 In 1691, following the confiscation of their lands by the King of England, the Fitzgeralds left Springfield and returned to France.The property was bought by William Fitzmaurice, a younger son of the 20th Lord Kerry.His son, John Fitzmaurice, built a large three-storey mansion in Early Georgian style, adjacent to the 13th-century keep, which survived until the Irish Republican Army burnt it down in 1921.