John Windele

Life
1801-1865 [var. Windle - apparently the family name in Kerry; pseuds. "Trismagistus MacSlatt", Seaghan Bhindele], b. Cork; employed in sherriff’s office and self-educated in languages and archaeology; ed. Bagatelle, a Cork weekly; ed. Bolster’s Quarterly Magazine (1826-30); fnd. member of South Munster Antiquarian Society (later the Cork Archaeological Society) and of the Anchorites Club in Cork, antiquarian with a particular interest in Ogham, and collector of MSS bought by RIA [by other accounts of stones];

author of Guides to Cork, Killarney and other noted locations in the vicinity of the county of Cork; his discovery of funerary remains at a round tower supplied ammunition in the dispute between William Betham [q.v.] and George Petrie [q.v.] over the origins of those towers and thus cited as a supporter of the Orientalist/pagan standpoint with Vallancey [q.v.] and others in Petrie’s Ecclesiastical Architecture [... &c.] (1845); later revealed to be a prank by graveyard work men who were aware of his strongly-held view about the pagan origins of the round towers; he paid Seosamh Ó Longáin to copy Gaelic MSS for him and encouraged others to employ him too;

issued Historical and Descriptive Notices of the City of Cork and its Vicinity (Cork 1839) and contrib. to Journal of Cork Antiquarian Society, et al.; Matthew Horgan, PP (Blarney) whose Cahir Conri he edited with an introduction and who also wrote written on round towers, a antiquarian close collaborator in the field with whom he built round towers; Windele lived lived at Blair’ Hill, also known as Blair’ Castle, on the outskirts of Cork; suffered paralysis and d. at home; engaged in translation of He studied Irish and, up till his death, was working on a translation of Agallamh na seanoiridhe [Colloquy of the Ancients] for the Ossianic Society at his death; bur. in the Matthew Cemetery, Cork, with a tall Celtic cross on his grave; much of his collection was acquired by the RIA. ODNB DIW [RIA]

 

Works
  • Historical and Descriptive Notices of the City of Cork and its Vicinity, Gougann-Barra, Glengariff, and Killarney (Cork: Bolster 1840), viii. 412pp.; Do. (Cork: Bolster 1843); Do. [new and enl.] (Cork: Bolster 1846), viii, 466pp., ill. [10] lvs. of pls., 18 cm.; Do. [new & enlarged edn.] (Cork: Bolster; Dublin: McGlashan; London: Longman MDCCCXLVIII [1848]), [i-iii] iv-viii, [1] 2-466pp., ill. [13] lvs. of pls., ill.; 18 cm.; Do. [rep. edn.] ; Do. [a new and enlarged edition] (Cork: Bradford & Co., Patrick Street 1849).

Also Hand book to Killarney, through Bantry, Glengariff, & Kenmare  [3rd edn.] (Cork: Bradford 1846; 1848), [4], 159pp., ill. [1 map]; Guide to Cork City (1849); a Guide to Cove and the Harbour of Cork (1840), [2[, 106pp., ill.
  • ed., Cahir Conri, a Metrical Legend, by M[atthew] Horgan (Cork: P. J. Crowe 1860), xlii, 32pp. [poem in Irish; introduction in English; English translation by Edward as Legend of Cahir Conri.]
Sketch-books [in Sketches of Irish Antiquities, NLI Coll.]
  • J.S. Fleming, Castles of Ireland: Sketches after John Windele, Vol. V [54 drawings].
  • William Frazer (d.1905), Sketches from J. Windele’s Vols. in the RIA; also 2nd ser., Vol. 12 [n.d.]
  • ——, Windele’s Views of Cork from Large Volume of Drawings [n.d.]
See further listings under National Library of Ireland [sel. as infra].
Reprints
  • James Coleman, ed. & annot., Windele’s Cork: Historical and Descriptive Notices of the City of Cork from Its Foundation to the Middle of the 19th Century (Cor: Fercor Press 1973), 96pp. [abridged from Historical and descriptive notices of the city of Cork and its vicinity].

 

Criticism
Mary Cahill, ‘John Windele’s golden legacy-prehistoric and later gold ornaments from Co. Cork and Co. Waterford’, in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy [Section C], 106C, 1 (Jan. 2006), pp.219-337; see also Joep Leerssen, Remembrance and Imagination [... &c.] (Cork UP/FDA 1996, p.132, 134, 137, 140-41 [as infra], 142, 267n.]

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Commentary

Thomas Davis, remarks on Windele’s theory of round towers as Hero Monuments in “The Round Towers of Ireland” [Davis’s review of Petrie’s, Ecclesiastical Architecture, in The Nation, 1845], rep. in C. G. Duffy, ed., Literary and Philosophical Essays of Thomas Davis, ed. C. G. Duffy (Dublin: James Duffy 1846), pp.62-79; p.74:

Mr. Windele, of Cork, besides using all the previously-mentioned arguments for the Paganism of these towers, finds another in the supposed resemblance to THE NURRAGGIS OF SARDINIA, which are tombs or temples formed in that island, and attributed to the Phœnicians. But, alas, for the theory, they have turned out to be “as broad as they’re long.” A square building, 57 feet in each side, with bee-hive towers at each angle, and a centre bee-hive tower reaching to 45 or 65 feet high, with stone stairs, is sadly unlike a Round Tower!

The most recent theory is that the Round Towers are HERO-MONUMENTS. Mr. Windele and the South Munster Antiquarian [75] Society started this, Sir William Betham sanctioned it, and several rash gentlemen dug under towers to prove it. At Cashel, Kinsale, etc., they satisfied themselves that there were no sepulchres or bones ever under the towers, but in some other places they took the rubbish bones casually thrown into the towers, and in two cases the chance underlying of ancient burying-grounds, as proofs of this notion. But Mr. Petrie settles for this idea by showing that there is no such use of the Round Towers mentioned in our annals [...]

pp.74-75; for Davis’s essay in full - see under RICORSO Library - as attached.

W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), Sir Bertram Windle [sic], President of Cork College, elected Professor of Archaeology in 1906 and author of a useful book on Romans in Britain (bibl. ODNB; and see M. Taylor, Sir Bertram Windle [sic] , a Memoir (London 1933).

Robert Welch, Irish Poetry (1980) gives an account of John Windele: ed. Bolster’s Cork Magazine [sic]; wrote for Bagatelle in 1821; contact with Prout, Abraham Abell, William Willes [W. Wills]; megalithic library of ogam stones; patronised Irish scribes; Cahir Court (1860), privately printed, written in Irish by Fr. Mat Horgan, ed. by Windele, with notes, biographies; Contributed to Dublin Penny Journal, Ulster Journal of Archaelogy, and Kilkenny Archaeological Journal; worked in sherriff’s office, Cork; suffered from paralysis; residence at Blair’s Hill, Cork; bur. Fr Mathew Cemetery.

Joep Leerssen, Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century (Cork UP/Field Day 1996), treats of Windele’s belief in the pagan origins of Irish Round Towers and writes: ‘Windele’s theory that Round Towers were sepulchrl hero-monuments was borne-out by skeletal finds at their base; a theory which was to haunt archaeologists for much of the mid-century until it was established that the skeletal remains were latter-day introductions, planted there partly as a practical joke by graveyard workers willing to take Windele’s fancies for a ride.’ (pp.140-41; citing James Coleman, communication to Cork Historical and Archael. society Journal, 3, 2894, pp.177-82, and a corroborating letter by Horace Fleming (ibid., pp.267-82.)

Note: Bibl., Leerssen mentions a paper on Sheela-na-gigs given at the RIA by one Clibborn stating that these were the female counterpart of the masculine Tower shape, ‘and airily evoking a mixture of gnostic, Buddhist and pagan religious analogue’ (Leerssen, p.133, citing RIA 12 G 15 (Horgan/Windele papers), III item 4, c.f., catalogue pp.3462.

 

References
Dictionary of National Biography, notes that Windele was born and lived at Cork; Irish antiquarian, many antiquarian. expeditions in Ireland; Historical and Descriptive Notes of the City of Cork and its Vicinity [Gougane Barra, Glengarrif, and Killarney (1839); and other writings; he left antiquarian MSS [presumably his own]. Bibl. incls. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, ix (1864–6), p.381; Gentleman’s Magazine, ii (Oct. 1865), pp.519–20; Dictionary of National Biography [UK], ed. Stephen & Lee 1885–1901); Irish Monthly, xxvi (1898), pp.185–89; Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, vi (1900), pp.34–7; James Coleman, Windele’s Cork (1973), p.90; Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, xcii (1987), pp.31–33; ibid., xcvi (1991), pp.9–15; Robert Welch, A History of Verse translation from the Irish 1789–1897 (1988), pp.61 & 70, and information from Anne Bennett (great-great granddaughter of Windele). [the Entry by Fionnula Carson Willams [available online]

NLI: A sales library auction catalogue of his library which incls. books, MSS, a theodolite and camera, coins [numismatics], double-guns, carved hall table, &c., is held in the NLI (1865). Also, papers of Thomas Windele, ship’s surgeon, incl. medical notes (Queen’s College, Cork/UCC) incl. letters to his father, John Windele of Blair Castle, 1840-62. Further items include sketches from [and after] Windele in RIA vols., letter to John O'Daly regarding purchase of ports. of famous people, (5 June 1863), and letters from Windele and others concerning preservation of Irish language; personal letter to Charlotte Brady among William Maziere Brady Papers; holograph of Windele’s articles in Bolster’s Quarterly. Magazine (?1825-?30) [1 vol.]; items from Windele’s library sale in collection of Thomas Connolly [with others from libs. of R. R. Madden and ‘late lamented George Petrie’]; pedigrees of O’Keeffe, Sarsfield, McCarthy, O’Donovan, Coppinger, Cotter, Crosbie, et al., made for Windele; notes on MSS for sale, with notes on Gaelic books in TCD and a cat. of Irish MSS formerly owned by Windele, comp. by Seosamh Ó Longáin; letters among others to Thomas Crofton Croker on personal affairs, folklore and antiquarian subjects (incl. S. C. Hall, Wm. Maginn, Francis Mahony, Tom Steele, Wm. Betham, Mary Shelley, Rd. Saintfield, J. M. Brewer, R. L. West; Papers [of] Matthew Horgan, PP of Blarney, and archael. notebooks of Windele with poems in English and Irish and items relating to Daniel O’Connell; Sketches of Desmond by Windele (c.1832; RIA); ... &c., &c. [NLI Cat. - online]

William Frazer (d. 1905), a prolific recorder of Irish antiquities, is heavily represented by pictorial items at the NLI incl. drawings stone at Riesk; Irish Silver Ring Money; Muckross; clochans; stone ring fort (plan), ... Staigue Fort, ... Sherkin Abbey, &c., &c. (There is entry for him in Dict. of irish Biog. RIA 2009.)

 

Notes
W. E. Vaughan, ed., A New History of Ireland, Vol. VI: Ireland under the Union, II: 1870-1921, incls. allusion to ‘John Windle of Cork’ [sic] with other ‘private collectors’ in Brian Ó Cuív, ‘Irish Language and Literature, 1845-1921’ (p.414.)

C. B. Gibson, MRIA, The History of the County and City of Cork, Vol. 2 (London: Thomas C. Newby 1861; printed at Cork by Guy Bros.), with owns indebtedness to Windele (p.312) and quotes him often - including a ftn. ref. to a lion painted for a public house by James Barry which seems to be undiscoverable at the time of writing. (p.321.n.) The work, which incls. a list of 6pp. subscribers list in double-coiumn, available as pdf - online. It contains title-page epigraphs from Spenser (‘The spreading Lee, that like an island fayre, Encloseth Corke -with Ms divided flood’), and another from State Papers (‘The Mayor of the town, with his brethren, received him in ther skarlet gowns, and ther typetts of velvett, after the English fashion, and made us the beste chere that ever we had in ower lyves.’ The chapters of Vol. II extend from The Rebellion in the City [1603] (Chap. I) to The Reformation (Chap. XXIII) and Population, Houses, Labour-Market, Emigration, Baronies and Parishes (Chap. XXIV; end.)

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