School: Tagoat (roll number 5990)
- Location:
- Tagoat, Co. Wexford
- Teacher: Pádraig Coilféir
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0879, Page 117
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- XML “A Local Ruin - a Castle”
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- There is an old ruined castle on my father's farm in Ballyconnor, in the parish of Tagoat, in the barony of Forth, in the county of Wexford. It was built in the year 1410 by people named Stafford, and has been derelict for about one hundred years.
There were several attacks made on the castle by the Irish, and any Irish prisoners captured in the attacks were foully done to death. They were sometimes thrown down in a murder hole, and sometimes beheaded, and their heads stuck on spikes in the walls.
There are many local traditions attached to it. Two Catholic priests were supposed to have been murdered in it, and their skulls were put into a hole in the wall, and every time the skulls were taken away they came back, until one day somebody took them out to Tuskar Lighthouse where they were lost. There is also supposed to be an underground passage between the castle and Hillcastle. There are also holes in the(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Eamonn Doyle
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Ballyconor Big, Co. Wexford
- Informant
- Stephen Ferguson
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Tenacre, Co. Wexford
