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| CARRICKFERGUS CASTLE, CO. ATRIM. -How proudly this famed old castle - grim reminder of that terrible Anglo-Norman warrior, Sir John De Courcy, who founded it in the days of Henry II - keeps watch and ward above the heaving billows of Belfast Lough! Here, according to some authorities, landed Edward Bruce, the elected king of the Irish, with a portion of his royal brother's Scottish troops, in 1315. Others say he landed at Larne. He came to claim his crown, and after a gallant struggle of three years against the English and Anglo-Irish forces, finally fell, sword in hand, at the battle of Fanghart Hill near Dundalk. The fortress changed masters several times during the long and bloody wars between England and Ireland. In 1689, Marshal Schornberg took it, after a very brave defense, from General McCarthy More, who held it for James II. The daring French admiral Thuror, whose mother was on O'Farrell, captured it from the English garrison, in 1760, and laid the whole of the neighboring country under tribute for several weeks. At last, he abandoned the place and put to sea. Near the Isle of Man, he encountered a superior British naval force, chivalrously gave it battle and was killed in the engagement. Right under the guns of the castle, in 1778, the American commodore, of Scottish birth, Paul Jones, captured the British sloop-of-war, Drake, after a sanguinary conflict. The castle is well preserved, considering its great age. Carrickfergus, a purely Gaelic word, means Rock of Fergus-a legendary Irish hero. |
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