7000 to 6400 BC
Radio-carbon datings on animal remains as well as hearths and stone
implements indicate that a human settlement exists during the Stone
Age at Lough Boora, about 22 kilometres north east of Birr.
c. 3500 BC
The discovery of over two hundred artifacts, including spearheads,
buckets, axe heads and swords at Dowris, roughly 8 kilometres north
east of Birr give evidence for more human settlement in the Bronze
Age.
c. 540 AD
Saint Brendan of Birr founds an early Christian monastery. Brendan
died about 571 AD. This year also marks the first written mention
of the people later called the O'Carrolls (Eile Ui Chearbhaill).
697 AD
Adamnan, Abbott of Iona for the period 679-704 AD, assembles a
conference of local chieftain and cleric at Birr. This is an attempt
to improve social conditions, especially for non-warrior members
of society and results in a law called the Cain Adamnain, the text
of which still exists.
c. 800 AD
Macregol's Gospels, also known as The Book of Birr (an illuminated
manuscript copy of the gospels) is written.
c. 950 AD
Cearbhall becomes high chieftain of an area including south Offaly
and North Tipperary, and establishes the O'Carroll dynasty, which
rules until the English plantations of the !7th Century. The O'Carrolls
have connections with about 40 castles around this area, and they
are powerful enough to resist domination by Anglo Norman invaders.
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Tadgh O'Carroll is killed at the battle of Callen.
He had commissioned the shrine decoration for the Book of Dimma
and his daughter Margaret O'Carroll continues the tradition of cultural
and social patronage. The O'Carrolls intermarry with many powerful
clans, including the Butlers of Ormond, the O'Connors Faly and the
Fitzgeralds of Kildare. In the 16th century, the wife of Fergaainn
O'Carroll is the daughter of Garrett Og Fitzgerald and the sister
of the famous"Silken Thomas".
1594
Birr Castle, then one of the major O'Carroll strongholds is sold
to the Earl of Ormond and the O'Carrolls lose power and influence
as the English plantation policy takes hold. The Jacobean and Cromwellian
plantations establish the English shire system and Co. Offaly is
renamed King's County.
(The dates on this time-line now represent the period of occupancy
of the male members of the Parson's family, as successors to the
estate.)
Sir Laurence Parsons (1620-1628)
Sir Laurence Parsons is granted 1,277 acres of land, takes possession
of Birr town in 1620 and commences the tradition, which continues
to the present, of making Birr Castle the home of the Parsons family.
He starts weekly markets as well as a glass factory. He also lays
down ordinances for the townsfolk: those who 'cast
dunge, rubbidge, filth or sweepings in the forestreet'
are fined 4d. Those who lit fires in their houses other than in
stone chimneys are to be banished from the town, and any woman serving
beer as a barmaid is 'to bee sett in the
stocks by the constable for 3 whole markett dayes'.
Most of the castle today dates from the time of Sir Lawrence. He
builds a 'dwellin house' over
and around the gate house of the original fortress which forms the
centre of the present castle, and either builds or restores two
flanking towers on either side. A generation later these towers
are incorporated into the house.
Sir Richard Parsons(1628-1634)
Sir William Parsons (1634 -1653)
The Molloys, Coghlands and Ormonds set fire to the town, 'blew
upon their bagpipes and beat upon their drums and fell a dauncinge
in the hills'. The castle is besieged and finally capitulates,
when one of the masons, who had been involved in the construction
of the flanker, places a mine underneath it.
Sir Laurence Parsons (1653 -1698)
Birr, garrisoned by the Williamites, is besieged by the army of
the Duke of Berwick. Cannon balls fly through the parlour window,
leaving marks in the walls of the north flanker which are there
to this day. Lady Parson gave up the lead cistern she uses for salting
beef to be melted down for bullets, and the besieging army is finally
repulsed. The sieges leave their mark on the park as well as on
the castle, and the lines from which the castle is besieged can
still be seen leading to Cromwell's Hollow. In spite of these disturbances
the beginnings or the Formal Gardens are laid out at this time and
the Famous Box Hedges are planted. The wives and daughters of the
house grow vegetables, collected medicinal remedies - those for
the curing of 'green wounds' and 'bruises
inward or outward caused by fall or blow' presumably proving useful
in times of trouble. In a firm hand with uninhibited spelling they
wrote cookery recipes for preserving their fruits and vegetables
for 'chicking frigasee' and
'harticoake pie'.
Sir William Parsons (1698 -1740)
Peace returns to Birr. Sir William Parsons, the second baronet,
establishes a friendship with the composer Handel, who gave him
an engraved walking stick in consideration of the patronage which
led to the Messiah being first performed in Dublin.
Sir Laurence Parsons (1740 - 1757)
Sir Williams grandson, another Sir William, the fourth baronet,
begins to landscape the park. He turns bog into lake, plants beech
trees and removes the last of the old towers of the original fortress
so as to complete the sweeping view of his beautiful park.
He also devotes much of his time to the Volunteer movement which
sprang up towards the end of the eighteenth century, ostensibly
to defend Ireland from the threat of French invasion, but effectively
to force the English Government to give concessions to the Irish
Parliament.
Sir William Parsons (1757 - 1791)
The buildings in Emmet Square and Emmet Street are developed in
the town square fashion. Georgian house styles are established,
with their distinctive paneled doors surround by fanlights and sidelights.
Sir Laurence Parsons (1791- 1841)
Sir Williams son, Sir Laurence Parsons, becomes the Second Earl
of Rosse. He is a leading opponent of the Act of Union of 1800 (which
is an attempt to strengthen English direct rule in Ireland). He
renovates the castle and and assists in the building of the churches.
Sir Lawrence,fifth baronet, became well-known as a patriot statesman,
whose friend and colleague,Wolfe Tone, referred to him as 'one
of the very, very few honest men in the Irish House of Commons'.
This honesty leads him not only to oppose the Act of Union with
all his strength, but also to expose the bribery the British used
to push it through.
Sir Lawrence retires from politics at the beginning of the 19th
century, disgusted at the Act of Union, he later accepts the post
of Joint Postmaster General and has Dublin's magnificent General
Post Office built during his term of office. He devotes the rest
of his life to literature (being a great friend of Maria Edgeworth)
and to building. The castle begins to take its final form at this
time with Sir Lawrence turning the old house back to front in order
to face the park, heightening and crenellating it in the new Gothic
style and adding the great Gothic saloon whose windows can be seen
looking down on the waterfalls of the river Camcor. In 1807 Sir
Lawrence inherits from his uncle in County Longford the title of
Earl of Rosse and has by this time married Alice Lloyd of Gloster.
He disapproves of sending his children away to school and they are
brought up by tutors at home in an enlightened atmosphere of building
and construction and even engineering. For instance it is during
this time that the Suspension Bridge is built over the Camcor. This
is the earliest known anywhere and is first described in 1826 as
a 'curious wire bridge which hangs as if
it were suspended in the air just under the castle'.
William Parsons, Third Earl of Rosse (1841 - 1867)
The details of the life and achievements of the Third Earl and
the male heirs to Birr Castle Demesne are dealt with in more detail
in the astronomy, photography, engineering and botanical sections
of this site.
Laurence Parsons, Fourth Earl of Rosse (1867 -1908)
William Edward Parsons, Fifth Earl of Rosse (1908 - 1918)
Laurence Michael Parsons, Sixth Earl of Rosse (1918 - 1979)
William Brendan Parsons, Seventh Earl of Rosse (1979 - present
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