Above is a photograph of the library at Bantry House, County Cork taken in the early 1970s for Irish Houses and Castles by Desmond Guinness and William Ryan. With its marble columns and pilasters topped by gilded Corinthian capitals below a compartmented ceiling, the room is part of the enlargement of the building undertaken by the second Earl of Bantry in the 1840s. Below is a photograph taken from much the same point and showing the room today: as is widely known, many of its remaining contents, along with those elsewhere in the house, are due to be sold this autumn.
I shall be speaking of Bantry House next Tuesday, August 26th when, as part of Heritage Week, I am giving a talk on Some Irish Houses and Demesnes at the Market House, Monaghan at 8pm, admission is free. For more information, see: http://www.heritageweek.ie/whats-on/event-details?EventID=296
Oh what I would give to be able to be there! Even better; to stop it!
Boo hoo!
I adore Ireland!
Penelope
ps my mother was a customer of Sybill Connolley; I met her when she came to speak in Los Angeles; and she invited me to Dublin to stay with her…..she even called to confirm. Biggest mistake I have made in my 67 years of life!
I adore your country!
I have been to Scotland……never Ireland……will be coming soon!!
We stayed at lovely Bantry House last October, and that Library was our private retreat for after-dinner drinks by the roaring fireplace. I’m so sad to hear that the contents are to be sold — it’s a magical place with an astonishing history.
There is a box of wild birds eggs (collected in another era when it was legal to do so), that the children of Meenies school in Drimoleague collected on display in Bantry House (I think in this room). My grandmother was the teacher in the small one teacher school 8 miles from Bantry. I have visited often & hope this house & it’s contents can be saved for Bantry, West Cork, it’s visitors & local people.
this is so sad but was inevitable – it could have been avoided – maybe?