Public lecture on Lady Louisa Tighe of Woodstock to take place in Kilkenny

A public lecture by John Kirwan on Lady Louisa Tighe of Woodstock (1803-1900) will take place on April 10 at Cois Abhann Community Centre.

Lady Louisa and her husband William Tighe were responsible for the gardens at Woodstock, though the demesne is the creation of at least three successive generations of the Fownes and Tighe families. The lecture marks the 200th anniversary of her marriage to William Tighe and her arrival in Inistioge.

Three or at most four members of the family live on in local memory : William ‘Statistical’ Tighe (1766-1816) who in the opening years of the nineteenth-century published an excellent survey of County Kilkenny ; his first cousin and sister-in-law, Mary Blachford, the wife of his brother Henry Tighe, is chiefly remembered for her poem ‘Psyche’ while his eldest son and heir, William Frederick Fownes Tighe (1794-1878), and  the latter’s wife, the Lady Louisa Madelina Tighe, née Lennox, one of the fourteen children of Charles Lennox, fourth Duke of Richmond are the most famous of the family. Of these, Lady Louisa Madelina Tighe, who died March 2, 1900, having been lady of the Big House for three- quarters of a century, is the one most often recalled by the collective memory of the district.

John Kirwan’s original research, on which this lecture is based, was carried out in preparation for the publication of his book on Lady Louisa and William Tighe this year. Other contributors to the book are Dr Fidelma McCarron and Dr Ed McCarron, whose previous research has provided extensive information on trade and emigration patterns from SE Ireland to North America, in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. Their contribution in this book will be on the wider societal movements and events of the 19th century – Catholic Emancipation, the Repeal and Home Rule Movements, the Great Famine, emigration and land reform - and how these influenced the history of the Inistioge area.

Admission to the lecture is €5, concession €3. Light refreshments will be served.
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