Beal Castle, another of the Fitzmaurice strong point. Here was murdered of the instructions of Lady Kerry, a renegade Kerryman, Maurice Stack, the unscrupulous accomplice of such major, and fraudulent, land grabbers as Richard Boyle, later Earl of Cork, and Sir Patrick Crosbie. Her husband to show his solidarity with his behaviour, next day hanged Stacks brother who was held prisoner by him.
It was the Fitzmaurice or Mc Elligotts who built Beal Castle.
Beal must have been as attractive a place then as it is now, the Normans found it attractive and being French speakers they named it “Beau Lieu” meaning “the beautiful place”
The next most important people at that time were the Stacks, another Norman family who had been in Ireland since the 12th Century.
They out of necessity sided with the ‘Earl of Desmond’ but after the Earls death and perhaps through the prompting of Sir George Carew President of Munster, they changed side and became ‘loyal’. Queen Elizabeth granted a large number of pardons to men of the Stacks, Including Robert Mac Richard Duff Stack and Edmond Mac Robert Stack, probably father and son of Beal horsemen, they being described as horsemen shows that they were of the landed class, also pardoned were the two chief Stack men of the time Maurice and Thomas of Ballyloughran. Brothers, when Carew captured Glin Castle, Maurice had an interview with him there, shortly afterwards Lord Lixnaw made Maurice prisoner.
July 1600 Ireland was under the rule of Hugh O’ Neill and red Hugh O’ Donnell and was in the final stages of a long and restless warfare with the forces of Elizabeth and in this fateful struggle, the two Hugh’s had in Munster no greater ally than Patrick Fitzmaurice who couldn’t be a more determined and more trusted friend.
‘Thought the Fitzmaurice came as invaders to our shoreline, they became more Irish than the Irish themselves’
The Fitzmaurice Family
The Fitzmaurice family is a branch of the Geraldine's from Florence in Italy like the Fitzgerald's and the Carew's. In a survey, there were no Fitzmaurice's in Ireland in 1144. From the middle of the 7th Century the area of Kerry seems to have been ruled by the very influential family which dominated the area and whose descendants were known by and as the Uí Chonchobhair (the O' Connor Kerry). By the 12th Century the influence of the O' Connor had begun to wane with the coming of the Normans.
In the 13th Century the Fitzmaurice's, Earls of Kerry, got much of the land of the O' Connors. Thomas Fitzmaurice of Malahiffe, the first Lord of Kerry got lands in North Kerry from Thomas Fitz Robert Fitzmaurice who died after 1261, and for the next 500 years were the headquarters of the Fitzmaurice's descendants.
The Fitzmaurice fought and won many battles down through the years and ruins of many old castles which were in their possession can be seen today those include Lixnaw, Listowel, Ballybunion and Beal. The Fitzmaurice's had their principal seat in Lixnaw.
Ancestry of Maurice/Fitzmaurice
Maurice the Son of Thomas
- The son of Robert
-The son Maurice Fitzgerald
- The "Geraldine Invader" is how the Genealogists describe the ancestry of Fitzmaurice.
Maurice Fitzmaurice married Elina Tlima, daughter of the Fitz Elias/alias Mc Elligott and Elinas legacy was the lands of Beal + Listowel and so the Fitzmaurices became owners of Beal.
In the following years all had gone very well indeed and fortune had smiled, both North and South, on the Irish cause.
But quickly the southern sky darkened with the coming of Sir George Carew as President of Munster, a number of black disasters that fell on fearful successions on Fitzmaurice and his comrade in arms.
July is 1600 in Glin Castle was taken by storm, the entire garrison being slain in a bitter bloody resistance. A day or two after Sean Na Gcathach John O'Connor found himself with little choice but to abandon the fight and yield up Carrigafoyle meekly.
A gloomy and dark prospect indeed but even worse was soon to follow, though little could Fitzmaurice dream that at that very moment treachery was preparing to rear it's ugly head inside his own ranks, in the person of a Kerryman, one Maurice Stack, of whom there is very little know about, he and his brother Thomas lived in Farnastack, they were distinguished from others of the same name by an Irish nick-name variously written as "encally", " Aghcallowe" or "Achalla", the meaning of which is not clear.
No one knows how Stack was so well in with Carew. They were in with him long before 1600. Carew was no stranger to Kerry for long years before he had served as captain of the infantry under Pelham and Grey. There was little he didn't know about the north of the country.
Carew had long harboured a bitter grudge against Fitzmaurice whose vast estate should belong by right to Carew himself, being the lawful descendant of the original legal Carew of the 13th Century up his sleeves had documents and deeds galore to prove his claim when the moment for doing so should arise.
July 1600 that moment must have come to Carew all he had to do now was to reduce Fitzmaurice to the statue of the utter outlaw whose lands could well be confiscated overnight by an irate Elizabeth and in that happy event who could produce a better title to them than Carew himself.
July 10th Carew secretly went to English camp at Glin to offer his service and was well received and so a plot was hatched between them, a surprise attack was planned.
A likely target soon presented itself, Liscahane Castle, about half way between Adfert and the sea, they decided to send so armed men under Stack by sea, undercover of darkness. The attack was a success, a belated attempt at resistance but was soon lost and the crushed and not a man was left alive.
Carrigafoyle was next taken, from Kilrush to Carrig sailed 1070 men and 70 horses. Fitzmaurice had little hope left, he could expect the army from Carrig.
Fitzmaurice was in Beal Castle he sadly gave orders "to break the Castle" no sooner was it done than the shattering news reached him that his own arrangements had misfired and his forces had been scattered, and the most shattering blow of all that his beloved manor of Lixnaw was in the hands of the English.
A man of only 46 years he fled to Dunloe Castle to his daughter where August 12th 1600 he died of a broken heart.
At the time of his fathers death Thomas Fitzmaurice was living in Ballybunion Castle and shocked by his fathers death was quiet happy to give up the struggle and make an honorable surrender to Carew.
Lord Thomas, 18th Lord of Kerry, asked his wife Hanora O' Brien to ask her powerful brother Donogh 4th Earl of Thomond to obtain terms of surrender from Carew, so then even more than today, it was a matter of not only who were but who you knew! Back came the reply that his surrender could not be accepted unless he could perform some service showing his loyalty, in other words Fitzmaurice was first required to betray a comrade of his own into Carews hands. His reply was “it stood not with his conscience nor with his Honour”.
Here our saga divides into two stories: The end of August 1600 Maurice Stack was invited by Lady Honora to dine wither her in Beal Castle, in her husbands absence, the day was named and he was to come along and unarmed. She promised her word of honour a safe conduct, from what happened it seems she did so have him murdered.
Maurice Stack arrived on the day appointed and all went well for a while, dinner being ended, Hanora asked to speak privately with Stack in her chamber after a little time talking, their talk got very loud, as if they were arguing or disagreeing over some matter, the Lady Honora cried out "do you now hear him misuse me in words?" to those on guard outside the chamber door who were: Dermond Kewghe (Eaoch Blind) Mac Corman, William O' Donichan and Edmond O' Heher, where upon with their skenes the murdered him, as soon as he was slain, she sent into her husband and willed murderers to repair unto him of his barbarous and inhuman act.
Some say they the lady was the principal agent, though some of her friends have sought to excuse her, the Earl of Thomond, on the knowledge of it, was so grieved that from that day to her death he never saw or spoke to her again, he not abide the memory of her name.
Carew's version of the incident seems more reliable. He does not mention a very important fact and that is, that Lady Kerry's brother was visiting her in Beal at that time, Donal O' Brien, Donal was as loyal to the Queen and his brother and it seems very unlikely that his sister, a very young girl in her twenties, could have plotted the murder unknown to him. Carew hated the Fitzmaurice's of Liznaw. Carew seems to have a close knowledge of events but there are a lot of blanks in his story. He does not mention the matter they disagreed about, or how the body was got rid of.
Local traditional says that the plot was known as Stack approached the Castle he was warned to turn back.
There is independent evidence of the murder and only one was known, as when Wilmot took Listowel Castle he wrote an account of the siege to Carew and among other things "But for the fellow that killed Maurice Stack, being on his watch on a rainy dark night, as they swear unknown to any of them, he stole out of the castle and made his escape by that means" If the words "being on his watch" means being on his guard it may be that the murdered was a prisoner in the castle and the words unknown to any of them, he stole out of the castle, seems to suggest that he was Sir Charles mentioned the mans name it would have been a clue, we will probably never know why or by whom Maurice Stack was murdered.
The 'Four Masters' completely disbelieve what Carew wrote, concerning Lady Kerry in the year 1600. They wrote in the Annals "Honora O' Brien wife of Fitzmaurice fled from plunderings and insurrection of her husband and came to her native place under the protection of the President and the Earl of Thomond, the President was Carew.
Some say Lord Fitzmaurice was in Beal Castle, others say he was in Lixnaw. He must have approved of the deed as next day he had Thomas Stack who he had held prisoner for some time hanged, Thomas was brother of Maurice.
To this day it is not sure whether Honora was guilty or not. The local legend condemns her, in the first place, if she was not part of the conspiracy would she not have taken good care, Stack was not attacked until her back was turned. Her husband had naturally felt that Stack had hammered the first nail in his fathers coffin had the whole plot well arranged before hand with his three followers, it was not quiet possible that he used Honora as a mere decoy and fobbed her off with some specious excuse for her inviting Stack to his doom? He may have convinced her that she alone could persuade Stack to intercede with Carew on their behalf, or could a young husband of 25 years be capable of such an important and flattering mission, she would only be too happy to undertake, when she found she could get no good out of Stack, she got very mad and in her anger, she may well have raised her voice, but may have done so in innocence. The three outside were only too glad to seize on any such excuse as their signal for action, does not mean that she even intended it as such.
Some say Honora was a perfectly guiltless woman caught up in the toils of a monster husband. Local history is that Honora met Maurice Stack while out walking in the Castle grounds and invited him to dine on another day, it may well have been that Maurice was there to see his brother who was held prisoner there. The day was arranged and Stack promised to come alone and unarmed and Honora promised him a safe stay.
The day came and Stack came to dine. The wined and dined attended by numerous maids in waiting, all went well until Maurice Stack caught sight of glint of steel in the fold of a lady's garment and at once suspected treachery. He made a dash for safety but did not succeed. In a flash the maidens sprang at him each of them whipping out a concealed weapon/rapier, they were men disguised in lady's clothes sons and foster sons of the Castle. Stack managed to over power one of them and get a rapier trained swordsman that he was, he kept them at bay for a while, finding all exits barred, he was forced to go up the spiral stairway followed by his attachers, the good Lady urging them on, on the battlement they impaled him + flung his body over the top, into the courtyard below.
Honora fled from Beal Castle, day after murdered and went across the Shannon for the last time to her brother the Earl of Thomond. A broken hearted woman she went to the castle of Daingean Mc Mahon, now called Dangan in the parish of Kilchrist, Co. Clare.
1600 Honora died 2 or 3 months later 25 years old. She left three young children behind in Beal Castle.
The Ghost of Beal Castle
It is said all down the years that a lady in white is seen gliding along through the western arch and walking along the parapet (protective wall or earth defence), doing penance for her sins, it is believed to be Honora, it is at sundown she is seen.
From the time of Thomas the 18th Lord Kerry the loyalty of the Fitzmaurice's assumed a new direction. In 1602 soon after his submission he made peace with crown + obtained a regent of all his former territory which with the additional of some of the Desmond Forfeitures was confirmed to him by patent in 1602.
The Geraldine flag flew over Beal Castle when rumour spread that John Wilmot was marching southward Fitzmaurice had left flying, a gesture of defence and lined its nest with it.
In 1932 the last piece of Beal Castle tumbled down and 'the falling' made a lot of noise. It was the morning after a severe storm, it fell after 8.30 a.m.