Red Mary McMahon



Can you see Red Mary McMahon

as you sit by the fireside?


Conor O'Brien married her

they built a mansion together

Leamaneh Castle, early 17th century


Do I want dead people here?

she yelled from the tower

Conor was seriously injured

attacked by General Ireton's men.


Red Mary rode to Limerick

in her carriage and found another

husband among Cromwell's officers

but she quickly pushed Captain Cooper

through a three-storey window.


Who gains her land and property

by murder, who marries 25

husbands? Red Mary McMahon


Her enemies finally sealed her

inside a hollow tree.

They say her red-haired ghost

wanders Castle Leamaneh

to this day.


In Dromoland castle gardens

there is an arch from Leamaneh.

The inscription by Conor

O'Brien and Mary McMahon,

1643


And, in a small dining room upstairs

in the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis,

sits one of the best fireplaces

from Leamaneh.


Can you see Red Mary McMahon

thinking of Ireland by the fireside?