Gallery at Mitchelstown Castle, Cork
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Where: Unknown
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When: 01 January 1890
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Wouldn't fancy trying to stay on top of the dusting in this gallery. And that carpet must have been a challenge in pre-vacuum cleaner days.
Photographer: Robert French
Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection
Date: Between 1865 - 1914
NLI Ref: L_ROY_01074
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 13631
Photographer: Robert French
Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection
Date: Between 1865 - 1914
NLI Ref: L_ROY_01074
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
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Owner: National Library of Ireland on The CommonsSource: Flickr Commons
Views: 13631
mitchelstown
cork
munster
ireland
nationallibraryofireland
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williamlawrence
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suckindeesel
The 60 large bedrooms, not to mention the 20 smaller ones would also have required an army of servants. The gallery was 100 feet in lenght. The castle was occupied, looted and burnt in 1922 by the IRA. Never rebuilt, its stones later sold and used in building a Cistercian Abbey. WIKI
Niall McAuley
25" map. Flipping to Aerial view shows a big Dairygold factory there now.
Niall McAuley
Exterior view:
Lots of history of the destruction of the house at that photo.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Lots of information and links when we visited the outside previously - Ed. SNAP! @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley/
Niall McAuley
Beachcomber guessed (very roughly) that exterior was maybe 1900ish last time. A mainly useless digression: In the catalogue, after the sequence of castle shots, there is L_ROY_01079 tagged 1880-1900, of Mitchelstown Square. While there is no guarantee that this is the same time as the castle shot, I tried to date it anyway. I see a shop way off in the background looks like Delaney, a butcher. No, the 1893 Guys says Delarue, Victualller, a better fit. But then, squinting carefully, I see bushes in the windows of the house beyond Delarue, significant because of this:
which we dated earlier at June 1887!
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Via Trove this colourful description from 1878 (ed. 1850s) - " ... With a liberality very uncommon in Great Britain, the gates are at all hours open to the public. It is said that nothing delighted Lord Kingston so much as to see people enjoying themselves in his demesne. In England the passage of a vehicle through a park would be considered by most proprietors an annoying and unwelcome intrusion. At Mitchelstown Lord Kingston would scarcely permit a carriage to enter without rushing out to greet its occupants, and to invite them to make a survey of his castle and its grounds. ... ... ... Nothing can be more simple in arrangement than the interior of this castle. A noble flight of steps leads from the entrance door into a gallery 150 feet in length. At the other end of this gallery a corresponding flight of marble stairs leads to the upper chambers, The gallery is lighted by ranges of oriel, and other windows to the north. On the south are fireplaces of Italian marble, with stoves of knightly character and blazon, designed expressly for the castle. Between these fireplaces are doors, which open into the suite of rooms which form the saloons of reception. Overhead are two ranges of bedchambers, sixty principal and twenty inferior bedrooms. ... ..." From - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/70594354?searchTerm=Mi... Ed. - Further research shows this newspaper article is quoting from a book, 'New Ireland' by A. M. Sullivan (brother of T. D. who we have met before). The book is, in turn, quoting from a 'Daily News' item from the 1850s, and is intended as a contrast to how bad things were c. 1878. It's complicated! The relevant chapter from the book - archive.org/details/newireland00sulliala/page/174
suckindeesel
I wonder if the looted "valuable silver and paintings, including a Gainsborough as well as paintings by Beechey and Zuccaro and fine mantelpieces" ever showed up. Apparently not, according to this history www.irishtimes.com/news/history-book-on-demise-of-castle-..., which speculates that some are still held in the locality. Any of those paintings in this shot?
suckindeesel
Here's a fine 1825 engraving of the castle www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/galleries/C07_Mitch...
suckindeesel
www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/ Are the Lawrence numbers in some sort of chronological order? Today's photo is numerically in sequence with the other interior shots, and just a few numbers before the Mitchelstown eviction sequence of 1887.
suckindeesel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia Our Gallery is now ranging in lenght from 97 to 150 feet, according to various sources. I suppose the "lesser bedrooms" were kept for the "lower" gentry.
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley] In the original discussion of catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000041404 , the other photos of Mitchelstown listed by beechcomber appear to show floral tributes marking the spots where the 3 victims of the Mitchelstown massacre fell. This would date them post Sept 1887.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/184711311@N04] The length of the gallery is immaterial; it depends on how well-hung are the paintings! #notoscarwilde There is also an interior view of the drawing-room - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000325573 . Megazoom shows a well-thumbed book (in front of those oriental birds) 'The Story Of The Heavens' by Robert S. Ball, which was first published in 1886 - possibly the earliest date for these interior photos, though they feel much later. www.gutenberg.org/files/27378/27378-h/27378-h.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stawell_Ball
Niall McAuley
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] Great spot on the book title! [https://www.flickr.com/photos/184711311@N04] The index numbers are not necessarily consecutive or chronological, no. I had not registered that the flowers in the square were a tribute to the dead Land activists, but it makes sense. In L_ROY_01082 we see the square with flowers, and a poster at left for DU.VAL dated Monday September the somethingth, definitely in the teens, maybe 10, 18 or 19. In September 1887, matching Mondays were the 12th and 19th. The only other detail I see on the poster is the name Johnny Patterson, and the venue, the League of the Cross Hall. A quick pooch in the newspaper archives (without real access) suggests Johnny Patterson was a singing Irish clown, a rather horrifying thought. He has a wiki page, he died in 1889.
suckindeesel
www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley/ The two other victims fell beneath that same Duval poster www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/18148/page/480050 It looks like Mr. French, in his own way, was documenting the crime scene. The picture of the square also includes the line of sight of the barracks. One thing that puzzles me is the location of the barracks, shown in both the 6 and 25 inch, as being at the other end of that street. Later also the Garda barracks, I think.
Niall McAuley
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/184711311@N04] There are two markers at that spot and a memorial in the wall above in this streetview.
JohnFinn
https://www.flickr.com/photos/184711311@N04 As regards the paintings that were stolen, I heard a story of a man who knew one of the people involved in the burning of the house. He asked him had he taken any items himself and he admitted he had - a painting. And where was it now? he asked excitedly. "I had it up in the attic for years", was the reply, " but we were doing a clean out some years ago and we burned it - it was a dark, ugly auld thing."
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley] according to this account, books.google.ie/books?id=iy0zEuBmrjEC&pg=PA3&lpg=... Du-Val was an Irish theatre producer, in England between 1881- 1888, then travelled with his show to South Africa and was lost at sea on the return voyage in 1889. The 1887 date is therefore plausible.
suckindeesel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfinn Another "lost Gainsborough"?
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley] The house is also commemorated as "The Campaign House" see earth.app.goo.gl/?link=https://earth.google.com/web/@52.2... Link not working for me. All this is relevant re the dating of the Mitchelstown street photos, but unfortunately does nothing towards dating the Gallery picture.
Dr. Ilia
Tremendous Work!