Westropp — Ancient Castles of the County of Limerich. 71 



may ayail ourselves, through its close connexion with Clare, of the 

 light thrown on the peel towers by the "List of Founders of the 

 castles in the latter county. The question is closely connected 

 with that of the repair of the churches, and gets corroborated and 

 checked by recorded facts of ecclesiastical buildings. Following the 

 analogy of the ''Founders' List," we may conclude that some of the 

 peel towers date back to about 1380, still more from 1400 to 1450, 

 and a great majority from that to 1500, with a few at intervals 

 down to 1540, when a later and more commodious type of residence 

 came into being. The long comparative peace in Ireland during 

 the reigns so warlike and perturbed in England, and the successful 

 trade of the seaports and even of the little inland towns, helped the 

 movement ; and the Irish chiefs claimed and were paid customs which 

 paid better than pillage.^ The towers were not castles, but strong 

 houses, intended to resist petty plunderers rather than even the 

 feeblest siege operations. This gives them merely the interest of 

 being the residence of those who ''made history"; they rarely played 

 any part in war,^ and are devoid of those thi'illing memories which 

 cling like the ivy round the walls of the castles of England, France, 

 and the Ehine land. 



They also recall the fact that down to nearly 1470 the English 

 dwelt under the mainly fair Government of the Crown. " The lords 

 and gentlemen wore English habit, kept good English order, and the 

 laws were well obeyed. The king derived 2000 marks a year, and 

 the Earl of Desmond's income was about £500. Thomas and James, 

 Earls of Desmond, changed all this ; the latter put coigne and livery 

 on the king's subjects for the first time, when he was appointed 

 Governor (1472) ; and in his grandson's time, in 1515, the Geraldines 

 are said to have derived the incredible sum of £10,000 a year off 

 the irestates, while the Crown revenue in Limerick had almost 

 dwindled to nothing."* 



1 See Catalogue of Irish MSS. in the British Museum (S. H. O'Grady), and 

 Proc. R.I. A., Series iii., vol. v., p. 451. 



-Limerick paid O'Brien of Thomond and O'Brien Arra £40 each and dues 

 (Carew MSS. i.). In the Inquisition of 1542, Mahon O'Brien of Carrigogunnell 

 took \d. for each barrel of wine, and 2(1. for each other barrel. O'Kahane of 

 Keilrush, Clare, took 6c?. on each ship ; the Macnamaras, '2d. on each barrel, co\r, 

 and horse, and 6s. M. on every man wearing a cap. O'Brien of Thomond took 

 the same imposts except the last. Donough O'Brien took 20d. a pack, and bd. 

 a horse-load, from Limerick to Waterford. 



^ And accordingly are hardly ever mentioned in the Irish Records. 



* Carew Calendar, vol. i., p. 6. Lodge (citing Davies) asserts that Thomas an 



R.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXVI., SEC. c] [8J 



