Visit to Castletown House
Remarks by President Michael D Higgins On his visit to Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare Monday, 19th March 2012
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Cuireann sé an-áthas orm a bheith anseo libh inniu agus an obair iontach atá curtha i gcrích le scór bliain anuas ag Baile an Chaisleáin a fheiscint.
It is with the greatest pleasure that I stand here today and witness the wonderful strides made at Castletown over the past two decades.
In 1994 as Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands it was my privilege to accept Castletown into State ownership from the Castletown Foundation on behalf of the people of Ireland. Professor Kevin B. Nowlan, Chairman of the Castletown Foundation standing here beside me today, presented me with the key on that occasion marking the symbolic handover of the House to the nation. And so when Kevin wrote in January to invite me back to Castletown House, I accepted that invitation with alacrity and delight.
In the years since 1994, the Office of Public Works and the Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht have acquired more of the original Estate, more Demesne buildings, carried out substantial conservation works and are now gradually restoring and safeguarding the landscape. This is all to be welcomed and applauded. Today in particular it gives me great pleasure to be here at this ceremony to mark a major landmark on the Castletown journey. The Castletown Foundation and OPW have published for the first time a detailed catalogue of the collection of paintings, furniture and decorative arts at Castletown. This is a very beautiful book and a significant contribution to the literature on Castletown, a number of which I have had the pleasure to peruse including Dr. Finola O’Kane’s work on the Castletown Demesne, Dr. Patrick Walsh’s book on William Conolly and Dr. Karol Mullaney-Dignam’s book on Music and Dancing at Castletown.
The collection documented in the new catalogue is drawn from private and public sources and the Castletown Foundation. However, for such an interesting and wonderful book to exist today, we owe an enormous amount of gratitude to Desmond Guinness and his concern, care and vision for Castletown House. In 1967, he bought this impressive house, 120 acres of the Estate and he had earlier purchased a large portion of the house’s original contents. He was then President of the Irish Georgian Society and took the first step in saving Castletown through its purchase.
Restoration work began at this point and the house was opened to the public for the first time. Essential funding was provided by the Irish Georgian Society. Volunteer groups, under the direction of Desmond Guinness and his wife, Mariga, also provided vital assistance.
The crucial work begun by Desmond and the Irish Georgian Society was developed and consolidated by the Castletown Foundation which was established in 1979 to continue the restoration of the house.
Benefactors at home and abroad provided much needed financial assistance for restoration and preservation works at Castletown. Funding came through the Irish and English Georgian Societies, but a large amount of finance was provided by the North American Georgian Society. The role of such contributors was extremely important in the story of Castletown House and the preservation of its legacy for future generations.
We have a responsibility to continue to cherish this wonderful and most important of Irish Country Houses. That a neo-Palladian Italian palace was built on the banks of the Liffey in Kildare is remarkable. That it is now a building of European importance in terms of its architectural pedigree is a matter of national pride.
In the early 18th century ideas about aesthetics and what was perceived as cultural enlightenment spread in architecture and artifacts were taken from Italy back to Ireland and led William Conolly to build what was to become ‘ the epitome of the Kingdom’.
In a letter from Sir John Perceval in July, 1722 he wrote the following to Bishop Berkeley:-
‘I am glad for the honour of my country that Mr. Conolly has undertaken so magnificent a pile of building, and your advice has been taken upon it. I hope that the execution will answer the design, wherein one special care must be to procure good masons. You will do well to recommend to him the making use of all the marbles he can get of the production of Ireland for his chimneys, for since this house will be the finest Ireland ever saw, and by your description fit for a Prince, I would have it as it were the epitome of the Kingdom, and all the natural rarities she can afford should have a place there.
It is only right that we should acknowledge the patriotism of the builders of this House and subsequent generations of the Conolly family and that we draw on this pride in our inheritance in creating a dynamic present and future for Castletown.
It should also be recognised that the Conolly family were good custodians of the Castletown Estate and good employers in the local community. The esteem in which they were held was reflected in the fact that when Major Conolly died in 1956 the local Catholic workmen defied the conventions of the time by carrying his remains into the local Church of Ireland church – a generous gesture for a generous man and its own comment on the distance that opened between spirituality and a dogmatic moralism.
The future is bright for Castletown. Not only is it one of Ireland’s most beautiful houses, it is expanding as a centre for the arts hosting concerts and important historical lectures. The house, its architecture and collections are a vital resource for academic studies and have led to the development of the OPW/NUIM Archive and Research Centre at Castletown in conjunction with the Centre for the Study of Historic Houses and Estates at NUI Maynooth.
The publication of Castletown – Decorative Arts is a great achievement. It is a highly informative piece of work and provides a revealing and inspiring insight into our social and cultural inheritance.
A photograph of a large mahogany side table which was once at Castletown caught my attention. The high calibre of workmanship is obvious when you study the beautifully carved table. We are told that, ‘‘the table celebrates the Roman adage, ‘Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus,’ a quotation from the Roman comic dramatist Terence, meaning love grows cold without the stimulus of wine and feasting. Arthur Guinness, who was a contemporary of Speaker Conolly and also hailed from Celbridge, might have had competing claims to make about the therapeutic benefits of porter.
We are also presented with other nuggets of historical information - for example Conolly’s upholsterer, Robert Baillie, was responsible for re-establishing the Irish tapestry industry by introducing weavers to Ireland from England, Flanders and France.
Such a book gives us a visual representation of our history and a rich insight into what was deemed beautiful, important and functional by people who once lived in Ireland’s largest and earliest Palladian style house.
I am confident that this catalogue will serve as a very effective and attractive tool in spreading the word about the extraordinary resource Castletown presents to a wide public audience at local, national and international level. It is also very important that a rich heritage resource like Castletown is not just enjoyed by a privileged elite but that it is accessible to all the community.
In this regard, the Office of Public Works have done magnificent work over recent years in making – not just the house – but all of the estate a living and life-enhancing resource for the people of Celbridge, Leixlip and Maynooth, as well as all the other visitors who come to Castletown for heritage and recreational purposes – even if it is only to walk their dogs in a wonderful landscape, go jogging or allow the kids paddle in the river.
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate Clare McGrath, Chairman of the Office of Public Works and her Castletown team for all the good work that has and is being done here. Congratulations also to the Chairman of the Castletown Foundation, Professor Kevin B. Nowlan and all its Directors. A particular thanks to Victoria Browne who compiled all the catalogue entries and gave us such a wonderful publication.
Thank you all for your kind attention.