Lea Castle - One Of The Ancestral Homes of The O'Dempsey Clan...

Side View of Lea Castle, Porarlington... In 1315 Bruce came to Lea, on which occasion the church and castle were burned. Around this time the castle then came into the possession of the O'Dempseys.

Captain Dempsey was a direct descendant of the O'Dempseys of Clanmalier, an aristocratic Gaelic nobility who can trace their line back to the High King of Ireland in the 2nd century A.D. Captain Dempsey's ancestors lived for many generations in the vicinity of Lea Castle, one of the ancestral homes of The Dempsey Clan from the early 1300's to the mid 17th. century when the castle was severely damaged by the forces of Oliver Cromwell and the family was dispossessed.