Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore, recalls Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, a colonial governor whose parents lived in Wexford

Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore, commemorates Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), whose parents lived in Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Our two visits to Singapore over the past two months have been short but sweet: six hours last month and less than 36 hours last week. But during those two short yet intensive visits, it was interesting to see the extent to which Singapore was shaped in the 19th century and early 20th century by some influential Irish figures, including the Governor Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), who had family roots in Co Wexford and Co Kildare, and the architects George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844), who was born in Drogheda, and Denis Santry (1879-1960), who was born in Cork.

General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh was the last Governor of the Straits Settlements appointed from India, and he governed from Singapore from 1859 to 1867.

Cavenagh was born in Hythe, Kent, where his father was stationed, on 8 October 1820. He was the third son of James Gordon Cavenagh (1766-1844), an Irish army surgeon, and Ann (née Coates) Cavenagh (1788-1846).

The Cavenagh family returned to Wexford in 1837 and lived at Castle House. Some of the Cavenagh children are said to have attended the Ferns Diocesan School, perhaps the parish school in Saint Patrick’s Square at the south end of High Street, Wexford.

The Cavenagh family lived at Castle House, off Trinity Street and Parnell Street, Wexford (Photograph: Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland)

James Cavenagh (1702-1769) of Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny, was a Surveyor of Excise and was said to be descended from the Kavanagh family of Borris House, Co Carlow.

His son, Matthew Cavenagh (1740-1819), ran away from Co Wexford with Catherine Hyde Orfeur (1748-1814), daughter of Captain John Orfeur late of Drillingstown, Co Wexford, and they were married in Innishannon, Co Cork. They moved to Wexford in the 1770s and lived in Back Street, then regarded as a fashionable part of the town.

High Street was also known as Upper Back Street; Abbey Street was once called Lower Back Street; while the portion of Back Street that connects High Street and Rowe Street with John’s Gate Street and Cornmarket is now named Mallin Street and is the location of the new Wexford Town Library.

Wexford Town Library on Mallin Street, once known as Back Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew Cavenagh was the Surveyor of Excise in Wexford. Matthew Cavenagh, his son James Gordon Cavenagh, and other members of the Cavenagh family are buried in a family vault in the ruins of Saint Patrick’s Church, Wexford.

Matthew Cavenagh’s oldest son, James Gordon Cavenagh (1766-1844), became a surgeon and joined the British army. He lived at the barracks in Hythe, near Folkestone, Kent. He married Ann Coates (1788-1846) in New Romney, Kent, on 27 March 1815. A few months later, he was a late arrival at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

James Gordon Cavenagh returned to Wexford around 1837, and lived at Castle House, off Trinity Street and Parnell Street. James died in Wexford on 11 September 1844, Ann died in Wexford in 1846; they are both buried in the family vault at Saint Patrick’s Church, Wexford.

General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh was the Governor of the Straits Settlements in Singapore from 1859 to 1867

The future General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh Cavenagh trained at Addiscombe Military Seminary, the military academy of the British East India Company. He passed his examination in 1837, and he joined the 32nd Regiment Native Infantry in early 1838.

After further military training at Fort William College, Calcutta, in 1840, he was appointed to the 41st Regiment Native Infantry. He married Elizabeth Marshall Moriarty at Dinapore, India, on 7 September 1842, and they were the parents of two sons.

He was so badly wounded in the Battle of Maharajpore in December 1843 that his leg was severed just above the ankle. He was wounded again in the left arm in January 1846 during the first Anglo-Sikh war. After this he was appointed as Superintendent of the Mysore Princes and of the ex-Ameers of Sindh.

Cavenagh travelled to Britain and France in 1850 in political charge of the Nepalese Embassy under Jung Bahadur Rana. As Town and Fort Major of Calcutta, he was responsible for the safety of Fort William during the Indian Mutiny in 1857.

Canning offered him the post of Governor of the Straits Settlements, and he took up the post on 8 August 1859. Under a royal charter in 1826, Singapore, Malacca, Penang and Dindings had been combined to form the Straits Settlements.

As Governor of the Straits Settlements, Cavenagh was answerable to the Governor-General of India in Calcutta. One of his tasks was to prepare a special report on the resources of the State of Sarawak, administered as a separated independent state by the Rajah of Sarawak, Sir James Brooke.

When control passed to the Colonial Office in London on 1 April 1867, the Straits Settlements became a crown colony. Cavenagh was the last Governor to report to the Governor-General in Calcutta.

After his time in Singapore ended on 16 March 1867, Cavenagh continued as a general officer in the Bengal Staff Corps, becoming a lieutenant general in 1874 and a general in 1877. In retirement, Cavenagh lived in Long Ditton, Surrey. He was knighted in 1881, and died on 3 July 1891.

Saint Patrick’s Church, Wexford … generations of the Cavenagh family are buried beside the church ruins (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Cavenagh gives his name to Cavenagh Road in the Orchard Road area and Cavenagh Bridge in Singapore.

Cavenagh Bridge, spanning the lower reaches of the Singapore River in the Downtown Core, is the only suspension bridge and one of the oldest bridges in Singapore. It was opened in 1869 to commemorate Singapore’s new status in the crown colony of the Straits Settlements in 1867. It is the oldest bridge in Singapore that exists in its original form.

The bridge was originally known as the Edinburgh Bridge to commemorate a visit to Singapore by Queen Victoria’s second son, the Duke of Edinburgh. Its name was changed to Cavenagh Bridge in honour of Major General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, and the coat-of-arms of the Cavenagh family can still be seen on the signage at both ends of the bridge.

The Cavenagh plaque and Cavenagh coat-of-arms on Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Cavenagh Bridge linked the Civic District on the north bank to the Commercial District on the south bank of the Singapore River. Before Cavenagh Bridge was built, people could only move between the two districts by a detour over Elgin Bridge or by paying for a sampan boat crossing of the river.

Cavenagh Bridge has elaborate suspension struts compared to most other suspension bridges, and is the third bridge to be built in Singapore. Numerous steel rivets were used in its construction, which employed steel casting methods commonly used at the era.

The bridge was designed by John Turnbull Thomson of the colonial Public Works Department and built by P&W Maclellan, Glasgow Engineers. It was built and tested in Glasgow to withstand a load four times its own weight. It was then shipped to Singapore in parts and reassembled in 1869 by convict labour before opening to traffic a year later.

Rickshaws and ox carts used Cavenagh Bridge to cross Singapore River. Later the bridge became overloaded due to the flourishing trade on the Singapore River in the late 1880s.

Cavenagh Bridge is now a pedestrian bridge and a national monument (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

When Cavenagh Bridge became unable to cope with the increasing traffic and its low draught was insufficient for the passage of boats at high tide, the government decided to build the Anderson Bridge in 1910 to replace Cavenagh Bridge.

Cavenagh Bridge was eventually spared from demolition and was converted into a pedestrian bridge, with the road traffic diverted to the Anderson Bridge. A police notice, preserved to this day, was placed at both ends of the bridge restricting the passage of vehicles that weighed beyond 3 cwt (152 kg or 336 lb), including cattle and horses.

Cavenagh Bridge is now a pedestrian bridge, with lighting added in 1990 to accentuate its architectural features at nightfall. It provides the most convenient pedestrian link between the cultural district at the north bank and the commercial district to the south of the Singapore River, and complements the renovated Fullerton Hotel beside the bridge. The bridge was designated a national monument in 2019.

Lighting was added to Cavenagh Bridge in 1990 to accentuate its architectural features at nightfall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A return visit to Castle Durrow

The Bridge over the River Erkina at Durrow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

A few days before Christmas, I was at a fund-raising ball for Christ Church Cathedral in Castle Durrow, Co Laois, and won the last spot-prize of the night – a voucher for midweek dinner, bed and breakfast in Castle Durrow.

And so, I took full pleasure in returning to Castle Durrow last night, enjoying two days in the countryside of counties Laois, Kilkenny and Carlow.

On the way, two of us first stopped in Monasterevin, on the banks of the River Barrow in Co Kildare, where my grandfather’s second cousin, Bishop Michael Comerford, had been parish priest at the end of the 19th century and became friends with the English poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, who was regular visitor to Monasterevin.

This small town has wide streets and squares lined with elegant Georgian houses, and tree-lined avenues and walkways. It became known as “the Venice of Ireland” because of the river, its many bridges and the Grand Canal, which arrived in Monasterevin in 1786.

From Monasterevin, we drove south and then across The Heath in Co Laois to the Rock of Dunamase, near Stradbally. The Rock, which looks like Mystras in miniature, stands 46 metres high in the heart of a flat plain, with expansive views across the countryside to as far as the Slieve Bloom Mountains.

The Rock of Dunamase ... like a miniature Mystras in the Irish Midlands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The Rock was first settled in the ninth century and the castle at the top of the outcrop was built in the 12th century. Over the centuries, it was owned by the Marshal and Mortimer families, but eventually was captured by local Irish lords before it became a ruined shell in the mid-14th century.

During the Cromwellian wars, it was blown up in 1650 to stop it being used in battle. By the 18th century, it was owned by Sir John Parnell who tried to build a banqueting hall here. But his efforts were in vain, and once again it was abandoned. This is now a mysterious but majestic ruin that captivates the imagination, almost as romantic in its setting as the Rock of Cashel.

Holy Trinity Church seen from the Rock of Dunamase (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

From Dunamase, we drove on to Abbeyleix for lunch. Since the M8 bypassed the town two years ago, Abbeyleix has reclaimed its charm as planned estate town, built by the de Vesci family. As we are all recalling the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic this week, it was interesting to learn that the former carpet factory in Abbeyleix produced the carpets for the Titanic before it set sail in 1912.

The site of the carpet factory is now Bramleys, an elegant interiors shop with an excellent coffee shop. We decided to have lunch there, and were pleasantly surprised by both the attention and the food – without realising that Bramleys is owned by the same couple who own the hotel at Castle Durrow.

Pembroke Terrace in Abbeyleix ... town planning by the de Vesci family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford

From Abbeyleix, we were only a few minutes’ drive from Durrow, a planned Georgian estate village built on the banks of the River Erkina, close to the point where it joins the River Nore.

The Georgian elegance of the Square at the gates of Castle Durrow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Durrow celebrated its tercentenary four years ago, although the pub by the river claims it dates back to 1692. The village was redesigned by William Flower of Castle Durrow in 1708, has elegant Georgian townhouses built around a village green in the shape of a diamond and known as The Square, with hotels, coffee shops and Sheppard’s Auction House.

Bluebells in the grounds of Castle Durrow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We strolled around the village green, through the narrow streets, by the banks of the river, and through the grounds of the castle, with its ageing trees, fresh bluebells, grazing horses and walled gardens. At the end of the drive, a gate leading into the churchyard was half-open, like an invitation into a secret garden. Later, dinner was served in a room looking out onto the stepped terrace.

I awoke before dawn to find a clear half moon streaming into the room, and the garden and terrace below bathed in its moonbeams.

The 18th-century multi-arched bridge over the King’s River in Kells, Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

After strolling through the castle grounds and the village once more this morning, we drove down to Kells at midday to see the unusual bridge over the King’s River. The eight-arch bridge was built over the river in 1725 and widened in 1775, and there is a five-arch stone parallel road bridge to the south-east with three elliptical arches.

From Kells we drove past the ruins of Kells Priory, which I had visited last year, then south past the round tower and monastic site at Kilree, before taking a tiny lane down to the hamlet of Danganmore.

The ruins of Danganmore Castle, once owned by the Comerford family, are incorporated into the Forrestal family home (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

In Danaganmore, the ruins of a Comerford castle dating back to the 16th century have been incorporated inelegantly into a farmhouse owned by generations of the Forrestal family. The castle once gave rise to the eccentric Joseph Comerford’s claims to the tile of Baron of Danganmore in the early 18th century. A nearby church and churchyard, where the Comerfords of Danganmore may have been buried, is now desolate and in ruins.

We had lunch in Café Sol in Thomastown, and stopped on the banks of the River Nore to look at Grennan Castle on our way to Inistioge, where we walked through part of the Woodstock Estate, strolled by the banks of river, and checked out the ruined castles before having coffee in the warmly-welcoming café, ‘Circle of Friends.’

From Inistioge, we drove on to The Rower to see the sad ruins of the Church of Ireland parish church, where the Revd Thomas Comerford had been Vicar from 1630 until his death in 1635.

The gates of Borris House in Borris, Co Carlow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We turned back north, drove along the banks of the river through Graiguenamanagh, and stopped one last time in Borris, Co Carlow, to see the gates of Borris House, the ancestral home of the Kavanagh family.

On the way back to Dublin, through Bagenalstown – which once prided itself in being the “Versailles of Ireland” – and Leighlinbridge there were occasional hailstorms, but every now and then we were rewarded with a full rainbow bursting through the clouds, and views across green and golden fields.

From the “Venice of Ireland” to the “Versailles of Ireland,” these were two joyful days in Easter Week.