In 1922, the Butler family - namely Lord and Lady Ossory - were residents of the castle. The Irish Civil war, raged around them. Lord Ossory memorably wrote that he was woken at the "unreasonable hour of 5.30am" by his butler, who brought the news that Republican forces had seized and occupied his castle.
The last witch in Ireland, reputedly Dame Alice Kyteler, was born in Kilkenny in 1280. Widowed four times, she was accused of poisoning all of her husbands. Although her former home was burned down, you can now dine at Kyteler’s Inn on the site of the house
In 1650 invading Cromwellian forces mounted an attack on Kilkenny castle and although it was initially successfully defended they eventually managed to take control of the city by another route.As of 2011, Kilkenny had played a total of 371 championship games, winning 265, drawing 16 and losing 90. They had played Dublin the most times(82) .
Kilkenny is 117 kilometres (73 mi) away the capital Dublin and 48 kilometres (30 mi) north from the nearest city Waterford. Wexford is 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the south-east and Limerick is 122 kilometres (76 mi) to the west.
"The dearest thing I know is a memory of sunny Sunday mornings in Kilkenny; the lovely line of castle, roof-top, spire and round tower against the pale blue sky, the sun revelling in the quiet colours of old stone, old walls, old tree; the tip-tap of the feet of people on the flagstones, and above all the flocking floating notes of the church bells. Sunday has a flavour of its own there, a clean, sweet, warming flavour."
Kilkenny Castle has soared past some incredible competition to take the title of the most popular paid visitor attraction managed by the Office of Public Works (OPW) in Ireland.
AKA is a voluntary run arts festival that showcases the hard work and talent of independent artists and community groups across Kilkenny county and city.