Abstract
The picturesque, rural town of Birr in the county of Offaly lies at the geographic center of the Irish Republic. Inhabited in some capacity since the Bronze Age, a monastic settlement was established there by St. Brendan the Elder, which probably dates to the 7th century a. d., and in the centuries that followed, Birr became the ancestral home of the O′ Carroll clan, the ruling Gaelic family of the northern territory of the ancient kingdom of Éile. In the aftermath of the Norman invasion of the twelfth century, a castle was built there and continued to be administered by the O’Carrolls, who were required to pay tribute to the Butlers of Ormonde. The Butlers were overlords of the district, whose capital was established in the neighboring county of Kilkenny. In the aftermath of the so-called English Plantation of Ireland in the seventeenth century, when wealthy Protestants acted as the new overlords of vast tracts of Irish land, Birr Castle became the seat of the Parsons dynasty, the Earls of Rosse, beginning in 1620. It was at this time also that the civic areas around the castle were annexed to it, when it subsequently became known as Parsonstown (Fig. 9.1).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsSources
Ball, R.S.: The Story of the Heavens. Casell, London (1893)
Bell, L. The Telescope (1922). Hard Press Publishing, (2013)
Denning, W. F., Telescopic Work for Starlight Evenings (1891). Hard Press Publishing (2013) modern re-print of the 1891 classic.
Hockey, T.: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York (2009)
Hoskins, M.: The Leviathan of Parsonstown: ambitions and achievements. J. Hist. Astron. 31, 57–70 (2002)
King, H.C.: The History of the Telescope. Dover, Mineola (1955)
Mollan, C.: William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse: Astronomy and the Castle in Nineteenth-century Ireland (Royal Dublin Society – Science and Irish Culture). Manchester University Press, Manchester (2014)
Moore, P.: The Astronomy of Birr Castle. Quack Books, York (1992)
More about Birr Castle for the Astronomical Tourist. http://birrcastle.com/
Observations on the Nebulæ, by the Earl of Rosse, 1850. http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/140/499.full.pdf+html?sid=b88c8dc8-0e27-421b-b211-659c970c0d35
Professor Paul Callanan of University College Cork explains the significance of Lord Rosse’s Leviathan. Some History of Birr, Ireland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNG5JgRL3xM
Tobin, W., Holberg, J.B.: A newly discovered accurate early drawing of M51, the Whirlpool Nebula. J. Astron. Hist Herit. 11, 107–115 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
English, N. (2018). Thinking Big: The Pioneers of Parsonstown. In: Chronicling the Golden Age of Astronomy. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97707-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97707-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97706-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97707-2
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)