New Kilkenny radio play, The Burning of Woodstock House to air on KCLR 

A new play by local playwright Gillian Grattan inspired by the burning of Woodstock House will air on KCLR on Sunday October 16. Funded under a Year of Centenaries grant, Gillian was inspired to write about the house because she is a frequent visitor to Woodstock. She often imagined what the house was like in its heyday and envisioned what life was like within its walls. 

The burning of Woodstock House occurred in July 1922. The Georgian manor, formerly the home of the Tighe family had been used to garrison Auxiliaries and was allegedly burned on the orders of the Central Command of the Anti-Treaty IRA to prevent Pro Free State garrisons taking it over.

Gillian says: “I was looking for something locally I could get my teeth into, historically speaking.

“I find when I’m up there you try and kind of imagine what it looked like … It’s such a beautiful house  and it’s such  a shame that they could never restore it.”

Kilkenny man wins Lifetime Achievement Award at Irish Made Awards

Philip Cushen of Cushendale wins award celebrating his lifelong contribution to Irish craft

Her new play about Woodstock is presented in the form of a dialogue between two people, reviewing the infamous historical events. The play examines not only the burning of the house but also the different generations of the Tighe family and their impact on the village of Inistioge. The play is framed through the ‘lens of the Tighe family’ and its generations who experienced tragedy and loss, including infant mortality.  

Gillian explains: “This play, it’s more of a docudrama, I guess. I did a lot of research, a lot of historical archival newspaper reports … It’s set up like a radio interview. It’s like a podcast essentially where two people are talking about events at Woodstock House.”

One character who particularly appealed to Gillian was Lady Louisa Tighe. She and her husband William Tighe were responsible for the dramatic gardens at Woodstock. Gillian had access to documents personally written by Lady Louisa which recorded charitable items she distributed to local people. She also admires the impact she had on Inistioge, observing she was ‘very industrious’ and started a lace-making industry in the village. 

Survivors of Symphysiotomy (SOS) talk in Kilkenny

Watergate Theatre talk will examine the legacy of pain left by the procedure

Gillian says that Woodstock House was central to the fortunes of Inistioge and once it was burned down a lot of people lost employment locally. She also mentions that Woodstock was a notable tourist draw even a hundred years ago.

Due to emotions aroused by the Civil War and the subsequent Land Acts which saw the breaking up of the major estates, Gillian had to be aware of causing offence to descendants still living in Inistioge today. She notes: “There’s always sensitivities around this kind of stuff, even though it’s a 100 years ago.”

She says that there is still confusion about who set the fire. “Also, you know, who burned the house, you’ll hear different stories about that .. Some people are like, ‘It was the IRA’ and others, ‘No, it wasn’t’. It’s kind of shrouded in an air of mystery nearly … It wasn’t like I was getting to the bottom of something, because I wasn’t.”

Gillian’s in-depth research also includes interviews with local people including Eddie Cody whose father was the Estate Manager at Woodstock in the 1970s. She notes, “He was a great resource for me - he gave me a lot of information.”

She also mentions the book by Eoin Swithin Walsh, Kilkenny in Times of Revolution, 1920- -1923 as ‘really, really good’. 

As for the ‘souvenirs’  that were reputedly taken by villagers at the time under the guise of ‘saving’ them, Gillian clarifies that the Black and Tans had already caused destruction to the contents of the house before the burning, noting that they ‘burned the Chippendale furniture’ in the house for which Lady Viola Tighe later sought compensation from the UK government.

The Burning of Woodstock is narrated by Brendan Corcoran and Delia Lowery with Declan Taylor and Aoibnín Murphy handling all the other roles. Martin Bridgeman is the sound designer for KCLR while Gillian both writes and directs the project. 

Originally from Dublin, Gillian has been living in Thomastown for 15 years where she runs the TADA! theatre school and What's On Tom? productions. As an 'assimilated' Kilkenny person, it was very important to  her to use ‘local people’ for her cast and she ends by saying, “Hopefully we will do the story justice.”

The Burning of Woodstock House will air at 8pm on KCLR 96FM on October 16.