Patronage of the Arts

The Maguires were noted patrons of poetry, music and learning.
It was a mainly peaceful time although this tranquillity was periodically interrupted by warfare with neighbouring clans from Counties Donegal, Tyrone and Cavan.
The blind poet Tadgh Dall O hUiginn painted an idyllic picture of the castle in the late sixteenth century. He wrote of the:
‘fair castle, with its shining greensward…the white walled rampart amongst the blue hillocks’.
At the castle there were:
‘poets and minstrels, satin-clad maidens weaving wondrous golden fringes, soldiers reclining, smiths preparing weapons’.