Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, the British heir apparent, is expected to visit Ireland in the next few months, but will he be visiting his ancestral home of Thurles, here in Co Tipperary?
Well, of course, he will have to receive a formal invitation. So hopefully one of our North Tipperary County Councillors, who hourly tune into Thurles.Info, (mainly to view what I am saying publically about their ability to govern) will see this blog and identify the possibility of “Donning their Chains of Office,” not to mention the obvious opportunity for photographic, TV and celebrity status, which could be then placed on their CV’s prior to the next local elections. So you never know, we could be lucky, after all this is Brain Awareness Week (BAW)
The Prince of Wales has made space in his diary for a three day trip to Ireland and will be visiting alone. Sources state that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has encouraged Prince Charles to make the trip, but the appointment of a British Ambassador to Ireland, to replace Mr Julian King, is delaying slightly the finalisation of his intended planned visit.
Prince Charles is a direct descendant of Viscount and Lady Thurles, through their eldest son, the Duke of Ormond. This same Duke’s daughter, Elizabeth, married Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Chesterfield, and their daughter Elizabeth Stanhope married John Lyon, 4th Earl Strathmore. (Click on image to view larger image of Family Tree). Six generations later in direct line was the 14th Earl Strathmore whose daughter, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the future King George VI; and these are the grandparents of Prince Charles.
North Tipperary County Council aided by our Local Town Councillors failed to get an invitation out on time to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for her visit last year, resulting in a huge loss of future tourism revenue to the town. Instead she visited Cashel where they forgot to show her the grave of one of her ancestors Edmund Butler, Archbishop of Cashel.
By not coming to Thurles, regrettably Her Majesty missed out on seeing the Butler Chalice made in 1620 for Walter Butler the rightful 11th Earl of Ormond, his wife Ellane and Queen Elizabeth’s direct descendant.
The Ormond Butlers owned most of counties Kilkenny and Tipperary, including Thurles. In 1620, the year the chalice was made, the family was in deep trouble. The previous year their son, Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles, who owned Thurles and lived in the Castle at the top of what is now Liberty Square, had been drowned while travelling to England, to answer charges of treason. Since 1617 Walter himself was in the notorious Fleet Prison in London for refusing to kowtow to King James I, the latter who had deprived him of the Ormond title and estates and given them to one of his cronies, Sir Richard Preston and his wife. Walter got out of jail only in 1625 when he got the title and part of the estates back from the next king, Charles I. The rest of the estates were only gotten back in 1629 and 1630 when Walter’s grandson, James Butler (Direct ancestor of Prince Charles) effectively bought the 14-year-old Preston heiress from her guardians and married her.
Thurles waits powerless as usual, in silent anticipation, to see if any of their elected public representatives of all “political persuasions,” really have any real power or leadership. By real power I mean the ability to grant, an art collection owned by the State, valued at €5m-€6m to the Crawford Gallery in Cork.
Maybe Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Minister Jimmy Deenihan, if approached, could “decentralise,” history stolen from us here in rural Ireland, presently housed in the National Museum supporting a Dublin economy. E.g. the Derrynaflan Hoard, the Faddan More Psalter, the Book of Dimma and the kept ever so secret Two-Mile-orris Silver Hoard, just to name a few visitor attractions.
Are we a ‘soft touch,’ here in County Tipperary?
Back to the 1980’s Culture Club were one of the biggest bands in the world. Breaking into the USA, Japan and Australia. Boy George (O’Dowd) parents were from Thurles. It was suggested by the press that he be invited to Thurles. The town council said something like they would only invite him if he brought industry or ‘something.’ We actually missed out on a lot of publicity for the town.
Good idea and I’m sure the Prince would be very welcome in Thurles but he will only be taken to Dublin castle and fake folk parts. Exactly what the IDA do when someone wants to look at setting up business in Ireland.