Recent excavations at Rathfarnham Castle have brought the former inhabitants into focus, prompting Simon Loftus to recall some vivid episodes from the family’s history.
Adam Loftus ‘builded his howse at Rathfernan’ in 1583 as a domestic fortress, then filled it with treasures. A magnificent silver cup, made from the Great Seal of Ireland, stood before the Chancellor-Archbishop when he dined in ceremony, and the head and antlers of a giant elk, dug from an Irish bog, hung on the screen opposite. ‘Basins and Ewers of pure Silver’ were proffered to his guests to wash their hands, and ‘great standing white Bowles, which were brought by Mr Newcomen out of England,’ were displayed for their admiration. Adam feathered his nest like a prince. The cup survives, and a portrait of the old man (Fig 2), but we only catch glimpses of life at the Castle in the decades following his death – and the outbreak of civil war in 1641 put an end to luxury.
As Europe confronts its current refugee crisis, Kathryn Milligan looks back to 1916 when a Belgian artist was one of the 2,300 Belgian refugees who sought shelter in Ireland.
Peter Murray reflects on the cool Nordic aesthetic of Patricia Burns whose work is on view in January at the Taylor Galleries, Dublin.
Hilary Pyle takes a fresh look at John Butler Yeats, the patriarch of Ireland’s leading artistic family.