W. B. Yeats: 'That old Georgian mansion'.
WELCOME TO LISSADELL 2008
OPEN DAILY ALL YEAR
* House Tours Countess Markievicz Exhibition Garden Visits
| * Heritage and Wine Shop Tea Rooms Garden Emporium
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Enquiries 00 353 [0] 719163150 info@lissadellhouse.com Click on PRESS for visitor experience and restoration reviews | Click on VISIT for visiting times and charges. Click on STORE for information on shopping at Lissadell |
The Lissadell Estate is the family home of Edward Walsh and his wife Constance Cassidy with their seven young children.
Writing about Lissadell for the Sunday Times thirty seven years ago, the BBC's Anne Robinson ('The Weakest Link') observed that "the garden is overgrown, the greenhouses are shattered and empty, the stables beyond repair, the roof of the main block leaks badly and the paintings show patches of mildew". * An intensive programme of restoration has taken place in the House, Gardens and Stable Block since 2004, and today we invite you to enjoy the magic that is Lissadell restored.
The Lissadell Gardens are famous for their daffodils. For more, click on GARDENS above.
Lissadell is famous as the childhood home of Constance Markievicz, her sister Eva Gore Booth and her brother Josslyn Gore Booth. Constance was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising, and was the first woman to be elected to Dail Eireann,where she served as Minister for Labour (thus becoming the first woman minister in a modern European democracy), and was also the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons at Westminster, London (where she declined to take her seat). Eva was a poet of distinction and an active suffragist. Josslyn created at Lissadell one of the premier horticultural estates in Europe. This horticultural enterprise is now being recreated at Lissadell. Sligo born poet W. B. Yeats was friendly with the Gore Booth sisters when he and they were young. He stayed at Lissadell in 1893 and 1894, and immortalised Lissadell and the Gore Booth sisters in his poetry.
THE COACH HOUSE QUADRANGLE (below) is the VISITOR RECEPTION centre at Lissadell, housing the Exhibition halls, Heritage Shop, the Tea Rooms and all ticket sales/arrivals/departures. Click on COACH HOUSE above.
Above, clockwise: the Quadrangle; freshly prepared salad in the Tea Rooms; Maconnais wines and salad/cooking oils for sale in the Heritage Shop. |
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Visit by Ukranian Ambassador
His Excellency Borys Bazylevskyi (second from right) with Jonathan McGoldrick, Lord Mayor of Sligo, Edward Walsh, Constance Cassidy and Cllr Seamus Kilgallon in the Drawing Room at Lissadell (Photo Joe Barnes).
The Ukranian Ambassador to
The Ambassador is establishing a Markievicz Museum in Zywotowka,
Also visiting Lissadell were a group from the Polish Irish Integration Partnership, which fosters and encourages integration between Polish people living here in the North West, and the Group met with the Ambassador, the Mayor and Councillor Kilgallon and exchanged views. The Ambassador spoke of the connections between Ireland, Poland and Ukraine, and about common bonds between our countries.
Arum Lillies by the 18th century ponds in the Alpine Garden
The Alpine Garden (above) and Kitchen Garden (below)
Bumble bee at work in the Alpine Garden (above left and below). Strawberry beds in the Kitchen Garden (right). | |
On display at the Countess Markievicz Exhibition
POLISH COPYBOOK WITH COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ'S HANDWRITTEN NOTES FOR DEFENCE, ATTACK AND ASSEMBLY DURING THE 1916 RISING
JAMES CONNOLLY REMEMBERED BY COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ You died for your Country my Hero-love In the first grey dawn of spring; On your lips was a prayer to God above That your death would have helped to bring Freedom and Peace to the land you love, Love above everything. |
ABBEY THEATRE BOARD MEETING Sketch of Eamon de Valera, John Millington Synge & Lady Gregory by Constance Markievicz. Lady Gregory's recollections: "Poor Madame Markievicz, also gone…I knew her in her Castle days when she was rather a jealous meddler in the Abbey and Hugh’s (Lane) gallery. But her energy found a better scope when she took up the labour movement and then a more violent outlet in 1916 when she fought with the boy scouts she had trained, against the English troops, and was imprisoned. I remember one evening when I was coming from some hard hours work at the Abbey I felt tired on the tram, and then she got in, tired also from drilling some of her “Fianna” and I felt drawn to her. There was something gallant about her. We were each working for what we believed would help Ireland and we talked together.”  |
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OUR OBJECTIVE: As the owners of this remarkable part of Ireland's history and culture, our objective is to ensure that you will have a pleasant and memorable visit. A century has passed since Lissadell was home to a large family of young children. More than a century has passed since the rooms were last refurbished.
This is a new beginning for Lissadell. The restoration of the house and grounds will take some time and we ask you to be patient. We look forward to seeing you again and again as work progresses. Many of you, your parents or grandparents will have special memories of Lissadell - why not write and tell us about these, to add to our living history?
Echium standing tall in the Alpine Garden |
18th Century Ponds, Alpine Garden |
Summer flowers
Lissadell: next to nature
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Future plans
We are restoring this national treasure as a family home, and plan to involve the children in continuing the legacy, and reversing the decline of past years. Our particular focus is the restoration of the flower and pleasure gardens, the Alpine nurseries, the orchards, the vegetable gardens; and the reintroduction of livestock (Kerry cows, pigs). We hope to make the house and gardens a wonderful experience for visitors, and have enhanced tea room facilities and vegetable/souvinir shopping.
Additionally we shall be using the EXHIBITION HALL in the COACH HOUSE to showcase rare historical artefacts, paintings, first editions and other and literary works of COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ, W. B. YEATS, JACK YEATS, EVA GORE BOOTH AND AE (GEORGE RUSSELL). Our COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ EXHIBITION opened in March 2007, and took three years of acquisition, collection and cataloguing to present to the public.
Our open days encourage people to walk back in time to when Lissadell was the pride of Irish horticulture; to enjoy guided tours of the wonderful woodland walks recently uncovered; the unique Alpine Garden with its revêtment walls, terraces, ornamental ponds and fossilised rocks and pathways, and the regeneration of long buried plants and flowers within this magical setting; and the precisely squared upper walled in garden with its orchards.
Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy
The Lissadell Estate is a private family home. Access to any part of the Estate is strictly by permission only.
LISSADELL: NEXT TO NATURE
Wild geese: Lissadell has the largest colony of Barnacle Geese in Ireland
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Deer at Lissadell, early morning
Summer's lease: Max, Princess and Baby in the buttercup meadow
Ben Bulben shouldering snow clouds
Winter storm by the Alpine sea shore walled Garden
The Oyster Beds at Lissadell
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: photographs and text are copyright the Lissadell Estate and Pamela Cassidy. No reproduction without express permission.
* The full text of the 1970 Sunday Times article on Lissadell witten by Anne Robinson can be viewed by clicking GORE BOOTH FAMILY, then GABRIELLE above.