Red Mary
On the edge of the Burren in Co. Clare, lies the ruins of one of Ireland’s most haunted castles. Leamaneh Castle’s tower house was constructed in 1480 by the king of Thomond, Toirdealbhach Donn MacTadhg O’Brien.
O’Brien would later surrender to King Henry VIII, who would make him the Earl of Thomond. By accepting, O’Brien retained possession of the castle and it became a defensive outpost for the Crown. It would remain in the family for generations.
Red Mary McMahon or Máire Rua was born in 1615 to an aristocratic and wealthy family. Her father was Lord of Clonderlaw and her mother was the daughter of the third Earl of Thomond. Rua is the Irish word for red hair, and Mary’s was very bright. Looking back now, it could easily have been a reference to her fiery temperament.
Her first marriage was to Daniel O’Neylan of Dysert O’Dea Castle in Co. Clare. The marriage was short lived, with O’Neylan’s death coming soon after.
Máire Rua inherited his castle and lands and a great deal of money. She wasn’t alone very long and soon married Conor O’Brien, the current owner of Leamaneh Castle. The two of them settled into Leamaneh.
Conor and Máire Rua were opponents of Cromwellian rule and led their men in attacks on English settlers who dared to try to colonize in their territory. On one such raid, Mary had stayed at Leamaneh Castle while Conor led a band of his men. He encountered one of Cromwell’s generals, Henry Ireton, in what became known as the Battle of Inchicronan.
O’Brien was severely wounded and was hanging on for life as his men carried him back to Leamaneh and his wife. Mary cared for him as best she could, but he died from his wounds.
Now Mary was a shrewd woman, she knew with her husband’s death she would have to forfeit her lands. She needed a plan. She rode to Limerick and offered to marry any Cromwellian officer.
John Cooper saw his chance at wealth and accepted Mary’s offer. He did become very wealthy, and Mary held on to her power and family home. Together they had twelve children and lived a long life together. At least that’s what the history books tell us.
Legend and Folklore
Local folklore tells a different story. Even in childhood, Máire Rua had a reputation for being mean and cruel to the family’s servants.
In her marriage to Conor O’Brien, it was Mary that was the aggressor, attacking and killing English settlers. When Conor was wounded and brought back to the castle, Mary leaned from a window and screamed at her men, “What do I want with dead men here?”
Mary quickly married John Cooper after Conor’s death, but was it a political move or did she have an unquenchable desire for men? Rumour has it that shortly after her marriage to Cooper he made the fatal mistake of making a comment about Conor O’Brien.
Mary flew into a rage about whatever he said, and jumped out of bed, kicking him in the stomach so hard he died from his injuries. There are other stories about how John Cooper met his early demise. One was that he slit his throat while shaving. Another states that he fell from a third floor window.
Stories suggest that Máire Rua had a total of twenty-five husbands in her lifetime. She would marry and then after a year and one day would divorce them. Rumours say that many of them met a much more gruesome end.
The Cliffs of Moher
Perhaps some of them went the way of some of Mary’s enemies, sent over the Cliffs of Moher on horseback. The cliffs are about twelve and a half miles away from Leamaneh Castle. These events could just be an exaggeration based on the name Leamaneh, which translates to horse’s leap, or could be the basis for the name of the castle.
It was known by the locals that Máire Rua would severely discipline her domestic servants and troops. Hanging men by the neck and women by their hair, even cutting off the breasts of some of the women she hung. You can only imagine what she did to her enemies, if this is how she treated her own.
Mary Rua’s End
In her lifetime, Mary made many enemies and was said to become crueler and more violent as the years passed. It’s said that early one morning she was dragged from her bed and tied to the tail of a horse and dragged across the rocky Burren landscape, screaming curses as her long red hair danced behind her like flames from a growing fire.
Legend says her executioners tried to bury her, but the Burren would spit her body up from the grave each time they tried to lay her to rest. Finally they gave up and sealed her body in a hollowed out tree.
Now, either the tree couldn’t hold her or it just rotted away, we don’t know, but Máire Rua still walks the Burren. Her bright red hair has been glimpsed at a distance and she is often seen in the tower window at Leamaneh Castle with her long red hair hanging down around her. If you listen closely you can hear her muttering curses no one can understand.
They say Máire Rua doesn’t just haunt but hunts. So if you’re out walking in the Burren on a moonlit night and hear footsteps behind you, don’t turn around … RUN!
