Donal Byrne and the Nationwide team are looking at the complicated history of Ireland’s Big Houses
What’s this series about?
I suppose this is a bookend to the Decade of Centenaries. Around 300 of these houses were burned or destroyed in the War of Independence or the Civil War. It has a particular relevance in West Cork. There’s a famous quote from Tom Barry saying that at one point, they were worries they would not have enough houses left to burn.
What were the reasons for burning these houses?
There were many. During the civil war it was to stop troops being billeted there. But there is a long history of agrarian aggregation in Ireland.
Who were the people living there?
They were Anglo-Irish ascendancy who had created a hegemony. They were isolated as it was, in many cases, seen as Irish in Britain and British in Ireland. During the War of Independence, they became even more vulnerable. If you think back to West Cork, the success of the likes of Tom Barry meant that the RIC had retreated further and further back, and policing as we know it was effectively suspended.
What form did the burnings take?
The people in the house would get a knock in the middle of the night, and they’d be told they had 20 minutes or so to get out. Then the group which could be up to 100 would set fire to the house. The owners would literally be sitting on the lawn watching the house burn. There would rarely be any violence towards the people of the house. It was quite ‘civilised’, in that sense, when compared to the treatment of aristocracy in parts of Europe, like the treatment of the Russian aristocracy.
What happened to these people afterwards?
Prof Terry Dooley and NUI Maynooth has done great research on the houses in the book Burning the Big House, and their history, but we know less about the people. Most went to London and ever returned. They would receive their insurance and leave. Most of the houses were mostly never repaired because they had ceased to have a function in the new state. Some which survived became golf resorts like Adare Manor and Portmarnock.
Nationwide’s Big Houses of Ireland series can be accessed on the RTÉ Player.
