Castle Leslie Mystery Solved after 25 Years
In the mid-1980s it was not unusual for criminals and vandals to destroy historical and architecturally important sites in County Monaghan, the Gate House at Rossmore Park, and the Rossmore Mausoleum where just two such places that were ransacked and destroyed. It could be countered that the Rossmore estate had been left to fall into ruin and was therefore open to such criminality and vandalism, however, this was a charge that could not be laid against the Castle Leslie Estate that had through generations and mixed fortunes always tried to keep its best side out. Yet in the mid-1980s a spate of criminality and vandalism occurred at the Leslie Estate, and that criminality has gone unexplained until this article was written 25th July 2011.
In the mid-1980s thousands of hand carved stones were stolen from the Castle Leslie Estate, leaving historically and architecturally important walls badly damaged and beyond repair to their former glory. The Leslie family were devastated by the unexplained thefts, and Monaghan was yet again robbed of important architecture. The mystery of the criminals behind the theft of so many important stones is only now uncovered in order to fill a gap in the well documented history of the Leslie Castle Estate.
While Castle Leslie is set a few kilometres from Monaghan Town it would be Monaghan Town that would become home to the important stones stolen from the Castle Leslie Estate. At the time that the thefts took place at the Castle Leslie Estate a public house in Church Square, Monaghan Town was being renovated. The Round House Bar had been signed over to Owen/Eoin Smyth by his uncle Robert Loane, Smyth had been recently released from The Maze prison in County Antrim where he had served an extraordinary short sentence related to the murders of pensioner Sir Norman Strong and his son James at Tynan Abbey.
Smyth had removed the plaster render from the front of the Round House Bar and discovered a mix of brick and stone that was both structurally unsafe and aesthetically unpleasing. There was some stone on the front of the Round House Bar; however, many thousands of stones would have to be found of a similar cut in order for the front of the Round House Bar was to be restored to its glory days in the 1800s. Smyth then came upon the idea to remove stones from the Castle Leslie Estate, Smyth employed two young lads who were living in Monaghan at that time. One of the lads employed by Smyth was Martin Lavery, who originated from Glaslough and so knew the Leslie Estate well; the other vulnerable lad employed by Smyth was Fergal Nixon.
Over a number of weeks, both Martin Lavery and Fergal Nixon, under instruction from Owen Smyth used a tractor and trailer belonging to Harry Lavery (Martin’s father) who lived in Glaslough, to steal thousands of historically and architecturally valuable stones from the Castle Leslie Estate. The stones were then hidden at a number of locations and those Sinn Fein activists employed by Smyth to refurnish the Round House Bar could easily pick the stones they needed to reface the Round House Bar. Smyth felt it was amusing to steal from the Castle Leslie Estate to refurnish his run down pub; however, those who handled the stones, including Smyth have been cursed over the years with illness and death.
The Castle Leslie Estate has despite the criminal actions of Owen/Eoin Smyth and others survived and is now one of the premiere holiday and wedding destinations in Europe. The Castle Leslie Estate has stood the test of time since the 1660s while The Round House Bar is now available as a rented office. The Leslie Estate is run by Samantha Leslie and is an oasis of culinary and accommodation delights, where one can just as easily rub shoulders with Sir Paul Mc Cartney as with local artists and international globetrotting lovers of life. Samantha and her family have invested both time and money in a restoration programme of the Castle Leslie Estate that makes the Castle Leslie Estate one of the finest luxury Hotels in Europe if not the world.
