Doneraile is one of many small towns in the Blackwater valley and is situated thirty miles north of Cork City and seven miles north-east of Mallow. It stands on the northern slope of a hill rising from the river Awbeg, which flows through the town cutting it into two sections. It is mostly famous for its horse racing heritage and was the site of the first ever Steeplechase which was run from Buttevant steeple to Doneraile steeple over 250 years ago in 1752. For 200 years Doneraile was also home to the renowned St Leger family (incidentally my brother Declan was in the same class at school in London with a St Leger, and my father sat in class in Doneraile with jockey legend Pat Eddery's father)

My parents both grew up in Doneraile. My Mother Marie, one of eight children, lived at the top of the hill opposite the Old Deer Park, where her father's cattle grazed. The park has since been lost by the family in a (very rare) divorce settlement. My Father Patrick, one of three, grew up at the pub in the centre of the village, which is now home to the post office. His brother David became a priest and missionary and now lives in London. In the Irish tradition I was named after my paternal grandfather Denis, and my brother was named after my uncle, David. My youngest brother Declan didn't follow a particular naming trend, other than it's an attractive Irish name. In the same vein, Declan's son, born in 2004, was named Cian.

Doneraile is an old town and its foundation can be traced back to 1130, when the Deagha clan settled on the townland of Oldcourt, some three-quarters of a mile north-west of the town. Here they built a fort on a rocky elevation and called it Rosfoyle, 'promontory on the cliff', which gradually changed to Dun Ar Aill, 'fort on the cliff'. The same clan also built forts in Bo-bleacht, now the townland of Byblox, a mile west of the town. When a plague destroyed a great number of people in the area, the chieftains rnoved the settlement to the location where Doneraile now stands. In the course ot the thirteenth century Doneraile like many other small towns in the Cork region began to develop as a market town and appears as such on a list drawn up by the sheriff of Cork in June 1299.

The subsequent early history of Doneraile is closely linked with that of the family of Synan, who were of Welsh origin. Some members of this family settled in Doneraile and wielded great power over the district from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. Their original dwelling-place was a fort near Byblox, and by the time of Queen Elizabeth I had built five castles and a number of manors in the area, including Richardstown Castle, Castlepook and Doneraile Castle - of all the Synan castles, only Castle Pook still stands. Towards the end of Elizabeth's reign the Synan influence waned and during the reign of Charles I they suffered heavy defeats with many members of the family condemned to death or exile. However, the Synans did not disappear from Doneraile entirely; in fact in 1642 they laid the foundation of the Red House, also called Doneraile House, on the Main Street. which they occupied until 1830. A branch of the family under the name of Crone also stayed in the district, and to this day there are a few Synans living in Doneraile.

In 1636, Nicholas Synan sold Doneraile and the surrounding countryside, in all some 12,000 acres of land, to Sir William St. Leger Lord President of Munster for 'the sum of three hundred pounds sterling current money of and in England in hand payed to us'. The St Legers were of French extraction and derived from Sir Robert Sent Legere, a knight and one of the companions-in-arms of William the Conqueror. Sir William St Leger was his direct descendant and the first of the St Legers to live in Doneraile - he bought the castle and lands of Kilcolman from Sir Walter Welmond and Sylvanus Spenser, a son of the poet Edmund Spenser. With this land deal and the purchase of the Synan lands six years later, Doneraile and most of the surrounding countryside became in effect the property of the St Leger family and remained so for several centuries; in its heyday the estate would have consisted of some 28,000 acres.

When the St Legers first arrived in Doneraile, they used Doneraile Castle - one of the Synan strongholds- as their base. However, during and immediately after the great rebellion of 1641, the castle was ransacked and burned. By 1645 it was so badly damaged that the St Legers abandoned it and moved to a house situated on the present location of Doneraile Court. They pulled down the remains of Doneraile Castle and used the stone to add to this house - there is a inullioned window in the basement which clearly originated from this castle. In around 1725 Arthur, first Viscount Doneraile, employed Isaac Rothery to redesign the house, and the facade that we see today dates from that time.

Doneraile subsequently became a borough under a charter granted by Charles II in 1679, and was empowered to return two members to the Irish Parliament. Thus, in a short period, Doneraile was transformed from a modest market town into a gentlemen's village. The town went through a major facelift, and is today an excellent example of a formally planned early eighteenth-century settlement. In 1750 Dr Smith records in his 'Ancient and Present State of the City and County of Cork' that 'Doneraile [is] one of the most pleasant and beautiful villages in this kingdom ... [and] is indebted for the greatest part of its beauty to the fine house and extensive improvements of Hayes St Leger esq.'