And what was amazing is that it was for the staff and the children.
34:49Not for the family?
34:50No, because plumbing was still too racy.
34:53I don't think I've ever heard plumbing described as racy.
34:59This is the mauve room, as you can see.
35:01Beautiful.
35:02So the list of guests in here,
35:03you must have had some luminary stay in this room.
35:05This would be one of the master rooms of the house,
35:07and it was redone in 1906
35:09when the Duchess and Duke O'Connor came to stay.
35:11He was Victoria's youngest son and my father's godfather.
35:14Right.
35:15So people like the King and Queen of Sweden
35:16would have stayed here over the years.
35:18Kings and queens have stayed in here.
35:20Who else has stayed here?
35:21The odd rock star Mick Jagger came here in the 1960s.
35:25Really?
35:26And unfortunately, while he was here,
35:28we had the local school girls
35:30coming from the local convent on their annual picnic.
35:33We forgot.
35:34And poor Mick was wandering through the garden,
35:36got spotted by the girls,
35:38who legged after him,
35:39with the nuns legging after him with habits flying.
35:42And we have the whole thing on family footage.
35:45And they then finally caught up with him
35:48and agreed not to tear him apart
35:49if they got autographs.
35:52What other kind of rock stars have you had in here?
35:54You must have had some serious celebs in here.
35:57Yes.
35:58But after the 1960s, we draw a line.
36:01It's Chatham House Rules.
36:03Which is?
36:04What happens inside these walls stays inside these walls.
36:08You can't even whisper a name to me.
36:09Nope.
36:10I'd have to take your toenails out if I did.
36:12Sammy's been fantastic because she's pioneered and been, you know,
36:16I'm allowed to say this about my own younger sister,
36:19but Sammy has been fantastic because she's pioneered
36:23a sustainable model of social development
36:26that involves the whole community,
36:28so that the village and the estate have come back
36:30into the symbiotic relationship.
36:34That they grew around each other over 400 years.
36:37Anyone in Ireland can go there and live like I said,
36:40I want to sleep in the bed that Prince Pierre of Monaco
36:43or WB Yeats or Mick Jagger slept in.
36:46It's open to all.
36:47Now that is a loo, Sammy.
36:50This is one of the first flushing toilets built indoors in Ireland.
36:54And this, like the bath, was upstairs for the staff
36:58and the nannies and governesses and the children.
37:00And our family crest.
37:02I want to change the S for an R but I chickened.
37:05I think she recognises that in relation to a family house,
37:08what people particularly cherish is the quality of it being a family house.
37:13Those coming to stay almost feel like they're not prepared
37:16like they're not paying guests, they're friends of the family.
37:19My dad's generation used to toboggan down the stairs
37:22on the Georgian silver tea trays
37:24and our pet trick was walking the ledge
37:28all the way round to wind our parents up.
37:31Must have frightened the lives of them.
37:33You see, he ended up over here.
37:34So the house was literally your playground.
37:36It was a huge playground.
37:38And this is the library, full of books.
37:41Dean Swift once complained that Castle Leslie
37:43has rows and rows of shelves
37:45upon which sit many books written by the Leslie's about themselves.
37:49And that was in the late 1700s.
37:51So they just went on to write another 200 more.
37:54Shane wrote 56 books, leaflets and pamphlets.
37:57And, of course, these are his three children.
38:00Young boy on the right's my father, Desmond.
38:02My aunt Anita and Uncle Jack on the left with the gun.
38:06Sammy's uncle Jack is one of a long line of colourful Lesleys
38:12and still lives in the castle.
38:19Jack, tell me about your family's connection with Churchill's family.
38:23Well, Churchill's mother and my father's mother were sisters.
38:28Ah.
38:29Jerome's.
38:30Jenny Jerome, Churchill's mother.
38:33Leonie Jerome, my grandmother.
38:37And tell me about your father, Jack.
38:39Tell me about Shane.
38:40He was at Gallipoli.
38:42Really?
38:43The terrible disaster at Gallipoli.
38:45Yeah.
38:46In the Ox and Bucks regiment.
38:48He had a nervous breakdown.
38:50And you yourself saw active service during the war then yourself?
38:55Second World War.
38:56Second World War.
38:57I was captured at Dunkirk.
38:58Right.
38:59So I was five years a prisoner.
39:01You were five years a prisoner?
39:03Five years to the day.
39:04I was captured in the Irish Guards at Boulogne trying to stop the Germans getting to Dunkirk.
39:11And how do you feel about your home now being...
39:16You know, it has so many visitors now from all over the world.
39:19How do you feel about it?
39:20Well, I rather like it.
39:21Do you really?
39:22People coming...
39:23The house was always full of people coming and going.
39:25Yes.
39:26A lot of servants, always movement.
39:28So it just goes on.
39:30It's still going on.
39:32Yes.
39:35What an amazing place to grow up, Sammy.
39:37Absolutely.
39:38I mean, look at that playground outside the windows.
39:40Oh, it was incredible.
39:42And I think the biggest privilege growing up...
39:45Well, there were two things.
39:46One was the freedom we had as children because we just spent all our time outside.
39:50We'd disappear after breakfast and come home at supper.
39:53And it's that last stage of innocence as a child where you could just disappear off for the day.
39:57I think what's really interesting is estates could be like companies.
40:01They're either well-run or they were just seen as something to strip money out of the country and fund a lifestyle somewhere else.
40:07But I think a well-run estate is like a well-run company and the money keeps going back into it.
40:12Yeah.
40:13And there's a very good working relationship and everybody is part of the whole process.
40:18I think what's really interesting is the estates that are still around are the estates that were well-run and had a good working relationship.
40:25And that's why they're still here.
40:39I think what we need to appreciate about all old buildings is that they were built by Irish craftsmen.
40:47So it doesn't matter who lived in them, who created them, our ancestors created them.
40:52Our ancestors were responsible for putting one stone on top of another, for designing very often the houses, for the plasterwork inside, for laying those floors.
41:01You know, for every detail within that building, those were our forebears.
41:06And we should celebrate their skills and their craftsmanship and we should appreciate therefore all that they achieved.
41:12And hold onto it because compared to many other countries, our architectural heritage is very small because of our history of disinterest and hostility.
41:24So what we have left, we should cherish.
41:27It's up to us to make sure that we preserve our physical heritage and our written heritage for future generations.
41:42Let's not repeat the mistakes of our forefathers.
41:50Admittedly, like most people, I just wasn't aware of the depth of history behind these castles.
41:55But over the last six weeks, I've been fascinated and entertained by stories of sieges and battles and feuding families, love stories and ghosts.
42:04And I hope, like me, you enjoy the journey.
42:07But most importantly, never stop appreciating these fantastic landmarks and the important part they played in our history.
42:15.
42:26.
42:30.
42:32Transcription by CastingWords
43:02CastingWords