Sir, - Tim O'Brien mentions "restoration in progress" on Portumna Castle (August 9th). It is music to our ears down here.
Side by side with Mr O'Brien's story is another equally interesting one concerning the castle and the Wild Geese. This story is only emerging now, and its beginnings may be seen on my Wild Geese website (http://indigo.ie/~wildgees).
It was here at Portumna Castle on January 9th, 1689 that Patrick Sarsfield married Lady Honora de Burgo, 2nd daughter of William, 7th Earl of Clanricarde. Following the Treaty of Limerick, she went with her husband and 11,000 Irish soldiers to France to join the armies of Louis XIV. Sarsfield was killed at the Battle of Landen in 1693 and in 1695 his widow married Marshall Duke of Berwick in Paris. Berwick was the natural son of James II, and he became a famous soldier and general, and featured prominently in the Jacobite Wars in Ireland. He stayed many times at Portumna Castle where there is a room still named after him. I know that Sarsfield is buried in Huy in Belgium and that Honora is buried in Pontoise, outside Paris, but I have yet to be assured of exactly where the Duke of Berwick is buried. I think it is somewhere in Paris, but I am not sure. Perhaps your readers may help.
We wish to see Portumna Castle fully restored, as it was before it was burned down. We are seeking to have the original library replaced, and we are offering a good collection of books on the general theme of the Wild Geese and the Burke families. In addition we have discovered a great deal of books and documents pertaining to this period and to Portumna, which are stashed away in boxes and crates, and are compatible with our library proposals. We would like to see the Grand Hall that Mr O'Brien mentions developed as a portrait gallery with portraits of Sarsfield, Honora and the Duke of Berwick side by side. In addition, in the undeveloped adjacent buildings and land we wish to create a Wild Geese Heritage Museum and Research Centre, which would be the only one of its kind in the world. We want to create a spiritual home for the Wild Geese, not just an empty building or a monument, park, garden, or even a tree. We want to create something special, which would be alive with knowledge, with strands stretching out to every corner of the globe, one focal point where people could gravitate and at the same time develop contacts with their fellow Wild Geese. It should be a repository for all things connected to the Wild Geese, which are at present scattered in many parts of the world. If your readers have any thoughts on these matters, I would be pleased to receive them. - Yours, etc.,
Sean Ryan, Director of Research, Wild Geese Research Centre, Dominic Street, Portumna, Co Galway.