Mount Shannon, Co Limerick – ‘lost’
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 216. “(Fitzgibbon/IFR) A two storey C18 house, enlarged and magnificently furnished by John Fitzgibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, Lord Chancellor of Ireland at the time of the Union and one of the most powerful men in the Ireland of his day; remodelled in neo-Classical style post 1813 by Byron’s friend, 2nd Earl, to the design of Lewis Wyatt. James Pain also worked here for second Earl, either supervising the remodelling according to Wyatt’s design, or carrying out subsequent alterations. Seven bay entrance front with pedimented porte-cochere of four giant Ionic columns. Adjoining front of five bays, the end bays breaking forward and having Wyatt windows under relieving arches in their lower storey. Lower service wing. Large rooms, but hardly any internal ornament; fine hall and library; French gilt furniture in the drawing room and morning room. 3rd and last Earl of Clare, who did not have the Government pension which 1st and 2nd Earls had enjoyed, and who was generous in giving financial help to emigrants after the Famine, left the estate impoverished; so that his daughter, who inherited it, was obliged to sell most of the valuable contents of the house 1888. The house itself was sold ca 1893 to the Nevin family; it is now a ruin.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2014/04/mountshannon-house.html
THE EARLS OF CLARE WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LIMERICK, WITH 10,316 ACRES
The Earls of Clare are said to have represented a collateral branch of the Duke of Leinster’s family; the FitzGibbons, the chief of whom was styled “The White Knight“, being descended from the FitzGeralds, Barons Offaly, progenitors of the great houses of KILDARE and DESMOND; as were the Knights of Glin, of the Valley, and of Kerry, titles conferred on junior branches of the house of FitzGerald, by the Earl of Desmond, as Count Palatine.
JOHN FITZGIBBON (c1708-80), of Mount Shannon, County Limerick, fourth son of Thomas FitzGibbon, of Ballyseeda, County Limerick,and his wife, Honor, was an eminent barrister, who published a work entitled “Notes of Cases determined at Westminster”, which was highly spoken of by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke.
He wedded Ellinor, daughter of John Grove, of Ballyhimmock, County Cork, and had issue,
JOHN, his successor;
Arabella; Elizabeth; Eleanor.
Mr FitzGibbon was succeeded by his son,
THE RT HON JOHN FITZGIBBON (1748-1802), who having been bred to the Bar, was appointed Attorney-General of Ireland, 1784; and, five years later, filled the high office of LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND.
This gentleman was elevated to the peerage, in 1789, in the digniy of Baron FitzGibbon, of Lower Connello, County Limerick.
His lordship was advanced to a viscountcy, in 1793, as Viscount FitzGibbon, of Limerick; and further advanced to the dignity of an earldom, in 1795, as EARL OF CLARE.
He wedded, in 1786, Anne, eldest daughter of Richard Chapel Whaley, of Whaley Abbey, and had issue,
JOHN, his successor;
RICHARD HOBART, 3rd Earl;
Isabella Mary Anne; Louisa; Isabella.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
JOHN, 2nd Earl (1792-1851), KP, PC, who espoused, in 1826, Elizabeth Julia Georgiana, daughter of Peter, 1st Baron Gwydyr.
The 2nd Earl, Governor of Bombay, 1830-34, Privy Counsellor, 1830, Knight of St Patrick, 1845, Lord-Lieutenant of County Limerick, 1848-51, was succeeded by his brother,
RICHARD HOBART, 3rd Earl (1793-1864), who married, in 1825, Diana, daughter of Charles Brydges Woodcock, and had issue,
JOHN CHARLES HENRY, styled Viscount FitzGibbon (1829-54); killed in action at the Battle of Balaclava;
Eleanor Sophia Diana; Florence; Louisa Isabella Georgina.
His lordship, MP for County Limerick, 1818-41, Usher and Registrar of Affidavits in the Irish Court of Chancery 1810-36, Lord Lieutenant of County Limerick, 1831-48 and 1851-64, was pre-deceased by his son, and the titles expired.
On display in the coach-house of Newbridge House is the sumptuous state coach made in London, in 1790, for John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and a relation of the Cobbe family.
The coach had been painted black until restored by the Irish National Museum to its former golden magnificence – even the fresco panels had been painted out, probably for the funeral of Queen Victoria.
MOUNTSHANNON HOUSE, near Castleconnell, County Limerick, was an 18th century mansion, bought from the White family by John FitzGibbon before 1780.
Seven-bay entrance front with pedimented porte-cochere of four massive Ionic columns; adjoining front of five bays.
The rooms were large and spacious, though boasted little internal ornament; a fine hall and library; French gilt furniture in the drawing-room and morning-room.
The 1st Earl was one of the most powerful men in Ireland at the time.
The house was re-modelled in neo-classical style after 1813 to the designs of Lewis Wyatt.
Mount Shannon appears to have been called Ballingown on the Taylor and Skinner map of the late 1770s.
Mark Bence Jones writes that it was enlarged by the 1st Earl of Clare and remodelled by the 2nd Earl.
The contents of the house were sold in 1888 and the house was purchased by the Nevin family ca 1893 (Bence Jones).
The 3rd and last Earl, who didn’t have the government pension that his predecessors enjoyed, and who was most generous in providing financial succour to emigrants after the Irish famine, left the estate impoverished.
As a consequence, his daughter, who inherited the estate, was obliged to sell most of the precious contents of the house in 1888.
Abandoned Ireland has written an excellent article about the family and estate:
Lady Louisa Georgina FitzGibbon, daughter of the 3rd Earl, came into possession of Mountshannon on the death of her father. She was a very extravagant and over-charitable woman who gave lavish banquets and balls at the mansion to which all the aristocracy and landed gentry from Limerick and neighbouring counties were invited…
But the world of reality eventually took control as Lady Louisa frittered away the Fitzgibbon fortune and ran up huge debts in an effort to keep up the grand lifestyle to which she had become accustomed.
She became engaged to a Sicilian nobleman, The Marquis Della Rochella, thinking his wealth would rescue her from financial ruin, only to discover that her betroth was himself almost penniless and was marrying her for the same reason.
During a sumptuous party in the mansion to announce their engagement, the sheriff arrived to seize some of the mansion’s valuable effects.
Two large paintings hanging in the main hall were among the items earmarked for confiscation, but were found to have holes burned through the canvas when the sheriff’s men were removing them. The restored and still very valuable pictures were in later years hung in the hall of Dublin Castle.
It was on this occasion that the Marquis discovered that Lady Louisa, like himself, was bankrupt but, noble gentleman that he was, he went ahead with the marriage – even if it was a misguided union.
The Marquis, unaccustomed to the Irish climate, fell into bad health and died a few years later, still pining for his native sunny Sicily. Still struggling to keep face, Lady Louisa was forced to sell much of the contents of the mansion including the priceless collection of books from the family library.
Soon the lavish entertainment, the sumptuous feasting and the glittering balls were all gone and the magic that once was Mountshannon disappeared. Gone too were Lady Louisa’s wealthy friends, leaving her at the mercy of her creditors who quickly foreclosed on her and she was forced to sell the mansion and the estate.
Lady Louisa left Mountshannon in 1887 and went to live in the Isle of Wight at St. Dominic’s Convent where she spent the rest of her life …. The powerful FitzGibbon line that had stretched across one hundred and twenty years at Mountshannon had finally ended.
The next owner of Mountshannon was an Irishman, Thomas Nevins, who had made a large fortune in America and returned to Ireland with his wife and three daughters and purchased the mansion and estate.
For the Nevins, who were a decent and honest Catholic family, their years at Mountshannon were fraught with trouble and ill-luck, so much so that people said the curse that many believed was on the place must surely have touched on these unfortunate people…
…Tom Nevins, like Lord Clare before him, was thrown from his horse while riding through the estate and died a few months after from his injuries. His body was also placed in the Cooling House, as was his wife’s who died some years later the little building had by then become the family burial chamber …
… So at last the tragic Nevins family rest undisturbed and entombed in what was once the cold storage house for Mountshannon Mansion.
Dermot O’Hannigan was the last owner of Mountshannon and in 1921, during the Troubles, in a spectacular and devastating fire, the flames of which could be seen, it is said, from many parts of Limerick city and county, the beautiful mansion was burned to the ground.
The estate was eventually taken over by the Irish Land Commission and divided up into several farm holdings.
Little remains of Mountshannon Mansion today but the ivy-clad shell of the great house, its four columns at the entrance still stand defiantly against the elements and even time itself, like some battle-scarred warriors still guarding the faded remnants of a grandeur that is no more.
First published in March, 2012.
https://archiseek.com/2012/mountshannon-house
1813 – Mountshannon House, Castleconnell, Co. Limerick
Architect: Lewis Wyatt
The house was re-modeled in a neo-classical style after 1813 to the designs of Lewis Wyatt. The front 7-bay entrance was adorned by four ionic columns, the rear had a large conservatory. Destroyed by fire in 1920. The rooms were large and spacious, though boasted little internal ornament; a fine hall and library; French gilt furniture in the drawing-room and morning-room.
https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21900618/mount-shannon-mountshannon-co-limerick
Detached seven-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c. 1790, having pedimented Ionic portico to front (north) elevation and multiple-bay two-storey extension to east. Remodelled c. 1813. Now in a ruin. Limestone eaves course and rendered chimneystacks. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls. Ashlar limestone portico comprising Ionic columns and Doric pilasters supporting entablature and pediment with dentil motifs. Square-headed openings with limestone sills, some having remains of six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Round-headed door openings to ground floor with render surrounds. Limestone thresholds to entrances. Remains of rubble stone walled garden to east.
Appraisal
Built by the FitzGibbon family in the late eighteenth century, Mount Shannon was subsequently enlarged c. 1813 to the design of Lewis Wyatt for John FitzGibbon, first Earl of Clare and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The remains of the imposing two-storey Ionic portico, which dates from this period of construction, constitutes a notable example of the neo-classical style. It has also been suggested that James Pain may have carried out this work. High quality design and execution are apparent in the execution of the portico, which forms the focal point of the structure. The house, however, was burnt down in 1921. The site retains demesne related structures such as the walled garden, gate lodges and the icehouse which later became a mausoleum, all of which provide historical and social context to the composition.
Given the notoriety of its late 18th century resident, the fate of Mount Shannon, County Limerick seems inevitable. One of the country’s more striking ruins, the house formerly stood at the centre of a 900-acre demesne famous for its trees and gardens: in his 1822 Encyclopedia of Gardening the Scottish botanist and landscape designer John Claudius Loudon specifically cited Mount Shannon as an example of improvements in Ireland, and proposed these had been carried out under the direction of the first Earl of Clare, of whom more anon. Five years later Fitzgerald and McGregor in their study of the history and topography of Limerick city and county likewise refer to Mount Shannon: ‘the plantations are laid out with fine taste, and the gardens are extensive and well arranged.’ Aside from a handful of surviving specimen trees, no evidence of the demesne’s former glories now remains, and much of the land is given over to suburban housing, making it difficult to discern what the grounds must have looked like even a century ago. On the other hand it is still possible to gain a sense of the main house’s former appearance. In 1827 Fitzgerald and McGregor described it as being ‘one of the most superb mansions in the South of Ireland’ and although a hollow shell for over ninety years it clings onto a residue of grandeur.
The original Mount Shannon was built c.1750 by the euphoniously-named Silver Oliver whose family’s main estate was elsewhere in the county at Clonodfoy, later Castle Oliver. Oliver appears to have sold the property to a member of the White family but around 1765 it came into the possession of John Fitzgibbon, supposedly a descendant of the mediaeval White Knights, who had been raised a Roman Catholic but converted to Anglicanism so that he could become a lawyer (Penal Laws then barring this profession to everyone not a member of the established church). Highly successful, he amassed a considerable fortune
which when he died in 1780 was passed on to his son, also called John and later first Earl of Clare.
It would appear from various references that Lord Clare did much to improve and aggrandise Mount Shannon, not just its demesne but also the house. However the latter’s most striking feature was added by his eldest son the second earl in 1813. The immense Ionic portico with Doric pilasters behind was designed by Lewis Wyatt (a member of the prolific English family of architects and a nephew of James Wyatt), and occupies the three centre bays of the seven-bay north entrance front. Behind three round-headed doors gave access to the hall with the drawing room and other main reception rooms behind. The interiors, as a handful of 19th century photographs show, were chillingly neo-classical with scarcely any ornament. The same was true of the exterior which, as can be seen is constructed of brick with cut limestone dressings. The severity of the south, garden facade was relieved by a very large curved conservatory. To the immediate east of the two-storey over sunken basement house is a long, lower extension which would have been used for services and was originally concealed by a curved screen wall that joined the still-extant wall of the old walled garden.
Many stories are told of John ‘Black Jack’ Fitzgibbon, first Earl of Clare, some of them apocryphal, few of them kind. After studying at Trinity College, Dublin and Christchurch, Oxford he became a lawyer like his father before him. He was first elected to the Irish House of Commons in 1778 and five years later was appointed Attorney General. Appointed Lord Chancellor for Ireland in 1789, he was also received his first peerage, as Baron FitzGibbon, of Lower Connello; he was subsequently advanced to a Viscountcy in 1793 and finally received his earldom in 1795. Four years later he was granted an English peerage (entitling him to a seat in the House of Lords at Westminster), becoming Baron FitzGibbon, of Sidbury in the County of Devon.
Unquestionably brilliant, Fitzgibbon was also without doubt bigoted. It has often been noted that he was a hardline Protestant and a member of the Protestant Ascendancy who avidly promoted whatever measures he believed would best preserve that group’s political domination in Ireland. He supported harsh measures against members of the 1798 Rebellion and was openly hostile to Roman Catholicism despite or perhaps because of his father had originally been a member of this faith. When it came to the Act of Union in 1800, of which he was firmly in favour, there was widespread understanding that this would be accompanied by concessions made to Roman Catholics with the Penal Laws being ameliorated. FitzGibbon persuaded George III that any such liberalisation of the status quo would be a violation of the king’s Coronation Oath and thus ensured pro-Emancipation measures were not included in the Union legislation. In so doing he delayed Catholic Emancipation by three decades and encouraged the spread of sectarianism.
It is said that FitzGibbon once declared he would make the Irish as ‘tame as a dead cat.’ As a result, there are stories of dead cats being thrown into his coach, and of more of the same being flung into his grave when he died in January 1802 following a fall from his horse at Mount Shannon the previous month.
At the time of the Act of Union, Lord Clare arranged for a handsome pension by way of compensation for the loss of his office as Lord Chancellor which was then abolished; this was to be paid both to him and his immediate heir. Thus the second earl, who died in 1851, enjoyed a handsome income not just from his estates which ran to more than 13,000 acres in Counties Limerick and Tipperary but from the munificence of the British Treasury. A close friend of Lord Byron, with whom he was at school, the second earl later became Governor first of Bombay and later of Bengal; he enhanced Mount Shannon by both the addition of the portico and other improvements, but by adding treasures from India and paintings acquired on his travels around Europe.
Since he had no children, his property passed to a younger brother, who duly became third earl. He was to suffer a number of disadvantages, among them the absence of the pension enjoyed by his predecessors, a much depleted income in the aftermath of the Great Famine, and the death of his only son during the Charge of the Light Brigage at the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854: Limerick’s Wellesley Bridge used to feature a handsome statue to the youthful Viscount FitzGibbon until it was blown up by the IRA in 1930.
On the death of the third earl in 1864 the title became extinct. His estate was left to the two younger of his three daughters (the eldest, who had caused a scandal by abandoning her own spouse and children to run off with the elderly husband of a half-sister, appears to have been disinherited). While the middle sister took possession of the FitzGibbon silver and, it seems, the greater part of the liquidity attached to the estate, the youngest Lady Louisa FitzGibbon assumed responsibility for Mount Shannon.
Lady Louisa was as dogged by bad luck as her father. Her eldest son died at the age of twenty, followed by her first husband and then the Italian Marchese she married in expectation of his money turned out to be as penniless as herself. With the advent of the Land Wars rents ceased to be paid, portions of the estate had to be sold, what remained was mortgaged, and money borrowed at high interest rates. All to no avail: Lady Louisa’s creditors demanded satisfaction, following litigation a receiver was appointed, and in the course of a sale lasting several days during June 1888 Mount Shannon was stripped of its contents including a very valuable library. Here is a small quote from the fascinating catalogue compiled by Limerick auctioneer John Bernal: ‘The Family Paintings are Chef Douvres [sic], by the first artist of the period, when they were taken, some of the Paintings, see page 42, were placed in the house about 1790, and will afford the connoisseur and speculator a good chance of getting a valuable Old Master on good terms. There are also some replicas from the Dresden gallery.’ The first such melancholy event of its kind in Ireland, a prelude to many more to follow over the coming decades, the Mount Shannon excited huge interest, with special trains and catering arrangements being laid on. Lady Louisa FitzGibbon spent the remainder of her days in a Dominican convent on the Isle of Wight, an establishment founded by the Roman Catholic convert wife of her uncle, the second Lord Clare; this was something of an irony given the first earl’s virulent hatred of all Catholics.
Five years after the sale, Thomas Nevins, who had been born in Mayo but made a fortune in the United States as a tram and railway contractor, bought Mount Shannon where he died in 1902, just like the first earl following a bad fall from a horse. His widow only survived until 1907 after which the place passed through various hands before what remained of the estate was bought in 1915 by David O’Hannigan of County Cork for £1,000. He did not have long to enjoy Mount Shannon since it was burned down in June 1920 during the War of Independence, the light of the flames apparently seen in Limerick city.
The house remains a shell. To walk through it today is to have a sense what it must have been like visiting a site such as the Baths of Caracalla in the aftermath of Imperial Rome’s collapse, especially as this immense structure is now surrounded by others domestic buildings of infinitely smaller dimensions and aspirations. Even in its present broken-down state Mount Shannon continues dominate the area and to exude an air of greater distinction than any of its neighbours.
Not all anniversaries are necessarily cause for celebration. Today marks the centenary of the burning of Mount Shannon, County Limerick, one among the first wave of Irish country houses to be burnt during the War of Independence, followed by many more over the course of the Civil War. Dating from the mid-18th century, Mount Shannon was originally built for the Oliver family but by 1765 it had been acquired by John FitzGibbon, who had converted from Roman Catholicism to the Established Church in order to practice law. This move ultimately also converted him into a wealthy man, so understandably the same profession was also followed by his son, another John FitzGibbon, who became known as ‘Black Jack’ for his hostility to the faith of his forebears and his advocacy of the 1800 Act of Union. Prior to that event, he served as last Lord Chancellor of Ireland and was rewarded with a peerage, becoming Earl of Clare in 1795. While he improved Mount Shannon and the surrounding demesne, it was his son the second earl who did most work on the place, not least by enhancing the façade with the addition of its great Ionic portico, designed by architect Lewis William Wyatt. Thanks to a pension secured by his father, he was also able to fill the interior with furniture and works of art collected during his travels in Europe, and from time spent in India as Governor of Mumbai (then called Bombay). Having no children, when he died in 1851 both title and estate passed to a younger brother.
The third Earl of Clare did not benefit from a government pension such as that enjoyed by his late brother, nor did he lead as charmed a life; in 1854 his son and heir, 25-year old Viscount FitzGibbon, was reported missing, presumed dead, after leading his troop of Royal Irish Huzzars at the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. His body was never recovered. So, when the third earl in turn died a decade later, Mount Shannon passed to the youngest of his three daughters, Lady Louisa FitzGibbon who likewise suffered various misfortunes: her first husband died, as did her son, and then her second husband – a Sicilian marchese – proved to be as just as impoverished as was she. Already in debt, the onset of the Land Wars finished off her prospects and in 1888 Lady Louisa’s creditors forced a sale of Mount Shannon and its contents. The house had two more owners before its eventual destruction, the first being Thomas Nevins, who had been born in Mayo but made a fortune in the United States as a tram and railway contractor. He lived at Mount Shannon for less than a decade because in 1902, exactly a century after the first Earl of Shannon had died following a fall from a horse, Mr Nevins suffered the same fate. His wife followed him a few years later, and Mount Shannon was back on the market. Most of the land was divided up between local farmers and in 1915 the house and immediate surroundings were bought for £1,000 by one David O’Hannigan, who already owned a fine property some thirty miles to the south, Kilbolane House, County Cork (since demolished). However, he was unable to enjoy his new home for very long because on the night of June 14th 1920 Mount Shannon was set on fire by a local band of the IRA, leaving the building completely gutted; it is believed flames from the blazing site could be seen in Limerick city more than five miles away. What remains of the house has stood a ruin ever since. Over the next three years, there will be many more such centenaries to recall.
You can see and hear more about Mount Shannon on the Irish Aesthete’s new YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcrlzLgMnNA
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRPj6b6KCss
And a longer history of the house was published here in January 2014: https://theirishaesthete.com/2014/01/20/a-spectacular-fall-from-grace
Irish Historic Houses 