The legacy of John de Courcy

The legacy of John de Courcy

15 April 2020

THE story starts in 1177 when the Norman soldier-adventurer, Sir John de Courcy, went north from Dublin, the headquarters of Norman power in Ireland, and arrived at Downpatrick on February 2.

De Courcy was a man of great physical strength and size. He was also brave and daring. He now attempted to conquer all of Ulster, which King Henry II had granted to him five years before. He gathered around him about 320 knights and archers, who, with their attendants, made up about one thousand men. 

Downpatrick was the capital of the Gaelic Kingdom of Ulidia. But de Courcy’s men were half starved when they reached the town; they stole everything that they could lay their hands upon – they ate and drank, plundered and killed, until half of Downpatrick was in ruin.

Almost at once the Gaelic king, Mac Dunleavy, came with a large force to attack de Courcy. He went out to meet Mac Dunleavy, and chose a strategic place to make an attack. The Gaels rushed in with great bravery, but they were unable to break the ranks of the Normans and after a fierce fight they were repulsed with great loss.

But the Ulidians put up a most determined resistance. The valiant de Courcy attacked the Gaels as many as three times that year. De Courcy then suffered a number of reverses, so that it was an effort to hold his ground.

He was defeated near Newry with the loss of 450 men and was intercepted in one of his many raids by the Dalaradian king, Cumee O’Flynn. He escaped from the battlefield with only eleven companions and having lost their horses they fled on foot for two days and two nights, closely pursued, without food or sleep.

But in other battles de Courcy was victorious, so that as the year passed his position in Ulster was strengthened. Now he started to build Dundrum Castle, along with Carrickfergus at a later date. The failure of local government in Down, now prompted King Henry II to make de Courcy the justiciar — or viceroy — in Ireland. During this time Connaught was invaded, de Courcy burning and slaying after his usual fashion.

He was confronted by two kings from Munster and Thomond, who had united armies. Not venturing to make battle, he retreated northwards to save himself and his forces from destruction. He arrived in Ballysadare on the Sligo coast, with the enemy pursuing closely behind. He set fire to the buildings and fled south east.

As he was crossing the Curlew Hills de Courcy was overtaken by the Gaels, who fell upon his men and killed a greater number of them. It was with difficulty that he escaped to Leinster with what remained of his army. 

De Courcy had enemies at court, chief among them being Hugh de Lacy, who poisoned King John’s mind against him. He was proclaimed a rebel and a traitor. De Lacy, now Lord Justice, was sent to arrest him.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts de Courcy was at length betrayed by some of his own servants who led him to his retreat at Downpatrick, where he was taken in 1204. His enemies came down upon him on Good Friday when he was barefooted and unarmed, doing penance in Down Cathedral. He snatched the nearest weapon, a great wooden cross, with which he dashed out the brains of many of his attackers before he was overpowered.

Between his arrival at Downpatrick in 1177 and his expulsion in 1204 de Courcy founded many religious establishments, built abbeys for the Benedictines and the Cistercians and the great fortress of Dundrum Castle, then known as Rath.

He had chosen a good site on a 200-foot high hill overlooking an inlet in Dundrum Bay in the plains of Lecale and the pass between the Mourne Mountains and the foothills of Slieve Croob.

It is not known when the main keep was built, but it was a remarkable achievement in military science and architecture by the knights who had come back from the Holy Land on crusade. The diameter of the keep is 46 feet, and it is 52 feet high.

But as a result of trouble in Downpatrick, de Courcy lost control of Dundrum Castle along with Carrickfergus Castle in Co Antrim. In the year after his expulsion de Courcy tried to recapture Dundrum Castle, now held by his father-in-law, the King of the Isle of Man. De Courcy’s attempts ended in failure and the castle became crown property. In 1218 it was visited by King John.

Dundrum Castle consisted of two storeys with wooden floors above the basement, and the original entrance on the ground floor. Chambers and passages were constructed along with a staircase rising to the walk wall.

For over two centuries from 1346 the history of the castle is barely documented. It appears that the Magennises seized Dundrum sometime in the 14th century and held it intermittently until it was surrendered to the Crown by Phelim Magennis in 1601. The Savages appear to have been the owners when the Earl of Kildare took it in 1517. 

The castle was granted to Lord Cromwell in 1605, then sold in 1636 by his grandson, the first earl of Ardglass, to Sir Francis Blundell.

During the rising of 1641 the Magennises retrieved the castle, but it was recaptured by the Parliamentarians, who partly demolished it in 1652. By 1954 the castle and grounds were placed into state care.

Perhaps more than anywhere else in Ireland, Dundrum reflects the Anglo-Irish spirit – the work of the great de Courcy, the soldier-knight adventurer. Today Dundrum Castle is a ruin. De Courcy’s other achievement in Ulster, Carrickfergus Castle, is the best preserved Norman castle in Ireland.