Autumn lecture series at Kilkenny Castle hosts November lecture inspired by the Ros Tapestry

Kilkenny Castle will host a lecture on Thursday, November 24 at 7:30pm titled Building Ros: From the old Walling of Ros to the new Norman Garden.

The speaker is Mr Eamonn Hore Director of Services for Wexford County Council, covering Roads and Transportation, Water Services, Health and Safety and New Ross Municipal District.

Inspired by the recent opening of the High Hill Norman Garden in early October 2022 in New Ross, Eamonn Hore will deliver  the 3rd instalment of the Autumn Lecture Series to reflect on this vital addition to the town in the context of its medieval history. The High Hill Norman Garden is made of a series of faceted gardens planted  with grasses, knotted planting, a variety of flowers, hedges, aromatic plants and herbs which echo the Norman history and influence in the formation of the town in the early 1200s.

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The Walling of Ros panel in the Ros Tapestry presents the Norman cultivation and development of Leinster. The valuable port settlement under William Marshal was subject to frequent raids, so it was decided to build a protective wall and a trench around the town.

A 13th century poem describing the event was written in Old French by an unknown trouvere and is kept in the New Ross library to this day. It took the effort of sixteen occupational guilds to dig a mighty trench over a mile surrounding the town, and the soil was drawn inward to build a garden – not unlike the High Hill.

Eamon Hore studied Civil Engineering at University College Dublin graduating with a B.E. in 1979. He then studied Computers for Engineers at Trinity College Dublin and was awarded his Diploma in 1982. In 2008, he completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University in the USA. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Ireland.

He has a keen interest in history generally and all things Wexford and New Ross in particular.

This lecture series is delivered by New Ross Needlecraft Ltd (Board of the Ros Tapestry) in partnership with the OPW in Kilkenny Castle.

The event is free of charge. No booking necessary. Seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Venue maximum capacity is 120 seats.

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The Ros Tapestry exhibition currently on show at Kilkenny Castle until September 2023, has drawn in thread the story of the Normans and their arrival in the Southeast of Ireland and the consequent development of the dynamic port of Ros. The series of fifteen large striking embroidered panels depicts scenes from the history of the region from the initiation of Celtic King to Hiberno-Norman commerce. This unique collaborative artwork illustrates the cultural legacy of Leinster immortalised in colourful and creative stitches.