Westport House
Westport House is a country house in Westport in Ireland's County Mayo . The popular tourist attraction is owned by the Hughes family , who own a number of shops in the west of Ireland. Until January 2017, the house was the ancestral home of the Browne family , whose head of the family bears the title of Marquess of Sligo . The title and house were separated in 2014 after the 11th Marquess of Sligo passed away and left the property to his five daughters. His titles went to his first cousin, Sebastian Ulick Browne , a real estate agent in Australia .
history
The Browne family built Westport House near an O'Malley castle in the 18th century . The architect was Richard Cassels , who in 1730 built the eastern part of the house, which faces the city. James Wyatt later took over , who designed and built the other three facades that make the house a four-sided building. Later the four-sided building was filled with a large staircase. The north and south wings, designed by Benjamin Wyatt , were added. The south wing, which housed a library, burned down soon afterwards due to a defect in the heating system. Then it was rebuilt.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a model farm with accommodation for pets and a feeding station was built on the property. The remains of an old boathouse are open to the sea.
Colonel John Browne (1638-1711), who had the original Westport House built, married the honorable "Maud Bourke", daughter of the 3rd Viscount Mayo and great-granddaughter of Grace O'Malley . He was a Catholic who fought on the Jacobite side in the War of the Two Kings . But his descendants converted to the established Church of Ireland and prospered.
After the death of Jeremy Browne, 11th Marquess of Sligo, in July 2014, the house fell to his five daughters under the private law of succession passed by Parliament in 1993.
Westport House also has a Pirate Adventure Park with a pirate ship, pirate diving station, mini train, pedal boats in the shape of white swans, cannonball slide , pirate booth play area in the house, torture cellar, pirate playground, pitch and putt , fish pond, Gracys bar and café and a large campsite in the open forest .
The house, planned by the famous architects Richard Cassels and James Wyatt in the 18th century, is located west of the Shannon and is considered one of Ireland's finest historic homes that are open to the public. It is set in a park with a lake, terraces and gardens with views of Clew Bay , the Atlantic Ocean , Acaill , Clare Island and Ireland's holy mountain, Croagh Patrick . The builders and owners, the Browne family , are direct descendants of the 16th century pirate queen, Grace O'Malley.
The Brownes sold Westport House to the Hughes family , Westport businessmen, on January 17, 2017 , ending the centuries-old association between the Browne family and Westport House. The Hughes family plans to invest € 50 million in restoration and improvement work on the home, including building accommodation on the 180 acres. This investment will bring economic growth to the city and County of Mayo.
National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and sales
In 2007 the private estate received a € 1.314 million grant from the State Heritage Council for repairs to Westport House .
In October 2015 it was found that the Westport House property had been investigated by NAMA for debts secured by the 152 acre property, but the house had not been investigated for nearly € 10 million. In January 2017, Westport House was sold to the Hughes family sold out of Westport.
Links to Slavery
The house was built for the Browne family , some of whom were wealthy slave owners and plantation owners in Jamaica . A prominent slave owner and head of the family were Howe Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo and his wife, Lady Hester Catherine de Burgh . The 2nd Marquess was Governor of Jamaica from 1834-1836.
An exhibit at Westport House portrays the 2nd Marquess of Sligo as the "Champion of Slaves," a suggestion one historian calls an "exaggeration," stating that "Browne benefited from slavery from cradle to grave and." did not release his slaves until the institution of slavery was abolished by a parliamentary act ”and that the 2nd Lord Sligo demanded and received a substantial amount of compensation from the British government for the loss of his slaves.
Irish pirate queen Grace O'Malley
In the 16th century, Grace O'Malley (also Gráinne Ni Mháille or Granuaile ) was a famous "pirate queen" from Connacht . After her death, a report found that she had been the mainstay of all rebellions in the West for 40 years. She was the head of the O'Malley clan and ruled the seas around County Mayo.
A bronze statue of Grace O'Malley by sculptor Michael Cooper has been placed on the Westport House estate .
The first house was built for Colonel John Browne, a Jacobite who was present at the Siege of Limerick , and his wife Maude , a great-great-granddaughter of Grace O'Malley. At that time the house had no reservoir or dam; the tides rose and fell against the walls.
description
Colonel John Browne's grandson, John Browne, 1st Earl of Altamont , had the east facade of the house built in its present form in 1730; he commissioned the well-known German architect Richard Cassels to do this . It is built from the finest limestone from the quarry south of the estate's farm and was carried out by trained craftsmen. Richard Cassels also designed Carton House , Haselwood House , Russborough House and Leinster House . Westport House was completed by James Wyatt, one of the greatest English architects; this had also laid out the city of Westport. The year "1778" is affixed to the south facade. Inside, many of the ceilings, friezes, and open fireplaces testify to Wyatt's skill. The great dining room is perhaps the finest surviving example of his work. The doors are made of mahogany that the family brought back from their lands in Jamaica. There are a number of original Wyatt drawings on display, along with some by his son, Benjamin Wyatt , who also did some work in the house.
Art and antiques
Another remarkable thing about Westport House is that it is complete with content; most of the furnishings have a long association with Ireland. The paintings include portraits of the 1st Earl of Altamont by Sir Joshua Reynolds , Rt. Denis Browne , brother of the 1st Marquess of Sligo and a member of Grattan's Parliament, and one of Howe Peter painted by William Beechey Browne, the 2nd Marquess of Sligo, who had spent four months in an English prison for bribing British war-time seamen to bring his ship, full of antiquities from Greece , to Westport. Howe Peter Browne was a friend of the British King George IV and the poet Lord Byron . There is also a portrait of Earl Howe , Fleet Admiral and father of the 1st Marquess of Sligo, painted by John Singleton Copley . A collection of landscape paintings by James Arthur O'Connor is also one of the works of art in the house. Other artists, such as Chalon, Barrett, Gibson, Opie, Brooks, and Lavery , have contributed works to this collection.
There is also a collection of wax figures from Gens Display Figures , which pay tribute to the literary, artistic and musical achievements of western Ireland, such as: B. William Butler Yeats , Lady Gregory, and Turlough O'Carolan .
Other original items on display at Westport House include a collection of old English and Irish silver, including some Irish “potato” or dish rings, a library with many old Irish books and the Mayo Legion Flag , the “General Humbert” brought to Ireland when he invaded the country in 1798 and which has since been kept at Westport House. Westport House was occupied by General Humbert's forces.
Browne family
The story of Westport House and the Browne family can be seen as a miniature version of the larger and sometimes tumultuous history of all of Ireland. Each generation had to wrestle with and adapt to the prevailing social, political, and religious changes that they encountered along their way. Westport House was owned by the Browne family for nearly 300 years until January 17, 2017.
The Browne family came to County Mayo from Sussex, England, in the 16th century . By marrying their daughters to native Irish landowners and buying them, they built a small estate at The Neale . As a Catholic family, they were lucky to have their lands in Connacht, avoiding the infamous confiscations of Oliver Cromwell .
With John Browne III. (1638–1711) began association with Westport House. The successful lawyer married the laudable Maud Bourke, daughter of the 3rd Viscount Mayo and great-great-granddaughter of Grace O'Malley. Browne was able to enlarge his lands in County Mayo and County Galway many times over; they now included Cathair-na-Mart , a ruined O'Malley fortress on the shores of Clew Bay .
Soon, however, Browne's fine fortune was lost as Ireland was thrown into the chaos of the War of the Two Kings . As a Catholic he supported the Jacobite cause and became a colonel in the Jacobite army. He supplied the army with cannonballs and weapons from the iron mines on his land near Westport. The defeat of the Jacobite army at the battles of Aughrim and Limerick in 1691 brought him financial ruin through the following confiscations. When he died in 1711, his land had shrunk to the ruins of Cathair-na-Mart and a few hundred hectares around it. The penal laws that followed left his grandson, John IV , no choice but to convert to the predominant religion in hopes of surviving the confiscations and political upheavals.
Browne gradually rebuilt the family fortune. Young and ambitious as he was, he began to expand his land and convert the old O'Malley castle ruins into what is now Westport House. He replaced the old village of Cathair-na-Mart with the new town of Westport, where he established a thriving linen industry . As an excellent farmer, he improved the fertility of his lands, most of which were of poor quality. In 1771 he was raised to 1st Earl of Altamont . In 1752 his son and later heir Peter married the heiress Elizabeth Kelly from County Galway, whose lands in Jamaica further enlarged the family fortune.
John Browne, 3rd Earl of Altamont , continued his grandfather's innovative farming methods. He built the lake west of Westport House, planted trees, and commissioned James Wyatt to decorate the long gallery and dining room in the house. He laid out what is now the main streets of the city of Westport and so many streets in the city today bear the names of family members, e.g. B. Peter Street , James Street , Altamont Street and John's Row . He also founded a theater at the Octagon and had the city of Louisburgh built. In 1787 he married Louisa Catherine, daughter and heir to the famous English Earl Howe . During his lifetime, the French- inspired Irish Rebellion broke out in 1798 . The rebellion was put down through the arbitrary actions of Denis Browne , his younger brother, against the Irish rioters (which earned him the reputation of the family's "black sheep"). The 3rd Lord Altamont was promoted to 1st Marquess of Sligo under the Act of Union 1800 . He rarely attended parliamentary sessions in London , but was more satisfied at home in Westport.
His only son, Howe Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo , inherited the property in 1809 at the age of 21. He was extravagant and generous, and that's how he earned the reputation of a "Regentenstutzers" at a young age. He was a friend of Lord Byron, de Quincy and the Prince Regent and traveled all over Europe. He conducted excavations in Mycenae and found the 3,000 year old pillars of the Atreus Treasure . To take them to Westport, he hired some sailors from a British warship and was later sentenced to four months in Newgate Prison . He married Lady Hester de Burgh, the daughter of the Earl of Clanricarde , had 14 children with her and settled in Westport. The 2nd Lord Sligo had the north and south wings and the library added to the house and procured much of the furniture, chinaware, silver and paintings for the house. He bred many famous racehorses in both Westport and Curragh . One of these horses, "Waxy", won the derby. He owned the last two Irish wolfhounds . In 1834 he was appointed governor of Jamaica and given the difficult task of overseeing the apprenticeship system at a time before the slaves were fully emancipated. He met with great opposition from the plantation owners and other well-earned interests. He was the first to give the slaves on his family's Jamaican plantations the same rights as the whites. The first “frie” village in the world, Sligoville , was later named after him. He was liberal and was one of the few Irish nobility who campaigned for equality for Catholics. He died in 1845 when the clouds of the Great Famine settled on County Mayo.
His son, George Browne, 3rd Marquess of Sligo , inherited a dire legacy. The west of Ireland was hardest hit by the famine. Westport House was closed and, with no more leases coming in, the 3rd Lord Sligo had to borrow money wherever he could; he spent £ 50,000 of his own money to alleviate the suffering of the tenants. He brought shiploads of food into Westport Harbor and subsidized the local workhouse , then the only haven for the poor. He wrote incessantly to the British government urging them to do more for the victims of hunger. He wrote and published a pamphlet in which for the first time many reforms of the economic conditions that had led to the famine were shown. In 1854, when he was offered the Order of St. Patrick , an honor that had also bestowed his father and grandfather on him, the 3rd Marquess, disaffected by British policy on Ireland, wrote: "I have no interest in this honor!" .
John Browne succeeded his brother in 1868 as the 4th Marquess of Sligo. He had to cope with the huge upheavals that took place in land ownership in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Above all else, he was a professional farmer whose main task was to turn a reduced and almost bankrupt property into a profitable one, and that only through agriculture. This work was also carried on by the 6th Marquess, who added a sawmill and salmon farm and carried out extensive plantings. He also had the interior of the house modernized and the Italianate terraces to the west of it.
The forced sale of the main entrance to the house for public housing took place in the time of the 8th Marquess; it changed the historical relationship that existed between the house and the town of Westport.
In 1960, Denis Browne, 10th Marquess of Silgo , his wife Jose and son Jeremy (later Jeremy Browne, 11th Marquess of Sligo ) opened Westport House and its property to visitors. In the decades that followed, the 11th Marquess and his family developed the property into a major tourist attraction. There were 5000 visitors in the first year; today there are over 4 million visitors.
The Browne family reluctantly launched Westport House in 2016 and sold it to the Hughes family , a local group of business people, on January 17, 2017 , ending the long-standing association between the Brownes and Westport House. The Hughes family is committed to making major investments in facility improvement and expansion.
Music and theater
On June 23 and 24, 2012, the first Westport Festival of Music and Performing Arts took place at Westport House. Some of the artists who performed were Jools Holland , The Waterboys , Ryan Sheridan , Imelda May , Seasick Steve , Mundy , and Royseven .
On August 26-27 , 2017, Aiken Promotions used Westport House as one of two venues for the first Harvest Country Music Festival . There occurred u. a. Miranda Lambert and Nathan Carter .
Individual evidence
- ^ Marquess of Sligo, Jeremy Browne Altamont, dies at 75 . In: BBC News Online . July 14, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
- ↑ New owners to invest € 50m in Westport House e . In: RTÉ Online . January 27, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
- ^ Local Heritage Scheme . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ↑ Lorna Siggins: Historic Westport House is facing a very modern threat . In: The Irish Times . October 3, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ↑ Orna Mulcahy, Tom Shiel: Westport House sold to Co Mayo Hotelier . In: The Irish Times . January 27, 2017. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ^ A b Following the money - Irish slave owners in the time of abolition . In: TheJounral.ie . July 27, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ^ Westport House a Brief History . Westport House 2008.
- ^ Biddy Hughes: Sale of Westport House . In: Westport House . January 17, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
- ^ Westport music festival announced . In: RTÉ Ten . Raidió Teilifís Éireann. February 23, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
- ^ Line up for Westport Music Festival 2012 . In: Westport Music Festival . February 23, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 48 ′ 2 " N , 9 ° 32 ′ 8" W.