Ormonde was an earldom ("earls and dukes of Ormonde") that comprised a large territory in southeast Ireland.

But the name Ormonde means a bit like north Munster — Munster is the southeast of Ireland.

What was Ormonde? What was an earldom? What is an earl?

Kilkenny castle was the seat of the Ormondes.

The Butlers were a primary family in the earldom of Ormonde.

The Butler family owned the castle from 1391 until 1967.

Źdeclineoformondefortune

.

-- I presume for macroeconomic reasons (that the rental-property income decreased)

The rents declining and the earl [? - Lord Butler] maintaining his family's high style of living, the only money resource was in the sale of rental property. The potential for rental income declined accordingly.

By 1935 — after decades [?] of increasingly-forced austerity, the castle itself had to be plundered [?...} for cash, and the [lord, Butlers, earl] sold its contents. furnishings

non-architectural contents.

1950, the [?] {bankrupt}

The earl {?} sold the castle itself to the city of Kilkenny (cite body) for the nominal sum of L50

--- what worth (say, in pints) for modern money.

--- ask Justin what would fifty pound have bought in 1967 -- or "what was the price of a pint in 1967?"

footnote translate pints to CL ML

The first castle in Kilkenny, at a bend in the River Nore, was a wooden tower that Strongbow put up in 1172. [?] This was an advance-tactic structure, presumably [?] a motte-and-bailey arrangement that was a signature of Norman Conquest -- at least in England.

The Norman conquest of Ireland was very different and indeed never complete -- but all the same these Normans of a century's remove from the Battle of Hastings took the rule of southeast Ireland quickly.

They built a stone castle in Kilkenny [when?]

There are three towers that remain standing

Three towers that remain standing and are in beautiful condition are mostly almost what principally remains of the Norman structure.

These towers are built in that Norman style of oddly-shaped-and-sized stone limestone; and they're beautiful.

The fourth tower of the trapezoidal tower - wall/wing ... fell when Oliver Cromwell bombarded the place in 1650 -- as did the [direction?] wall, leaving the castle today open to the castle grounds -- 50 acres of astounding [?] urban park within the high Norman stone wallls of the demesne. ormondewasanearldom.html