There are rumblings in Mitchelstown. The north Cork town has become exercised because of the publication of White Knights, Dark Earls, by local historian and journalist Bill Power.
Not everyone likes what he has to say about the somewhat unseemly demise of the once-great Mitchelstown Castle, which was razed by the Republican side in the Civil War on August 12th, 1922.
The event itself is well-remembered in the area. ath. Revisiting history can be a painful and divisive exercise and one not always welcomed in small communities.
The genesis of this book, published by Collins Press, was a desire to establish how and why the castle was burned. But it soon became obvious to Power that he would have to paint on a broader canvas, because the story behind the castle was the tale of one of the great Anglo-Irish dynasties and it deserved to be told.
The castle was the seat of the King family and of George King, Third Earl of Kingston, who built it between 1823 and 1825 on the site of an earlier building. It represented the power and majesty of an order that has now passed. Recalling it has evoked memories and feelings that might not be readily understood in today's buoyant economy, but they are very real in the area.
The book represents a fine piece of historical sleuthing but that's not what provoked letters to the local paper, the Avondhu. To get to the nub of it, Power deals not only with the burning of the castle but also with the fact that many priceless artefacts and paintings were removed from it - "looted" is the word he uses - prior to the stately pile being reduced to rubble.
"I see that your historian, Mr Power, is at it again, extolling the virtues of the notorious Kingstons of Mitchelstown. There is no need to write a book on those people because their notoriety has been discussed in every chimney corner over the last 150 years - murderers, cowards, rapists, extortioners and any other adjectives one could think of. . .I would like to remind Mr Power that the Kingston dynasty have now gone. . .How dare he castigate the republicans of that time who sacrificed their lives so as we and he could enjoy the freedom we now have?" was how one correspondent put it.
Another letter writer responded, asking who killed Michael Collins and which Taoiseach, the inheritor of the republican mantle, asked people to tighten their belts without showing any willingness to do so himself. Under whose governance had emigration reached new heights, he also asked. This is the stuff that sells books.
According to Bill Power, valuable silver and paintings, including a Gainsborough as well as paintings by Beechey and Zuccaro and fine mantelpieces, disappeared from the castle before it was put to the torch.
Some of the items he has seen himself in the locality, he adds. Where did they all go to? Some were sold off at auction, others never left the Mitchelstown precincts, claims Power.
Some compensation was paid to the family for their losses but neither all the looted items nor their full value was ever recovered. This is an intriguing local tale. There is some telling left in it yet.