The Irish Chateaux

The Irish Chateaux by Renagh Holohan looks back over many centuries of migration between Ireland and France, beginning with the ‘flight of the earls’ in 1607 when military defeat at Kinsale, followed by exile, initiated a tradition sustained by political and economic necessity in subsequent years.

The text, lavishly illustrated by over fifty pen-and-ink drawings by Jeremy Williams, tells the stories of individual families and their chateaux, which number among the finest buildings in France. Soldiers, slavers, wine-producers, statesmen and entrepreneurs, many bear illustrious names and made lasting contributions to their host culture – the O’Mahonys and the Butlers of northern France, the Walshs of the Loire, the Hennessys of Cognac, the Bartons, Boyds and O’ Byrnes of Bordeaux and Aquitaine, the MacMahons of Burgundy, the O’Neills and de Plunketts of Paris, the Dillons, MacCarthys and O’Briens of the Irish Brigades.

The narrative begins and ends with Irish women memoirists: the celebrated Mme de la Tour du Pin, born Lucy Dillon; and the hitherto-unknown Lady Isabella Fitzgerald, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Leinster and niece of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.

A delightful, informative guide, with map and gazetteer, it will apeal to traveller, historian, student, genealogist and Francophile alike. This new impression of a classic study contains an extended listing of chateaux and Further Reading.