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Introduction In April 1926, a snapshot was taken of every household in the newly independent Irish Free State. Among them was Kilkenny Castle, a place long associated with aristocratic life and social hierarchy. When we place the 1926 census alongside the earlier...
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“I’ve loved Chinese screens since I was eighteen years old. I nearly fainted with joy when entering a Chinese shop, I saw a Coromandel for the first time. Screens were the first thing I bought”. Coco Chanel (1883-1971).Certainly one of the most elegant objects in...
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Recently in Belgium, the grave of Patrick Sarsfield was located due to the intervention of Dr. Loïc Guyon, the honorary consul of France in Limerick. Patrick Sarsfield was fatally injured at the Battle of Landen (or Lindon) on July 29th 1693 while in the service of...
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Barbara Villiers and the Butler Family Feud. Barbara Villiers (Palmer), 1st Duchess of Cleveland and Countess of Castlemaine was born in November 1640. She became over the course of her career at court one of the principal mistresses to King Charles II of England....
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Young James Butler was born on the 19th of October 1610, in England, with his parents being Thomas and Elizabeth Butler. His father drowned off Skerries in 1619, when James was just nine years old, which made him the viscount Thurles. His mother took him back to...
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With the Ormonde-Butler family, there is reliable documented evidence from the 12th Century up to the present day. It is remarkable to have such an extant record of one single family, albeit with omissions about the careers and lives of some of the family. One famous...
