The most outstanding remains of the O'Carrolls in Ely are the early castles and more particularly the towerhouses which dot the landscape of south Offaly and north Tipperary. The O'Carrolls are associated with approximately 40 of these, having concentrated the centre of their power in the baronies of Ballybritt and Clonlisk in County Offaly. The most impressive sites, today, are the strategically placed Leap Castle with its view to the Sliabh Bloom Mountains; Emmel Castle in Clonlisk with its eye on Butler's territory of Upper Ormond; and Dungar situated at the very southern tip of Ballybritt bordering the O'Meagher territory of Ikerin.
One of the earliest monuments directly attributed to the O'Carrolls is an Early Christian grave stone which bears the Irish inscription 'Or Do U Cherbaill Or Do Rig Ele' which means 'Pray for O'Carroll Pray for the King of Ely'. This slab, regrettably lost since the last century, was recorded at Roscrea, County Tipperary, by a local police-sergeant around 1858.
When the hundred years' war broke out between France and England in 1337 the Normans in Ireland had little choice but to accept and make the best of their minority position. The Normans, unlike their Tudor, Stuart and Cromwellian successors, did not try to rid the lands of Irishmen. Only the Gaelic nobility was displaced because they challenged the Normans power. But even then, once a Gaelic king or chief accepted Norman superiority, the Normans were prepared to treat him as equal.
Not only did the Normans intermarry, they rapidly adopted the Gaelic customs and, just as in previous centuries the Gaels had assimilated the Danish and Norwegian invaders, so now they came to assimilate the Normans. In attempting to arrest this progress the government populated the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366, which declared that the two races, Norman and Gaelic, should remain separate and apart. Marriage between the two races was made a capital offence and the Norman-Irish were forbidden to play the harp or speak Gaelic. These statutes were themselves a confession of defeat. They were a last ditch attempt to rescue the area around Dublin, now coming to be known as the English Pale, from the assimilation that had overtaken the invaders.
Records tell us that Seán Ó Cearbhaill, one of the fourteenth century kings of Ely, was killed by the sons of Mathghamhain O'Beacain at a place called Lios Bualtruighe, 'the fort of the booley', which is most likely the large bivallate earthen ringfort still extant in the townland of Boultry, County Offaly.
By the end of the fourteenth century, which had seen a Gaelic revival, the Normans outside the Pale had become more Irish than English and the resurgent Gaelic chieftains, often with the support of Gaelicised Norman families, gained control of more and more of their former land.
One of the most renowned of the O'Carroll kings was Teige O'Carroll, the son of Teige and grandson of Roderic, who lived at this time and was king of Ely from 1380 until his death in 1407. He married (1) Joan, the daughter of James 2nd Earl of Ormond and grandson of King Edward I of England and (2) Mave, daughter of Brian O'Brien, King of Thormond. He commissioned the embellishment of the shrine of the Book of Dimma in the late fourteenth century and his patronage was acknowledged on the shrine in the Lombardic inscription 'Tatheus O Kearbvill Rei De Elu Meipsum Deaurauit'. Both shrine and manuscript are now housed in the Library at Trinity College Dublin. Teige, along with 800 of his men, was slain by the English at Callan in 1407 and is styled in the annals of the Four Masters (1383 and 1421) as "a general benefactor to the clergy of Ireland".
Mairgret O'Carroll, Princess of Offaly, was the daughter of Teige and Joan. She was titled the Illustrious Mairgret O'Carroll after her many good works.
Intellectual gatherings were held in medieval Ireland wherein clan feuds and distinctions were forgotten. Mairgret presided over some such gatherings. "She was the only woman" narrated the annalists" that made the most of repairing the highways and creating bridges, churches and all manner of things profitable to serve God and her soul. While the world stands, her many gifts to the Irish shall never be numbered."
In state craft and in peace making she was equally distinguished and her sanctity became proverbial. Like all Irish women of noble repute she led the men folk so surely and unobtrusively that they believed they went forward of their own free will.
In 1445 she announced her intention of visiting the shrine of Santiago (St James) de Compostella in Spain and forthwith a large gathering of hardened warriors wished to accompany her. They went together.
When Mairgret paid the debt of mortality in 1451 the annalists wrote: "A gracious year this year was, though the glory and solace of the Irish was set but the glory of heaven was amplified and exalted therein."
"The best woman of her time in Ireland" such was the Irish verdict on this lofty and magnanimous soul.
Maelroona-na-Fearoise (Melronious Barbatus), son of Teige and Mairgret's brother, founded the Franciscan Friary of Roscrea. His daughter Catherine married Sir E Butler (died 1464) the Earl of Ormond. His son John died in 1489 according to the annals of the Four Masters.
Teige = Joan daughter of James 2nd Earl of Ormond
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Mairgret (d 1451) Maelroona-na-Fearoise (d 1464)
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John (d 1489)
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Maelroona (d 1532) Donough of Modreany & Buolebrack
Chief of Ely (1536)
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