More than 200 Purcells from all over the world to visit Tipperary for special reunion

In late June, more than 200 Purcells from all over the world will be visiting sites connected with the Purcell family in Tipperary, Kilkenny and Cork.

In 2021, several Purcells formed The Purcell Society.

The inspiration for this derived from the late Hubert Butler’s establishment in the 1960s of The Butler Society, with its goal of arranging “reunions, during which, for a few days, the ties of blood and family tradition will count more than the national and political differences, which inevitably divide us.”

The Purcell Society now numbers more than 400 Purcells and Purcell descendants, spread all over the world: Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Chile, Samoa, and other countries.

This will be their first gathering in Ireland, and 215 members of The Purcell Society from numerous countries will be in attendance.

The reunion will take place on June 21, 22 and 23, with visits to Loughmoe Castle (in Loughmore, near Thurles) and Holy Cross Abbey in Tipperary; Foulksrath Castle, St Canice’s Cathedral, and Kilkenny Castle in Kilkenny; and Burton Park in north Cork, where a branch of the Purcell family (the Purcells of Burton Park, now the Ryan-Purcells) has lived for more than two centuries.

The President of The Purcell Society is Walter Ryan-Purcell of Burton Park.

On Sunday, June 23, the final day of the reunion, the people of Loughmore, where the heads of the Purcell family resided for 500 years, will be throwing a party for the visiting Purcells.

There will be food and drink, as well as musical entertainment provided by, among others, Máiréad Nesbitt (originally of Celtic Women), Isabel and Luke Nesbitt, Seskin Lane and the Templemore Pipe Band.

The party, from 2pm to 6pm, will be open to the public.

Tickets are available on Eventbrite or on sale at The Cottage Tearoom in Loughmore. Anyone who would like additional details on the June 23 “Purcell Picnic Festival” can contact Catherine Purcell in Loughmore ( email:loughmorecastle@gmail.com ).

The Purcells played a very active role in Kilkenny and Tipperary for many centuries. By 1750, however, the major branches of the family, which had all remained Catholic, found themselves dispossessed of their lands.

In Kilkenny, the progenitor of the Purcell family of Ireland, Walter Purcell, an English knight who arrived in Ireland in 1185, held lands in the Kilkenny barony of Fassadinin as early as 1205.

By 1640, various lines of the Purcell family (of Clone, of Foulksrath, of Ballyfoyle, of Conahy, of Esker, and so forth) owned some 15 square miles of the barony of Fassadinin.

But by 1850, they held (as tenants, not owners) just 643 acres in Fassadinin, with the largest Purcell farm consisting of 84 acres.

In Tipperary, Hugh Purcell, head of the Purcell family after the death of his father Walter, obtained Loughmore and surrounding lands in 1220.

The heads of the Purcell family had their main residence, Loughmoe Castle, in Loughmore until the early 18th century.

In the 1660s, the last head of the family, Colonel Nicholas Purcell, owned some 11,500 acres, mainly in Tipperary.

A Catholic and a Jacobite, he commanded a regiment of horse in the Irish Army of King James II in the 1689-91 war against King William III.

Following the Jacobite defeat and promulgation of the Penal Laws, he lost most of his wealth and died in poverty at Loughmoe Castle in 1722.

The website of The Purcell Society is www.purcellfamily.org. Those wishing to contact this organisation for more information may send an email to: bp.horan@post.harvard.edu