page_title: Cusack
section_title: Lady Joan de Cusack
hierarchical_section_title: Cusack / Lady Joan de Cusack
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruined Church at Killeen Castle
context_page_description: Cusack is an Irish family name of Norman origin, originally from Cussac in Guienne, France. The surname died out in England, but is common in Ireland, where it was imported at the time of the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century.
  While not a particularly common name, Cusack is historically associated with a number of variant forms, such as de Cussac, de Cusack, de Ciusak, de Cíosóg, de Cíomhsíg, Mac Íosóg, and Mac Isog.
  Irish emigrants to the Americas were reportedly given alternative spellings by immigration officers, based on their pronunciation, however this appears to be a myth. The following: Cusack, Kuzak, Kuzack, Cusick, and Cussack are modern variants.
context_section_description: Lady Joan de Cusack, daughter of Sir Lucas de Cusack, Lord of Killeen, and Matilda Flemming, daughter of the Baron of Slane, married Sir Christopher Plunkett  of Rarhregan in 1399.
  Sir Christopher joined her as Lord of Killeen at the Castle.
  Lady Joan de Cusack as an heiress brought not only the parish and the castles of Killeen and Dunsany but also the following manors and tenements to her husband. (we must remember that a manor often involved thousands of acres). In the parish of Kilskire, the townlands of Boltown, Kilskire and Robbinstown. In the parish of Killallon, Galboystown, Seraghstown and Glehalstown. These two parishes are adjacent in the Barony of Fore, Co Meath in which she also had seisen of Loughcrew. Also in what is now the Barony of Lower Navan, in the parish of Clonmacduff, she owned Ballardin and Tullahanstown. Finally the townland of Cloney closes the list.(ref Pontifico Hibernica II, pp. 210–11)
  The chantry church, outside Killeen Castle, built by the last of the Cusacks in Killeen, Joan, and her husband, Christopher Plunkett, is now a national monument. It was endowed with the object of having Masses and Prayers offered for the donors, their forebears and posterity, and doutless inspired partly by the little ruin that gave its name to the castle, and also partly by the fact that Lady Joan was the last of a long line of Cusacks to live in Killeen Castle for 269 years. The names of the Cusacks and Plunketts on the mortuary inscriptions in the church have been listed and a Robert Cusack Esq. and Margaret Plunkett are recorded being buried here in 1620. (ref. Beryl Moore: The Tombs in St Mary's ruined Church, Killeen)
  The tomb stone is directly in front of the alter and displays -
  A knight and his lady carved in low releif surmounted by a rich double canopy. The lady is lying on her husband's right and wears a bullock's hoof-shaped head dress, her feet rest on a cushion. The knight is cleanshaven and his feet rest on a small sporting dog. Both have their hands doubled up flat on their chests. They are Sir Christopher Plunkett and Lady Joan Cusack who married in 1399.
  
  A portion of the black-lettered inscription which runs along the edge can still be read and it gives their names and says they 'caused this church to be built'
  
  Sir Christopher and Lady Joan had two male children—John Plunkett, the elder, inherited Killeen Castle and Christopher Plunkett, the younger, inherited Dunsany Castle. There appears to be no definitive record of how their mother's inheritance (ref. Carew.MSS, V, p. 357)  was shared between them. However what they and the Cusacks, down the years, do share is that Norman Knight ancestor who came to Ireland in 1172 - Geoffrey de Cusack.
caption: Ruined Church at Killeen Castle
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