Lissadell House facts for kids
Lissadell House is a neo-classical Greek revivalist style country house, located in County Sligo, Ireland.
The house was built between 1830 and 1835, and inhabited from 1833 onwards, for Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet (1784–1835) by London architect Francis Goodwin. In 1876, Sir Robert left the house and surrounding estate to his son, Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet.
Contents
Architecture
Described as "austere in the extreme", Lissadell house is a Greek Revival style detached nine-bay, two-storey over basement mansion, the last one in this style to be built in Ireland. It is constructed of Ballysadare limestone with finely jointed ashlar walling. An entrance front is on the north with a three-bay pedimented central projection, originally open to east and west to form porte-cochere.
Prior to its sale in 2003, Lissadell was the only house in Ireland to retain its original Williams & Gibton furniture which was made especially for the house and designed to harmonise with Goodwin's architectural vision.
Lissadell's was the first country house in Ireland to have an independent gas supply piped into the property.
Location
The house is on the south shore of Maugherow Peninsula in northern County Sligo over looking Drumcliff bay. It is in the townland of Lissadell South, the Barony of Carbury formerly the túath of Cairbre Drom Cliabh. The house takes its name from the Irish placename, Lios an Doill Uí Dálaigh or O'Dalys Court of the Blind, possibly referring to the O Daly school of poetry that existed here in the 13th century.
History
The estate was formed from land granted in the early 17th century to the Elizabethan soldier Sir Paul Gore for his services to the English crown during the Nine Years' War. The land was confiscated from ecclesiastical lands belonging to the monastery of Drumcliff and the Lords of Ó Conchobhair Sligigh and the Ó hAirt chiefs of the territory. The original seat of the estate was at Ardtermon Castle, a 17th-century fortified house several kilometres to the west. The present house replaced an earlier 13th century house closer to the shore which was demolished.
The estate was once 32,000 acres (13,000 ha) but now consists of less than 500 acres (200 ha), the immediate demesne of the house. The house was the childhood home of Irish revolutionary, Constance Gore-Booth, her sister the poet and suffragist, Eva Gore-Booth, and their siblings, Mabel Gore-Booth, Mordaunt Gore-Booth and Josslyn Gore-Booth. It was also the sometime holiday retreat of the world-renowned poet, William Butler Yeats. He made the house famous with the opening lines of his poem:
"In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz"
The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.
The estate was bought by the Cassidy-Walsh family in 2003 for an undisclosed sum. They initiated a program of restoration of the house.
Concerts
- Westlife - Where We Are Tour: 30 July 2010
- Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen Tour 2008–2010: 31 July; 1 August 2010
