In 1484 Bishop Thomas Barrett, as envoy of
Richard III, singled out Sir Oliver and Sir Alexander
Plunkett for their valour in repelling the king’s Irish
enemies. But during the Lambert Simnel affair one of
the Killeen Plunketts served in the rebel army, and
Thomas Plunkett, chief justice of the common bench,
only received pardon after lengthy pleading. After the
Reformation the Plunketts remained one of the leading
Catholic families of the Pale, counting the martyr
Oliver Plunkett among their number.
JAMES MOYNES
References and Further Reading
Brand, P. “The Formation of a Parish; The Case of Beaulieu, Co.
Louth.” In Settlement and Society in Medieval Ireland. Essays
presented to F.X. Martin, edited by J. Bradley, 261–76. 1988.
O’Reilly, M. “The Plunkett Family of Loughcrew.” Ríocht na
Midhevol 1 no 4 (1958): 49–53.
See alsoPale, The
POER
The surname Poer (also Poher, Puher: the earliest ref-
erences omit the prefix le. The modern form is, of
course, Power) seems to have denoted a native of
Picardy in northern France, although a connection with
the district of Poher in Brittany has also been suggested
and a multiple origin is possible. A number of bearers
of the name, members of a family associated with the
de Courcys in Somerset and Devon, figured promi-
nently in the invasion of Ireland from 1170 on. Robert
Puher, a member of the household of King Henry II,
whom he accompanied to Ireland in 1171, was
appointed governor of Waterford in 1177. It is proba-
bly the same man who had acquired Dunshaughlin and
Ratoath in County Meath before 1191. Others were
Roger (killed 1188), William and Reginald Poer, while
Simon le Poer was briefly (1185-90) lord of half the
“kingdom of Cork” as husband of Milo de Cogan’s
daughter and heiress Margaret.
Descendants of some of these Poers certainly
endured in County Kilkenny, and it is possible that
Henry Poher, to whom King John granted the great
barony of Dunoil (Dunhill) in County Waterford
belonged to this family, but the fact that a charter of his
begins with the formula “to all my men: French,
English, Welsh and Irish” suggests rather an origin in
the Welsh marches, where the surname also occurs.
Henry’s grandson, John fitz Robert le Poer of Dunoil
(dead by 1242), acquired also lands in Limerick and
Connacht, but the lineage remained overwhelmingly
connected with County Waterford and the surrounding
areas. John’s son, another John, produced King John’s
charter in court in 1262, but unfortunately the text does
not survive. By 1300 the Poers were one of the most
numerous of the “Anglo-Norman” lineages and
included a substantial criminal element. One branch
bore the strange epithet of the “blackman” Poers, while
conversely Sir John fitz William le Poer (died 1295)
was known as “the white Poer.” He founded the County
Cork branch of the family. In the 1320s the family were
involved in a bitter feud with Maurice fitz Thomas, first
earl of Desmond. The direct line of the barons of Dunoil
comes to an end shortly before 1360, an event followed
by bitter internal feuds within the lineage.
Sir Eustace fitz Benedict le Poer (died 1311) the
younger son of a junior branch, was a remarkable self-
made man who, having married a rich widow, built up
an enormous landed estate, including the great barony
of Kells in County Kilkenny. He died childless, having
divided up his lands among his kinsmen. His nephew,
Sir Arnold fitz Robert, seneschal of Kilkenny, died in
1328 in Dublin Castle, where he had been imprisoned
on a charge of heresy through his involvement in the
famous Kilkenny witchcraft case. His son, another Sir
Eustace, having taken part in the rebellion of his fam-
ily’s former enemy, the earl of Desmond, was captured
in County Kerry in 1346 by the chief governor, Sir
Ralph Ufford, and executed, his lands being confis-
cated. Nicholas fitz John le Poer of Kilmeaden (died
after 1393), the largest landowner of the lineage in his
day, was a nephew or grandnephew of Sir Eustace fitz
Benedict, some of whose lands he inherited. He was
the ancestor of the later Kilmeaden line, who in the
fifteenth century also obtained possession of Dunoil
itself. His rivals for the leadership of the lineage were
Richard fitz John le Poer (died. 1376) and his son
David Rothe (Ruad, “the red”). Around this time com-
menced the long and bitter feud between the Poers and
their neighbors, the citizens of Waterford, which was
to continue for a century and a half.
David Rothe’s son Nicholas, known patronymically
asMac Daibhid Ruaid, was appointed in 1425 to the
sheriffship of County Waterford, an office that he and
his descendants were, uniquely in Ireland, to convert
into a hereditary lordship. He was a man of sufficient
note for his death in 1446 to be picked up by an annalist
in far-away Fermanagh. His son Richard (died 1483)
succeeded him as sheriff, surviving a parliamentary
attempt in 1476 by the citizens of Waterford to have
him removed as a Gaelicized rebel, who used only
“brehon” law. The sheriffship, converted into a local
lordship over the eastern half of County Waterford,
passed in turn to his son Piers and his grandson, another
Richard (died 1539), who was raised to the peerage in
1535–1536 as Lord Power of Curraghmore, a title
which remained with his descendants. His remarkable
widow, Katherine Butler, was the last to exercise auton-
omous authority over “the Power Country.”
KENNETH NICHOLLSPLUNKETT