Croom or Crom Castle, also called the Castle of Crom, is an historic castle in the town of Croom, County Limerick, that is notable for its occupation as one of the principal residences of the Kildare branch of the FitzGerald dynasty. Their ancient war cry and motto "Crom a Boo", or in Irish "Crom Abu", comes from the strategic fortress. Before the FitzGeralds it was the site of an earlier fortress of the O'Donovans.
It is located on a strategic bend in the River Maigue, from whence its name Cromadh, or "Bend in the River".
The territory in which Croom lies was up until the period of the Norman invasion of Ireland the domain of the ancient Uí Cairpre Áebda (Cairbre Eva), of whom the O'Donovans were the leading family. This belonged in the larger regional kingdom of the Uí Fidgenti, the remains of which were at this point sandwiched between the Kingdom of Desmond to the south and Kingdom of Thomond to the north, rivals of each other. The Uí Fidgenti were mostly devastated by Domnall Mór Ua Briain in 1178,[1] but some O'Donovans attempted to remain in the area, and according to Samuel Lewis in his 1837 Topographical Description of Ireland, one Dermot O'Donovan erected the first known fortress at Croom sometime during the reign of John of England,[2] or perhaps shortly before. According to Lewis this was to secure the country which they had recently taken from the MacEnirys (their kinsmen). But the O'Donovans are actually associated with Croom at least as early as the 1130s, where they are mentioned in the Caithréim Chellacháin Chaisil.[3] In their own origin legends those of distant Carbery are descended from the actually historical Crom Ua Donnabáin (died 1254), commonly called An Crom, or "The Bent", and claim it was he who built the Castle of Crom,[4] but this account is unreliable and it is unknown how he might have been related to the Dermot of Croom. In any case they also claim "Crom" O'Donovan received and entertained Turlough O'Connor, High King of Ireland at the castle in 1146.
A relatively early account from around 1690 in Carbery, home of a leading branch of the family since the 13th century, does not mention anyone specifically:[5]
| “ | ... the O'Donovans, a family of royal extraction amongst the Irish. They came hither from the Coshma, in the County of Limerick, and built there the famous Castle of Crome, which, afterwards, falling to the Earl of Kildare, gave him his motto of "Crome aboo," still used on his skutcheon. | ” |
Gerald FitzMaurice, 1st Lord of Offaly [6]
The motto of the Fitzgerald family is "Crom-a-boo", from Crom Abu, which is Irish for Crom forever!