County Armagh
County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
country house
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
built c. 1750 (later renovated c. 1815) and situated outside the village of
. It was home to the Stronge family until 1981, when it was set on fire by incendiary devices after the
Provisional IRA
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...
shot dead
Sir Norman Stronge
Sir Charles Norman Lockhart Stronge, 8th Baronet, MC, PC, JP (23 July 1894 – 21 January 1981) was a senior Ulster Unionist Party politician in Northern Ireland.
Before his involvement in politics, he fought in the First World War as a junio ...
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
officer; its ruins were demolished in 1998, having stood for 249 years.
History
The house on this site that replaced the original 13th-century abbey was called ''Fairview'' and was the home of the Manson family, it was acquired by the Stronges through the marriage of Dr. John Stronge and Elinor Manson. At this time ''Fairview'' was described by
Thomas Ashe
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the Ap ...
as a "very pretty house, well timbered and regularly built. It is two storeys high. There are good chambers and garrets above staires, a hansome parlour, a common Hall, a Kitchen Sellars and their Convenient Offices a Good Stable Barne and Cow house a Good Garden and Orchard". The library, in which the last of the Stronges were killed, was believed to have dated to this original house."Buildings of County Armagh", Brett, Sir Charles E.B., 1999, p. 88-90,
This was an area with a peculiar history; its 1640s, rector Robert Maxwell told pamphleteers that 154,000 Protestants had been massacred there in the 1649 Rising. That figure would have represented one tenth of the entire island of Ireland (historians put the real number of Protestants killed at somewhere between 527 and 1,259; many hundreds of Catholics were killed in reprisals by the Protestant incomers). The inflated figure was used by
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
as the basis for his invasion of Ireland during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
.
The building of the house called Tynan Abbey (as Fairview would become) took place under the ownership of the Stronges. By 1816 Mrs Calvert, the mother-in-law of Sir James Stronge, 1st Bt., described the house, which was under construction, as "very ugly...I don't think I shall ever like the house...I have a comfortable enough room...all the other rooms are unfinished and even without windows...the staircase without banisters and all about unfinished". By 1822 Mrs Calvert thought Tynan Abbey "very pretty and the place very nice, but somewhat exposed".
By 1838, George Petrie of the
described it as a "fine specimen of bastard and vile gothic architecture." In 1855, however, Sir Bernard Burke said it has a "picturesque appearance". One hundred years after this assertion Tynan Abbey was still being pondered upon; Richard Hayward questioned its "dubious...architectural integrity, but mellowed by time, humanised by generations of affectionate occupancy."
Tynan included an octagonal stone spire and square
turret
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* Mi ...
(resembling a chapel), in reality this merely housed the water tanks. The castle was surrounded by an extensive estate, once amounting to over 8,000 acres (32 km²), including park-land and a lake. Although there is a wealth of
Celtic cross
The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses er ...
es on the site it seems there was never an actual abbey in the vicinity.
Royal Ulster Constabulary occupation and the Second World War
In 1923, part of the building was occupied by the
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
(RUC) rent-free for protection purposes. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, it was again occupied by British, Belgian and American troops, leaving a legacy of
Nissen hut
A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure for military use, especially as barracks, made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated iron. Designed during the First World War by the American-born, Canadian-British engineer and inventor Majo ...
s.
Later years
At the time of Sir Norman Stronge's murder, ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
'' reported that, ''"They he Strongeswere completely the local big family, still living in an enormous mansion though everyone knew the father and son used only a few rooms of it, with a housekeeper and a landsteward who lived out. Neither had much interest in farming – most of the acres were let."
Destruction of Tynan Abbey
On 21 January 1981, 86-year-old Sir Norman Stronge, Bt., former Speaker of the
House of Commons of Northern Ireland
The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created under the ''Government of Ireland Act 1920''. The upper house in the bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished wit ...
, and his only son, James Stronge, 48 (both former MPs) were murdered by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...
. The bodies of the father and son were later recovered from the wreckage of their home. The two men were targeted as they sat in the main library of their 230-year-old
mansion
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...
. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army forced entry by blowing in the heavy front doors with explosives. After the murders the building itself was fire-bombed and the fire raged until the next morning, destroying all the contents of the Abbey, and the building left as a roofless ruin.Tit-for-Tat Murder time.com, 2 February 1981
Gerry Adams
Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020 ...
stated about the elder Stronge, ''“The only complaint I have heard from Nationalists or anti-Unionists is that he was not shot 40 years ago.”'' Stronge was described at the time of his death by nationalist
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...
politician
Austin Currie
Joseph Austin Currie (11 October 1939 – 9 November 2021) was an Irish politician who served as a Minister of State for Justice with responsibility for Children's Rights from 1994 to 1997. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West ...
as having been "even at 86 years of age … still incomparably more of a man than the cowardly dregs of humanity who ended his life in this barbaric way."
Legacy
In 1995 the Historic Buildings Branch of the
Department of the Environment
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
(the DoE) recalled that listed building consent to partial demolition had been granted in 1983. However, the Historic Buildings Branch noted it was keen to have the "listing status retained or stabilised as a ruin. It still holds a lot of historic and architectural interest in its present state". In 1998, before the ruins of Tynan Abbey were demolished and the site levelled, a man was seriously injured in an explosion there, which may have been a booby-trap bomb.
The several thousand acres of land remained in the possession of the family of Sir Norman's eldest daughter, Mrs Daphne Marian Kingan of Glenganagh, Groomsport,
Bangor, County Down
Bangor ( ; ) is a city and seaside resort in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the southern side of Belfast Lough. It is within the Belfast metropolitan area and is 13 miles (22 km) east of Belfast city centre, to which it is linked ...
, widow of Thomas John Anthony Kingan, DL, of Glenganagh, High Sheriff of County Down (1958). Daphne Kingan died on 15 January 2002 and the land was then inherited by her son, James Anthony John Kingan, an
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...
candidate in the elections of 1993 and 1997, and his wife, Kate, who have three children, Charlotte, Esme and Edward.
Tynan Abbey was demolished in 1998 due to the unstable structure of the ruin. All that remains is the arch of the front door surround. In September 2007, ''The Three Estates Walking Festival'' was held within the Tynan estate, along with the lands at Caledon and
Castle Leslie
Castle Leslie, also known as Glaslough House is home to an Irish branch of Clan Leslie, is located on the 4 km² (1,000-acre) Castle Leslie Estate adjacent to the village of Glaslough, northeast of Monaghan town in County Monaghan, Irel ...