School: Borrisoleigh (roll number 590)

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1. The O'Dwyer's Barrel

   

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   So bitterly did the O'Dwyers and Burkes hate each other that neither gave nor expected quarter in battle.
   The following story indicates that sometimes the aged were made prisoners and ill-treated.
   It is related, that when almost all the fighting men of the Burke clan had gone to the aid of the Purcells of Loughmore in their strife against the O'Fogartys, the O'Dwyers attacked Borrisoleigh Castle and succeeded in making Richard Burke and his wife prisoners. Richard is said to have been about ninety years of age and his wife over eighty.
   The story goes that they were conveyed to Culloghill Castle and executed in the following manner. For those whom they bitterly hated the O'Dwyers had a large barrel studded on the inside with long iron spikes. Into this it is said the old man was forced in the presence of his wife. Then the barrel was sent rolling down the steep hill on which the castle stood, and this inhuman cruelty was repeated until the prisoner showed no sign of life.
   The old woman, according to the legend, was liberated and allowed to return to her people to tell the tale of her husband's awful death.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

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   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. historical and commemorative structures (~6,794)
   2. place-space-environment
      1. land management (~4,110)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   William Connors

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Castlequarter, Co. Tipperary

   Informant

   Mrs Mahon

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   80

   Address

   Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary