History of Killua Castle the subject of new book

The long history of Killua Castle, outside Clonmellon, has been condensed and captured into a new book by a Wexford-based author, published in recent months.

Killua – A History is the culmination of extensive research by Andrew Hughes into the life, death and rebirth of the castle, which has strong connections to key historical figures like Sir Walter Raleigh and T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).

“From Georgian mansion to neo-Gothic castle to picturesque ruin – no structure has embodied the rise and fall of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy quite like Killua,” states the back cover blurb, and Hughes convincingly lays out the story of these undulating fortunes across 278 pages.

Myths, mysteries, scandals and the triumphs and defeats of political and military careers are “plotted against the turning points of Irish history”.

Killua Castle has exchanged hands many times over the years, but its present owner, Allen Sanginés-Krause, has made unprecedented efforts to knit together the history of the mansion, aided very much in doing so by the stories and folklore handed on by Clonmellon historians Eugene Sheridan and the late John Gavin.

However, for Dr Sanginés-Krause, “the picture remained rather sketchy and incomplete”.

He was, then, fortunate to receive, on his 60th birthday in 2019, a copy of a “bespoke book” written by Mr Hughes on the history of Killua. Dr Sanginés-Krause, seeing an “excellent first draft” for a publication, engaged the author to continue his research and finish the project.

“The final work is the product of careful research with an open but sceptical mind that looked as much as possible into original sources but was also capable of educated speculation when appropriate,” Dr Sanginés-Krause wrote.

“Killua – A History by Andrew Hughes is not only a book of local interest but also an important addition to the understanding of the historical evolution of Ireland’s ancient east from antiquity to the start of the present century.”

The story starts with the initial grant of the Killua estate to Captain Benjamin Chapman in the 1650s for his part in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

Shuttling back in time, it traces the roots of the Chapman family, and looks at life in Killua and its hinterland prior to the establishment of the Chapman baronetcy.

Accounts of the evolution of the mansion at Killua into its present castellated form follow, while a substantial chapter entitled ‘The Later Baronets’ takes the reader right up to the 20th century, ending with the break-up of the estate in the years prior to the Irish Revolution.

Hughes saves the best for last with a forensic account of the connections which the British soldier, archaeologist and diplomat T E Lawrence, known more commonly as Lawrence of Arabia, had to Killua.

This tail end of the story brings it right up to the modern day, when the castle slowly fell into ruin through the latter decades of the 20th century before being rescued by its new owner.

Hughes reflects: “It’s uncanny to think of the people mentioned in these pages who traipsed the same rood of Killua countryside, passed beneath the octagonal foyer, meandered the hallways, gazed from the windows at the rolling fields, the lakes and ruins and follies of the demesne. As we take our leave we can recall some of them: the passionate Sir Benjamin [Chapman] demanding satisfaction on [the] floor of the Irish House of Commons; Sir Thomas engaging a French fleet at Killala; Sir Montagu Lowther yielding to the waves in the Tasman Sea; the galleries and museum of Sir Benjamin James; Sir Montagu Richard at the gallop; the troubled soul of Sir Benjamin Rupert; Lady Caroline Margaret struggling to keep the estate intact; the ‘bright young things’ in boater hats and spats gambolling across Killua golf course; and finally, perhaps, Lawrence of Arabia gazing from a distance at his lost legacy.

“No doubt any one of them would have been overjoyed to see Killua rescued from ruin. Perhaps the greatest triumph of the reconstruction has been to see the principal function of the house restored: that of a beautiful family home.”

Andrew Hughes, the author, is an archivist, historian and novelist born in Wexford. He wrote a history of Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Square (1798-1922), published in 2011, and two novels, one of which, The Convictions of John Delahunt, was shortlisted for Crime Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.

Of Killua – A History, a biographer of Lawrence of Arabia, Dick Benson-Gyles has said: “A marvellous read full of engaging and densely detailed new information and rare illustrations, it is a comprehensive history of the family and its seat… Had Lawrence been alive today, I have little doubt he would have wasted no time in acquiring the book and according it pride of place among his most treasured volumes.”