A thousand years of history on one Mullingar site

800 years ago, if you turned up to hear a history lecture in Mullingar, the speaker would have been delivering it in French - and the audience would have been a mix of French, Belgian and other near European people, most likely, thanks to the influence of the Normans locally.Thankfully, the most recent lecture on the history of Mullingar - delivered last Thursday evening in a wonderful event space in the revamped County buildings by Ruth Illingworth, cathaoirleach of Mullingar Town Council and historian - was in English, and the surroundings considerably more glamorous than the history fan of 800 years ago would have found themselves sitting in.Cllr. Illingworth's lecture was specifically about how the administration of the town of Mullingar has, for close on a thousand years, been carried on on the same site.The area has been inhabited for 6-7,000 years, Cllr. Illingworth told the gathering, revealing that a flint implement had been found along the Brosna.However the town itself was founded around 1185, when William Pettit - one of the Knights of Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath - built a castle on the lands he had been granted by de Lacy. "It was probably exactly here where this building is," said Cllr. Illingworth, explaining that it would at that time have been a wooden structure, but built as a defensive structure - and one which would remind the locals who was in charge.Living in that first castle were William Pettit and his wife and children, and also his brother Ralph, who was the first Parish Priest of Mullingar."Mullingar had been a Christian centre since St. Colman's time in the 7th century," said Cllr. Illingworth - but at that time, the focus was in Lynn, where St. Colman had his monastery.In 1202, Mullingar's first church was built, on the site where All Saints now stands. "There's been a church continuously on that site ever since," she said.At the time the Pettits were ruling Mullingar there were courts held in the castle, "so," she said, "it's appropriate that the present day court building should be across the road from here".There are court records going back to at least 1297, she added.Mount Street is one of Mullingar's original streets, as are Balckhall, Church Lane and Church Avenue, and the street between Dominick Square and the beginnings of Austin Frairs Street.The Castle stood on site for 500 years, but unfortunately, no known drawings of it exist."It certainly wouldn't have been on the scale of Dublin or Trim, but possibly larger than Delvin or Tyrrellspass," she said.Cllr. Illingworth pointed out that a significant moment in Mullingar's history was the foundation of the county of Westmeath in 1542, by King Henry XIII. However, she added, the town is much older than the county, and in a way, as mayor, she is heir to the Pettits, and subsequent portreeves or seneschals.However: "I can't hang anybody, and I can't even fine them," she reassured the audience.Cllr. Illingworth explained of the history of the gaol, and said that as happened at other such locations, the heads of the king's enemies would have been put up on the walls of the castle. They included 35 O'Farrells from Annally, who were killed in a battle with the Delameres."When Westmeath was created, they would did not put the gaol in the Castle; they put it in the (old) Dominican Monastery".The constable was William Hope, and in 1641, recorded as constable of Mullingar and living in the castle, was Alexander Hope, all of the Hope family that came in the early 13th century, and after whom Hopestown is named.After 1649, when Cromwell came to power, General Harrison was put in charge, and in 1691, the 11,000 members of the army of William of Orange were put up in the castle and locally, on the shores of Lough Ennell - which at the time came in as close to the town as almost where O'Brien's garage is now.A century of peace came from about 1691, up to the Rising of 1798. In the 1780s, the decision was made to pull down the castle and build a gaol, and that remained in place until the 1820s.Moving on, Cllr. Illingworth recalled that the first local elections for the County Council were held in 1899, and she told members that when the first councillors agreed to build the "County Buildings", there was huge fear over the cost - much as there had been over the cost of the recent revamp.However, she said, she considered the €40m spend on the revamp "worth every penny", and believed it to be a fine building.