Noel Mac Mahon
Articles by this Author
T.W. Rolleston
- By Noel Mac Mahon
- Published 09/2/2007
- Famous Offaly People
"In a quiet watered land, a land of roses", at Glass-house Shinrone, there is a railed-in private burial-ground, with four headstones marking the ancient burial-place of the Rolleston family. This is the townland, where in 1857, Thomas William Hazen Rolleston, the aristocratic nationalist, poet, scholar, mystic and man of action, was born and from whose most famous poem, 'The Dead at Clonmacnoise' the above line is taken,
The magnificent house at Glasshouse where Rolleston spent his youth, is alas no more. Only the walled garden and part of the house foundations remain. The house, which dated back to Cromwellian times, was built on the site of an ancient glass factory. Early in the 19th century, the estate of four hundred acres was sold to the Rolleston family, who added gardens, orchards and tennis courts to the house. This aristocratic family first came to Ireland in 1610. in the reign of James I. They received a large tract of land in Co. Armagh, but were later to make Franckfort Castle near Dunkerrin, their Irish home.
It was from his parents, who are buried in Glasshouse, that Thomas William Rolleston received his many talents and strong personality. His father, Charles Rolleston-Spunner, who was fifty years of age when T.W. was born in 1857, was a brilliant barrister and later a distinguished County Court Judge for Tipperary. His father adopted the additional surname Spunner, as a result of inheriting an estate in 1867 from Thomas Spunner. His mother was the daughter made a fortune In the Klondyke gold-rush and left moat of it to the Dr. Barnard Homes.
From Glasshouse, T.W. was sent to St. Columba's College, Rathfarnham where he was head-pupil. Later he had a distinguished career in Trinity College. culminating in his winning the Vice-Chancellor's Prize for English verse in 1876. He was married twice, first to Edith de Burgh of Kildare, who died in 1896 and secondly to Maud, one of the six daughters of the Rev. Stopford, who in his day, was a well known preacher and poet. T.W. had eight children from the two marriages, and lived at 104 Pembroke Road in Dublin before moving to Hampstead in London.
After leaving Trinity, he made a reputation for himself in many different spheres of activity. "He was a poet of fine finish, a man of high musical and artistic tastes,' as well as a renowned German scholar and authority on German literature. He assisted his friend Sir Horace Plunkett, founder of the Co-Operative Movement, in the management of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. He was principal founder of the India Society of London, co-founder with William Butler Yeats, of the famous Rhymer's Club and assisted Douglas Hyde in founding the Gaelic League. As the first managing director of the Irish Industries' Society, he helped preserve from extinction many Irish handicrafts, such as lace-making, handmade tweeds and glass-making. He organised and took charge of the Irish Historic Loan Collection at the St Louis Exhibition in 1904. In between he found time to be a keen botanist, biologist, sailor, cyclist, actor, boxer, musician, journalist, lecturer and rugby player and "was the only person who ever jumped a horse over the sunk fence between the garden and the back lawn at Glasshouse.'
His most famous poem, 'The Dead at Clonmacnoise' is to be found in several anthologies of poetry, including the Oxford Book of English Verse, and was for many years included in the list of poems on the Leaving Certificate syllabus. Rolleston published several books, notably A Treasury of Irish Poetry, Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race and The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cumhail.
In 1891 he founded the Irish Literary Society of London, the aim being 'to encourage and stimulate a new school of literature which would be distinctly Irish, although in the English language." Gavan Duffy became its President and T.W. its secretary. When the movement reached Dublin the following year, it attracted such literary giants as W. B. Yeats! George Russell (AE), Percy French, James Stephens. Sean O'Casey, Liarn O'Flaherty and the ex-Fenian John O'Leary.
When Henry Rolleston died in 1910, the property passed to the Minchin family and later still to a Mr. Stevenson. After various other changes, it was bought by the Land Commission and divided among local farmers. The house remained standing until 1930, when the monks of Mount St. Joseph bought it. They took down the roof and the walls, and the stones were drawn by horse and cart to the monastery where they were used for extensions to the monastery. principally the spire. Many of the Glasshouse ceramic tiles can still be seen on the floor of the hallway in the Guest House. Some of the mahogany doors in the infirmary came from Glasshouse, as did one of the windows.
