Burke of Lismore

© Donal G. Burke 2013

Fergus Madden, the last of the Maddens to reside at Lismore castle in the parish of Clonfert in east Galway, married Catherine Madden alias Donnellan and had a son Joseph and four daughters, Mary, Dorothy, Catherine and Christian.[i] He died after falling from his horse on the 7th September 1687 and was buried at Meelick friary.[ii] As his son and heir Joseph Madden died between 1684 and 1687, the administration of the estate was given to his widow and three of his daughters, Maria, Dorothy and Christian.[iii] His widow Catherine remarried, on the second occasion to one Richard Burke and she and her second husband claimed Lismore and other property as her dowry.[iv] Lismore Castle and estate, however, passed to Mary, the eldest daughter of Fergus Madden and her husband, Miles Burke of Cloghroak.

The ruins of Lismore castle, County Galway in the early twenty-first century.

Burkes of Cloghroak

Maria Madden’s husband Miles descended from a senior branch of the Burkes who had been established about Cloghroak or Clogheroke in the parish of Ardrahan, Co. Galway from an early period. Their family lands lay between the modern villages of Craughwell, Ardrahan and Kilchreest in Clanricarde to the west of the town of Loughrea. John Burke of Clogheroke held the office of Sheriff of the lordship of Clanricarde during the lifetime of Ulick 1^st Earl of Clanricarde.[v] Having been deemed to have ‘well and faithfully executed the office of sheriff’ of Clanricarde since the death of the first Earl in 1543, he was permitted to continue in that role until he be directed otherwise by the Crown and, as such, he would receive the profits due to that office.[vi]

Shane óg son of John son of Edmund Burke was given as one of the three chief men of the barony of Dunkellin in 1574. At that time he held the castle of Clogheroke, the castle of Corbally and that of Mannin, within a mile of Clogheroke in the same barony and in the barony of Kiltartan the castle of Tullira and Carnan castle in the barony of Clare.

The sons of Shane oge of Cloghroak

His sons were prominent rebels against the Crown in the late 1570s and early 1580s during the rebellion of Ulick and John Burke, sons of Richard, 2nd Earl of Clanricarde. The family were regarded as ‘of the greatest patrimony there next to the Earl, and very closely related.[vii] In or about 1565 Ulick Burke, the elder of the rebellious sons of the Earl (and later 3^rd Earl of Clanricarde), married Onora, daughter of Shane oge Burke of Cloghroak.[viii]

The sons of Shane oge were held by the English administrators of the province to be ‘the only mischievous and very best men of Clanricard excepting only the Earl’s sons’.[ix] The eldest of these sons of Shane Oge; Shane reagh, was a principal supporter of the Earl’s son John and about 1580 was regarded by the administration as his ‘only upholder.’[x] Shane reagh’s lands within the branches wider territory lay near Clogheroke about his (ie. Shane reagh’s) castle of Creggymulgreny in the parish of Killogilleen.[xi] He was executed in the Summer of 1580.[xii]

Rebels killed at Creggymulgreny

In mid March 1581 William McShane oge, one of the sons of Shane oge Burke of Cloghroak left the rebels and came over the English. Sir Nicholas Malbie, governor of the province, described this son of Shane oge as ‘a gentleman of Clanrycard, and one of the greatest patrimony there next to the Earl, and his very near kinsman.’ A brother-in-law of Ulick Burke, (the Earl’s son), Ulick deprived him ‘of all his living’ since he turned away from his previous rebellious activities, which, according to Malbie, was ‘a general course held by the Irishry against all such as do adhere unto Her Majesty.’[xiii] William McShane oge informed the English of certain background details to the Earl’s sons rebellion and other information he provided would lead to the killing by English soldiers of an O Kelly and another, ‘two notorious villains.’ [xiv]

About that same time several hundred rebels held out against the forces of the Crown at the ‘town’ or settlement about Creggymulgreny, between Ardrahan and Loughrea.[xv] While Shane reagh Burke had been executed the previous summer, several of his brothers were still out in rebellion. It would also appear that at least three of his other brothers; Hubert, Redmond and Ulick were supporters of the Earl of Clanricarde’s rebellious son John.[xvi]

Soldiers garrisoned in the wider district under Captains Acre and Mordant attacked Creggymulgreny on the last day of March 1581, killing about two hundred people including ‘two gentlemen,’ one of the sons of Shane oge Burke and the five year old son of the Earl’s daughter Mary, wife of the rebel leader O Rourke.[xvii] (Thomas Roche, the constable at Ballinasloe reported that only one of the sons of Shane oge was killed while Malbie, eight days later, gave the figure as three sons.) [xviii]

Among the other sons of Shane oge were Thomas and William. The former was present at the castle of Leitrim in east Galway about 1604 when giving evidence under oath relating to the marriage of the Earl’s son Ulick to their sister and was seated at Tullira in the seventeenth century.[xix] (Thomas Mc Shane oge of ‘Tulierie’ and Una Ny Thomas of the same, alongside William Mc Shane oge of Cloghacroky, were among the many issued a general pardon by the Crown in 1603.)[xx]

Other sons of Shane Oge Burke appear to have been Hobert mcShane Oge, Redmond McShane Oge and Ulick McShane Oge, all of whom were given pardons in September of 1582 at the request of John Burke the Earl’s son, suggesting that they were still aligned with him at that time.[xxi]

Another individual, one Gerald McShane oge of Clanricard was pardoned at this time also but not alongside the other sons of Shane Oge at the suit of John the Earl’s son. His place among the sons of Shane oge is confirmed by one James McGeralt Burke, in all likelihood his son, resident at Cregganmulgreny and holding a portion of the castle of Corbally alongside a number of his uncles about 1619.

Shane oge, and his sons William, Hubert, Ulick, Henry, Redmond and James McGeralt held lands principally in the barony of Dunkellin in 1619.[xxii] Both Shane oge and William were described at that time as of Cloghroak, while Hubert, Ulick, James, Henry and Redmond were described as of Cregganmulgreny. Hubert, Ulick and James lands were confined to the barony of Dunkellin and each held a fifth share of the castle of Corbally.

Both Shane oge and his son William were the largest landholders of the branch, with the latter holding extensive lands in both the baronies of Dunkellin and Kiltartan.[xxiii]

Late seventeenth century

The Burkes continued at Cloghroak for some time. John Burke of Cloghroak, great grandson of Shane oge had at least seven sons; Miles, Thomas, John, Dominick, William, Ulick and Richard and died in 1681.[xxiv] John’s eldest son Miles of Cloghroak married Mary, daughter of Fergus Madden of Lismore while from John’s younger son William descended the Burkes of Ballydugan, Co. Galway.[xxv]

William Burke of ‘Cloghrocker,’ gentleman, was one of the many Galway Jacobites indicted for high treason after the accession to the throne of King William III, while Captain Richard Burke of ‘Cloghroka’ had his case for admission to the benefit of the articles of Limerick adjudicated under the court of claims in 1699.[xxvi] Another of the family, Thomas Burke of Cloghroak, became a Dominican and having studied in Louvain, Paris and Rome, was appointed Prior of the convent of St. Sixtus in Rome in 1683. Three years later he was appointed Prior of the Dominican Convent at Athenry and held that office until his return to Rome in 1697, whereupon he was re-appointed Prior of St. Sixtus and died abroad in 1724.[xxvii] The will of Oliver Burke of Cloghroak, Co. Galway, esq. was proved in 1724.[xxviii]

Intermarriage of the Burkes with the Maddens of Lismore

The Maddens of Lismore were doubly connected by marriage to this Burke family with two Madden sisters marrying into the Cloghroak family. Christian, daughter of Fergus Madden of Lismore married Ulick Burke of Cloghroak prior to 1687 but Ulick predeceased Christian. The couple had at least one daughter, Evelina, who would later be buried in the friary church in Meelick.[xxix] Christian married thereafter John ffrench of Derryffrench, County Galway.

Miles Burke, husband of Mary Madden, was the senior-most member of the family and played a prominent part in the political affairs of the Galway in the late seventeenth century. He was still described as ‘of Clogheroke’ while serving as one of the Commissioners appointed by King James II in 1690 to fix the rate of taxation within the county of Galway.[xxx] Miles of Clogheroke and Mary Madden had one son, John Burke of Lismore, who was twelve years of age when his father died in 1692. His mother Mary Madden died sometime between 1689 and 1696 and John was placed under the guardianship of John Eyre of Eyrecourt.[xxxi]

John Burke of Lismore

John had been resident at Lismore since at least the age of twenty.[xxxii] A Roman Catholic and tertiary of the Franciscan Order, he married Alice, daughter of William Brabazon of Ballinasloe and maintained the long connection between the house at Lismore and the Franciscan friary at Meelick, to which he proved a good benefactor.[xxxiii] Their marriage produced no surviving male heir and their only daughter, Mary married, while quite young, the Hon. James Burke, third son of John 9^th Earl of Clanricarde.[xxxiv] Mary’s husband, however, died in August of 1718 on the same day that their only child, Letitia, was born. Letitia had been left in ward to her father’s ‘friend and relative’, Edmund Burke of Birr. Some time before his son’s death the Earl settled the castle and lands of Clondegoffe on the western shore of Lough Derg on John Burke and he was described as ‘of Clondegoffe’ at his death. Mary Burke still held Clondegoffe as his widow in 1718.[xxxv]

Five years after her husband’s death, Mary Burke entered upon a second marriage. Articles of agreement were signed in April of 1723 between John Burke of Lismore, Esq. and his only daughter and heiress apparent Hon. Mary Burke on the one part and Charles Daly of Hardwood, Co. Galway Esq. and his only son and heir apparent Anthony Daly on the other part concerning a marriage between Mary and Anthony. The marriage was to be had and solemnised on or before 10th May of that year and provision was made in the articles for Mary’s daughter Letitia Burke upon her reaching her eighteenth year.[xxxvi] John Burke of Lismore died, aged about sixty-five years, on the 15^th November of 1745 and was buried in the Franciscan church at Meelick.[xxxvii] He was survived at Lismore by his widow Alice, who would live for another fifteen years, and by his daughter and sole heiress, Mary. Through Mary’s second marriage, to Anthony Daly, the Daly family would eventually succeed the Burkes at Lismore Castle.

Mary had a monumental stone erected in the church at Meelick to the memory of her father, placed below that mural tablet erected earlier by her great grandfather Fergus Madden.  The tablet dedicated to John Burke, however, survived only until the late nineteenth century, at which time  it was lost in restoration work, along with many others.

Plan of Meelick Roman Catholic Church, parish of Meelick, showing the approximate location of the burial place of the Burkes of Lismore