Memories of Greenhills Castle
Enter the M9 motorway from Kilcullen driving towards Dublin after passing under the second bridge (the Curragh Road bridge), watch for the line of pylons and at the end of the view of the pylons on the right hand side, you will see — due to the fact that trees on the right hand side of the motorway have been removed — a clear view of Greenhills Castle, now on the Castlemartin Estate .
Older generations of young Kilcullenites have varied memories of the castle, that it was haunted, that a young man from Kilcullen died as a result of a fall whilst climbing the castle in the 1940s.
Jack Gorman lived in the remains of the Castle, we knew him as Jack Castle. He would chase you home to Kilcullen if he saw you robbing the apple trees beside the Castle.
I heard a story some months ago that Jack met two young lads from Kilcullen at the Castle one day and told them, that in the mound of earth beside the Castle gold was buried. Jack was highly amused the next day when he saw the two lads digging away at the hill looking for the gold.
When Jack died in the 1970s, John Doyle of Naas Road Kilcullen, of the 'suffering brothers' fame, said: “We’ll have to put up a headstone to remember Jack.” He went around the Kilcullen pubs and collected the necessary funds. Jack’s headstone in New Abbey Cemetery reads, 'In loving memory of Jack Gorman, late of Greenhills Castle'.
Note: The drawing above was done by Fergus Byrne, brother of your editor, for a poem that I wrote about Jack Gorman a long time ago. The strange thing is, he never knew Jack, but from the poem he provided an extraordinary likeness.
