- Lissadell House
Lissadell House is a large country house, located in
County Sligo ,Ireland .The house was built in the 1830s for
Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet MP by London architectFrancis Goodwin . In 1876, Sir Robert left the house and surrounding estate to his son,Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet .The house was the childhood home of Irish revolutionary, Constance Gore-Booth, her sister the poet and suffragist,
Eva Gore-Booth , and their siblings, Mabel Gore-Booth, Mordaunt Gore-Booth and Josslyn Gore-Booth. It was also the sometime holiday retreat of the world-renowned poet, William Butler Yeats. He made the house famous with the opening lines of his poem:
"In memory of Eva Gore Booth and Constance Markiewicz"
"The light of evening, Lissadell,"
"Great windows open to the south,"
"Two girls in silk kimonos, both"
"Beautiful, one a gazelle." [Cite book
pages = p.197
last = Yeats
first = William Butler
title = The collected poems of W. B. Yeats
date = 2000, originally in "The Winding Stair and other poems", 1933
url = http://books.google.ie/books?id=LhFLwsrI3lMC
isbn = 1853264547]In 2003, the house was put up for sale by the then owner, Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth (a nephew of the original Josslyn Gore-Booth), for €3 million. Despite celebrities including
U2 lead singerBono showing an interest in the property, it was hoped that it would be purchased by the state. However, due to several stumbling blocks including Dáil (Government) holidays and an inaccurate cost report, the house was eventually sold to a private couple, Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy. The new owners have since restored the house and gardens to their original grandeur and have extended [http://www.lissadellhouse.com/visitor_info.php public access to the house.] Fact|date=August 2007External links
* [http://www.lissadellhouse.com/ Lissadell House homepage]
References
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Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
