Bargy Castle is a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

fortress near the village of Tomhaggard in the Barony of Bargy,

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, some south-west of

Wexford town Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 Nat ...

. The name Bargy derives from ''Ui Bhairrche'', the name of a local tribe. The building is a square keep to which two wings have been added at right angles during the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. The keep itself is in good condition, having been renovated several times.

History

From the 15th century, the castle was occupied by the Rossiter family until 1667, when it was confiscated by Cromwell in response to Rossiter's part in the defence of Wexford. It was then granted to William Ivory, who sold it to the Harvey family. It came down to Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, the commander of the Wexford insurgents in the

Wexford Rebellion The Wexford Rebellion refers to the outbreak in County Wexford, Ireland in May 1798 of the Society of United Irishmen's rebellion against the British rule in Ireland, British rule. It was the most successful and most destructive of all the upri ...

of 1798. After the suppression of the uprising, and Harvey's execution on Wexford bridge, the castle was again confiscated and used as a barracks until 1808, after which it was handed back to James Harvey, Bagenal's brother. He, however, lived in London and allowed the castle to deteriorate, but after his death it passed to Councillor John Harvey, who restored it. He died in 1880 and is entombed in a mausoleum in front of the hall door. The castle was afterwards let to a Mr Leared, who re-roofed and improved it. The last Harvey family member to own this castle was James Harvey, and his wife Henrietta. Their daughter, Antoinette Harvey, was born in the castle in 1945. Bargy Castle was purchased in 1960 by Colonel Charles Davison, the father of Chris de Burgh, and the family moved into the castle on 1 December 1960. Within three weeks of occupation, on 18 December, Chris and his older brother Richard Davison discovered explosives, including sticks of

gelignite Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpe ...

and

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

, in a secret passage in a tower within the castle as they were exploring. Their father stated that judging by the paper on the gelignite, it was made in Glasgow in 1880. In July 1961, a licence was granted to Maeve Davison (née de Burgh) for the castle to be run as a hotel, which she ran with her husband and her father,

Eric de Burgh General Sir Eric de Burgh (; ; 10 May 1881 – 6 February 1973) was a British Indian Army officer who became Chief of the General Staff in India. Military career Educated at Marlborough College and the Colonial College, Hollesley Bay, De Bur ...

References

{{Historic Irish houses , state=collapsed Buildings and structures in County Wexford Castles in County Wexford Country houses in Ireland 15th-century establishments in Ireland Buildings and structures completed in the 15th century