This
Desmond family are descended from
Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan, a companion-in-arms of
Strongbow Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, the Norman conqueror of Ireland. He went to Ireland in 1168, being sent with ten knights, twenty esquires, and one hundred archers, to assist
Dermot MacMurrough, king of
Leinster. He died 1 September 1177, buried in the friary of the
Grey Friars of
Wexford. According to another legend, in the early 16th century under
Elizabeth I, England set about enforcing loyalty in the western parts of Ireland. When one of her ships came up to the Knight of Glin's castle on the
Shannon Estuary, a fierce battle ensued. The ship's captain managed to capture one of the Knight's sons and sent the Knight a message that he should surrender or else the son would be put in one of the ship's cannons and fired against the castle wall. He replied that as he was virile and his wife was strong, it would be easy to produce another son. ::The tradition about the siege of
Glin castle differs in many respects from the facts as given by Carew in
Pacata Hibernia. We do know that tradition can be a completely distorting mirror, but the popular memory of a local event such as a battle, siege or massacre would be more vivid and more lasting and in essence more trustworthy than Carew's narrative, who was prejudiced and gives a complete travesty of the facts. ::The garrison of the castle, according to tradition, was divided into two sections, one of which was commanded by
Donall na Searrach Culhane and the other by
Tadhg Dore. Before the siege began, Carew, who had the knight's child as hostage, sent an order to the knight to surrender the castle at once or else he would blow the child out of the mouth of the cannon. The knight's answer was remembered but can only be rendered here by algebraic symbols:
Gread leat. Ta X go meidhreach fos agus Y go briomhar. Is fuiriste leanbh eile do gheiniuint. ::The assault on the castle then began under the command of Capt. Flower but was beaten back with slaughter by the defenders. Three brothers named Giltenan played a heroic part in repulsing the attack and slew some of the best of Flower's men. Carew called up fresh reinforcements, which he placed under the leadership of
Turlough Roe MacMahon, who lived at
Colmanstown castle,
County Clare, almost opposite Glin. Turlough was a man of evil reputation who had already committed many dreadful crimes against his own kith and kin and against the Irish people at large. He was the father of the celebrated
Maire Ruadh MacMahon. He is referred to in a poem of the time as :::
Traolach Ruadh an fhill agus an eithigh :::do mhairbh a bhean agus a leanbh in eineacht. ("Turlough Roe, the turncoat and vulture,/Killed his wife and child together.") ::The second assault also failed, but Turlough was determined to carry it through, for he hated with a hatred which evil men are known to feel towards those they have mortally injured. In the meantime the cannonading had played havoc with the defences of the castle. In the third attempt MacMahon was able to move in a large body of men who, after a gallant defence by the garrison, succeeded in capturing the castle. The Giltenans, Tadhg Dore and his brother, and Donall Culhane and two of his sons were slain in the final defence. Some of the garrison tried to escape by jumping into the water surrounding the castle, but only three men succeeded in getting away. These were Mahon Dillane, Lewy O'Connor and Donall Beag Culhane (whose father was slain in the last defence of the castle). The "old castle" of Glin, the scene of the above battle, is a ruin. The tower still stands with a historic plaque in place. After the destruction of the old castle, the Knights built the "new castle", a
Georgian mansion, on the banks of the
Shannon Estuary about a mile west of the old site. The last Knight lived there until his death (as well as in
Dublin and
London). The 17th Knight,
Gerald FitzGerald, was a Member for
County Limerick in the Irish
Patriot Parliament of 1689, called by
James II during the
Williamite war. Under the
Penal Laws of the 18th century, the Knights converted to the
Church of Ireland to preserve their property. The surrounding villagers remained
Roman Catholics, a division indicated today by the two churches in the village of Glin. Following the war of independence and during the ensuing Civil War, in the early 1920s,
Irish Republican Army (IRA) soldiers, from nearby
North Kerry came to the 27th Knight Desmond FitzJohn Lloyd FitzGerald to tell him that no one whose title to land came from the English Crown could keep their land. The Knight immediately produced a document in
Latin, supposedly from
Duke of Normandy, indicating that his title did not originate from the English Crown at all. The baffled IRA men left the Knight with his properties, which he holds to this day. Another version of the incident relates how the then Knight, who was an invalid and used a wheelchair, refused to leave the mansion when ordered to do so, as the IRA intended to set it alight. He insisted on staying, they left, and the mansion still stands. The 29th and last Knight (dormant or extinct) was Desmond FitzGerald, son of
Desmond Wyndham Otho FitzGerald, 28th Knight of Glin. He had a
MFA degree from
Harvard University. He was married, firstly in 1966, to
Louise Vava Henriette Lucie Le Bailly de La Falaise, the daughter of Count
Alain de la Falaise and his wife, the former
Maxime Birley. By his second, the former
Olda Ann Willes, whom he married in 1970, he had three daughters:), Nesta and Honor. He represented the art auctioneers
Christie's in Ireland and was elected president of the
Irish Georgian Society. Since he had no male heir, the title Knight of Glin became apparently dormant or extinct. There has been some speculation that there is an heir male of the body needing to prove their claim to the title, surviving through the 24th Knight of Glin,
Lt. Col. John Fraunceis FitzGerald's second son
Edmond Urmston McLeod FitzGerald, who was born in 1817 at
Glin Castle and who married
Ellen Sullivan, born in Ireland, 1822, died in
Ogdensburg, New York, United States, in December 1895. Children, born in Ireland: Edmond Urmston, deceased. Richard, mentioned below. John Fraunceis, living in Ogdensburgh, Margaret. Gerald, who died in Ireland. ==Knights of Glin==