Robert O’Byrne is a writer and lecturer specialising in the fine and decorative arts. He is the author of more than a dozen books, among them Luggala Days: The Story of a Guinness House (Cico Books) and more recently The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found (Lilliput Press) and The Irish Country House: A New Vision (Rizzoli). A former Vice-President of the Irish Georgian Society and trustee of the Alfred Beit Foundation, he is currently a trustee of the Apollo Foundation. Formerly he wrote a monthly column for Apollo magazine and also contributed to the Burlington Magazine and the Irish Arts Review. All opinions expressed herein on Ireland, her landscape, architecture and artefacts are his own.
Hi Robert
I me you once at a weekend concerning Molly Keane, at Woodbrook House and have been enjoying your posts here.
I have lived in and loved an old Lodge House belonging to Mount Pleasant House near Bandon, in Cork for the last 10 years. However I am dismayed that now it is to be sold and I fear it will be renovated and its beauty lost -it has original arched windows , is stone built and probably dates from when Mount Pleasant House was built though I haven’t been able to find records of this particular building . I wondered if you know how or if I can get it Listed so that whoever buys it will need to keep its original features. I also wondered if youmight like to come and see it – and have tea perhaps one day?
Kind regards
Jane Killingbeck
Hi Jane, I wonder could you contact me? My email is bdixon at ucd dot ie Thanks Brendan
Thank you for your recent message. Have you checked to see whether the building is already listed by Cork County Council? This information is available online. And are you sure it is old? According to J.A.K. Dean’s guide to gate lodges in Munster, the original lodge was demolished and ‘replaced by a modern house’. Dean is very reliable, so it may be that despite appearances to the contrary, the current lodge isn’t that old. (On the other hand, the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage does feature a building at Mt Pleasant which it calls a gate lodge – altho’ it clearly is more substantial that usually the case, so may have had another purpose. See https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/20909609/curravordy-co-cork)
Hello! Love your blog. Been subscribed for a few years now. We are coming back to Ireland in June and I saw an amazing place I want to see, Castleboro House in Wexford. It seems it is on private property. Any chance you can help me research how to see it, if possible? Here is a page about it https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/castleboro-house
Thanks!
Thanks for your message. Castleboro is on private farmland and the owner does not, as a rule, allow visitors onto the property, I’m afraid…
Bummer. It’s very cool. 🙁
Hi, Robert. I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your blog. So many great photos and fascinating stories. Thanks for the information.
Thank you, that’s most kind…
Read your article in IT ,4th May 24..
Could I contact you re derelict buildings in Ravensdale, Co Louth on the old site of the Clermont Estate. I have also history on Bellurgsn Church, in the same area.
Venora.obrien@gmail.com
Thank you for getting in touch. I was looking at the derelict buildings in Ravensdale some time ago (well, about 18 months or so). I want to come back and look at things there again, so will get in touch with you then, if that suits. Meanwhile, thank you for writing…
Hello Robert.
Greetings from Mitchelstown and thank you for the wonderful articles you produce here on your website and, of course, through your various publications, many of which I have. All are expertly researched and a joy to read (even if the subjects are ruins and places of loss and decay). Wishing you continued success. Bill Power.
Dear Bill
Many thanks, most kind. Sending best wishes to you in Mitchelstown…
Dear Robert
Hate to bother you but I need some (quick) help with a reference. Would you mind sending an email address? I love your photographs.
Best wishes
David
Dear David
I have emailed you about your query. Robert
Good morning Robert,
I have sent you a message on Instagram from an account called The Red Chapel regarding the Hinterland Festival in Kells this week. Happy to liaise by email either.
Kind regards,
Senan
Thank you for getting in touch; there’s no message from you on Instagram, so perhaps you might re-send? Many thanks
Just resent; it might be under ‘Requests’ in your inbox. Kind regards, S
Hi Robert. My name is Cathal. I have a very historical and big house in clare my family have restored and would love for you to write about it.
My email is clonloum123@gmail.com
Regards
Cathal
Thank you for your message.
Could you tell me something about the property in question please?
Many thanks
Hi. the garden contains the site of an ancient well and the site was part of the local castle estate. The owners were twice involved with Mary Queen of Scots in a plot to overthrow ireland. The house itself was originally built in the early 1800s by the Studdert family for a middle class farming family who were freinds of the studderts administration who were landlords of the barracks. The R.I.c were allowed stay here when the barrack’s became over full at one stage in the 19th century.
That’s just a bit of it’s exciting history.
Hello Mr O’Byrne, I am Seán O’Looney and I am a young(12) reader of you’re books, I have just started reading ” left without a Handkerchief” and I actually live very close to Kilboy House and I have always loved driving past the gatehouse of it which I always thought the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I was just wondering if you are ever going to be coming to Nenagh or thereabouts anytime soon as I would love to meet you some day, it was actually you who inspired me to begin an interest in Irish Architecture and History which I absolutely adore
All the best
Seán O’Looney
Thank you for your kind message and I am glad you like this site.
I am due to speak at the Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival on Sunday October 13th, so perhaps you might like to come along to that event…
Do you know the time and where yet? Thank you so much for your reply
Hullo
I was just wondering have you ever come across a Coolnamunna House in North Tipperary it is near the village of Cloughjordan, I wish to do a project on it so I wondered if you might happen to have heard of it anytime during you’re career. I know a bit about it already, supposedly it was built from the earliest of 1810 to the latest of 1820 their is a walled garden aswell the house was built by the Kennedy family, it was sold by somebody (I do not know if it was a descendant of the original kennedys or if it had already been sold before to somebody else around the) to the Mc Carthy family in around the late 1930s or 1940s!
Thank you for you’re time
Yours faithfully
Seán O’Looney
Ps: sorry for bothering you again!
Apologies, I am not familiar with this property. A couple of starting points if you wanted to investigate further.
One is here: https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22401506/coolnamunna-house-coolnamunna-tipperary-north
And the other: https://landedestates.ie/property/4524
Of course, you may know both of these sites already but just in case…
I’m sure that if you called to the house and explained your interest that the present owners might be able to provide further information for your project.
Best of luck with it.
P.S. I’m not yet sure of time and venue for my visit to Nenagh on October 13th: I see the programme will be released next week…
Hiya
It’s me again sadly I wasn’t able to get tickets to your lecture on Sunday 🙁 hopefully I will be able to meet you another time. Also thank you so much for your time to look into that house as it really helped me in my research
Thank you again
Seán
Oh dear, sorry you weren’t able to get tickets for Sunday: is it sold out?
Hi Robert
I wonder could you email me at about an issue I have?
Thanks
Brendan
Yes sadly they are all sold out.
oh my gosh. a Yank here, wondering what happened with the Saga. I’d watch this unfold over a Hulu series on aristocracy any night. Hoping dear young Sean was able to get tickets to the Literary Festival in October.
PS, I have an ‘old’ house in the states, which is about 1760s if you’d ever be over in the Boston environs, and would like to have tea in a house that has salamanders and a headstone in the basement. 🙂
warm wishes from the States.
Hello Mr O’Byrne
I’m the great-nephew of Alfred Williams, the former gardener referred to by Mr Garech Browne in the foreword of Luggala Days.
Regrettably I never met my great-uncle and I missed the opportunity to reach out to Mr Browne prior to his death.
Did he discuss him very much with you? Do you know of anyone else who might have known Alfred (I know this is increasingly unlikely)?
Kind regards
Rob Williams
Thank you for getting in touch but unfortunately I can’t be of any help to you: Garech is dead quite a few years ago, and the book was written even further back, so I don’t have any information on your great-uncle I’m afraid. And I suspect anyone who might have known him is no longer with us. My apologies for not being of greater assistance…
That’s fine, thank you for taking the time to reply
Hi Robert,
My name is Ben. I am student studying Folklore and Ethnology, and I’m doing a folklore project on Father Francis Browne. I got the inspiration for this project after discovering your latest book- A Vanishing World, The Irish Country House photographs of Father Browne.
I was wondering if possible, whether it would be possible to interview you on Father Browne and his relevance and contributions to Irish Folklore/ Ethnology?
This could be in person, on the phone, or zoom, whatever you are comfortable with if you are willing to lend me a hand.
I understand if this possible, and I thank you for taking the time to read this.
Best regards and a Happy New Year
Ben
Thank you for your message.
I’m not sure that I can be of much use, as I tend to know Father Browne’s work only through his images of houses, but could speak with you if you do think that would be helpful.
Have you a tight time-frame? I am rather tied-up with some work for the next few months but would be free and more focused at the end of the month. Please let me know when you have a moment…
If you need more information for your project, talk to the Society of Jesus aka Jesuit order. I believe the HQ is in mill town Park.
Dear Mr O’Bryne
I have read your articles on Glenmaroon House and I was wondering if you knew where I could possibly get the floorplans of the house? If possible would you be able to tell me more about the time the Guinness family loved there for as I am doing a project on the house and it would be great to have information from you!
Sincerely
Seân
Thank you for your recent message. Have you visited the Irish Architectural Archive on Merrion Square in Dublin (https://irisharchitecturalarchive.ie)? It would be the best place to start when looking for information about Glenmaroon. Best wishes for your project…
Hello,
My name is Issambre Vanney,
I’m writing an article for the TUD newspaper about How Urban Explorers Keep Guinness Legacy Alive.
For that, I was wondering if you could answer the question below:
– Urban explorers have brought renewed attention to Glenmaroon—do you see this as beneficial for raising awareness about its history, or does it pose risks to its preservation?
– As someone deeply knowledgeable about Irish architectural history, what do you find most fascinating about Glenmaroon House?
– If you could highlight one lesser-known fact or story about Glenmaroon that readers might not be aware of, what would it be?
If you could answer those questions, it would help me a lot.
Thank you
Issambre vanney
Thank you for your recent message.
To reply to your questions in brief:
1. Anything that brings attention, and appreciation, to the country’s architectural heritage is to be commended. However, on occasion ‘urban explorers’ can treat historic buildings simply as objects of curiosity, and treat them with insufficient understanding or knowledge. These houses are fragile and easily lost unless handled with due care and respect.
2. Two aspects of Glenmaroon are of interest, the first being that it is a house of two parts, linked by a bridge. This is, to the best of my knowledge, unique in Ireland. Secondly, the more recent house is of great importance as an early 20th century example of the arts and crafts movement, of which there are not too many here.
3. In one of Glenmaroon’s reception rooms, Ernest Guinness installed a coal scuttle with a small button which, when pressed, caused a pipe organ to rise up and begin playing ‘Cherry Ripe’, a popular song of the period.
I hope this is of help. And best wishes with your article.
Hello Robert and I am writing here because I’m too inept to find another way to contact you. I was in Lismore yesterday and delighted to attend your talk. I had a couple of questions for you, both a bit cheeky and didn’t feel up to the scrutiny of the crowd, or the queues to meet you after. So, here: in your view is Irish heritage best preserved in public or private hands? I’m thinking of your comment on the electric gates and of the Dyson purchase of Ballinatray and the Stripe tech bros … but also of the Orange Order (where do they get their money) and the decor you photographed in some of your slides which was often gruesome. Secondly … you called the place you visited the North of Ireland …. I always find this an interesting linguistic dividing line…. And finally, thanks for an excellent, entertaining talk (not sure my wearing a tie would get me past a gate, but I take the sentiment!).
Thank you for your message and queries, altho’ they’re hard to answer in just a few lines.
Ref which is the better for historic buildings, public or private ownership, I think it rather depends on individual properties and one oughtn’t to/can’t really generalise, but there seems to be a certain consensus that keeping old houses in private hands is often cheaper (at least to the public purse) than handing them over to state/local authority responsibility: private owners don’t think in terms of strict working hours and lunch breaks, or pensions or statutory holidays and so forth. Plus private ownership gives a more personalised character to a property which in public hands risks becoming rather sterile and impersonal (that’s my opinion anyway).
As for calling the six counties the North of Ireland as opposed to Northern Ireland, I hadn’t ever thought about this – but now give it due consideration…
Thank you for coming along to my talk and I’m glad that you enjoyed the occasion:: do come up and say hello next time!
Dear Robert,
Chris and I would like to thank you for your expert guiding last weekend. You showed us so many fascinating things, and we especially enjoyed your light and humorous touch. Your website here contains plenty to keep us intrigued too, long into the future! We hope we shall meet again!
Warmest wishes,
Chris and Valery
Dear Valery
Thanks for your kind message: it was a pleasure to meet you both and, likewise, I hope that we shall meet again before too long.
Best wishes for now,
Robert
Dear Robert
Could I check – as I can’t find what is your permissions policy regarding the repurposing/ reusing some of your (great) pictures when writing for a non commercial local history website?
thanks
Peter
Thank you for your message. You will need to specify what images you wish to use and for what purpose/where before I can answer your query.
Thanks Robert
The images in question are from your blog on Kenure (Two Days to Demolish the Work of Centuries -March 31st 2025) and the specific images are No 1 and No 3.
The purpose is for use in a short piece I am writing for a non-commercial local history Irish Community Archive Network (iCAN) website [established by the National Museum of Ireland and National heritage] called the Blessington History Society.
The piece concerns some family/ local history regarding the source of the granite used in Papworth’s ornamental hexa-style Corinthian portico.
regards
Peter
I’ve just emailed you
Dear Sir,
I’ve just received your book The Irish Country House: A New Vision and I wanted to say how much I admire your work. It’s a fascinating and beautifully crafted book that really made an impression on me.
Warm regards,
Tomasz Pichór (Warsaw)
Thank you, that’s most kind…