The family made many refurbishments to the castle over the years, including the addition of a Jacobean mansion to the old tower house in the late 17th century.
Each year they invited the villagers to the castle grounds for the 'Maying in Menlo' festival, which was a great Galway tradition at the time.
Boats from Woodquay and Long Walk would bring people up the river and sweet sellers sold red and white sugars sticks and sweet-pipes at a halfpenny each.
The details of that terrible night, except the efforts made by the local people, the fire service (for such as it was at the time ), and soldiers from Renmore barracks, to tackle the blaze, were lost.
In fact it was as a result of the promptings of her grandchildren in March 1977, that she wrote to the late solicitor Maurice Semple, and told him the story of that fatal night.