Sir John Oldcastle of Martyrs". Oldcastle was also a minor character in the early Elizabethan history play the "Famous Victories of Henry V" (c. 1586?), which is generally thought to have been one of Shakespeare's sources for his plays on Henry IV and Henry V. The genesis of "Sir John Oldcastle" is crucially linked to the fact that when Shakespeare's "Henry IV" plays premiered on stage in 1597–98, the character Sir John Falstaff was called Sir John Oldcastle. This is indicated by abundant external and internal evidence. The change of names, from "Oldcastle" to "Falstaff," is mentioned in seventeenth-century works by Richard James
Oldcastle, County Meath train left Oldcastle to go to North Wall, Dublin. The prisoners were then taken by ship to Knockaloe Camp on the Isle of Man. Oldcastle was returned to its previous owners the Oldcastle Board of Guardians and fell into disuse. During the War of Independence in May 1920 Oldcastle Workhouse was set ablaze by the local IRA to stop the British using it as a military base. The main buildings no longer stand the only thing still standing is the perimeter wall The Oldcastle Agricultural Show: One of the events not to miss is the Oldcastle Show which is held