Webinar Series 2, No 6: ‘Kerry’s Downton Abbey: Pierce Mahony and the Kilmorna House Visitors Book’ by Thomas Dillon.

Webinar Series 2, 2021, No. 6

Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society

Date: 13^th April 2021 at 7:30pm

Thomas Dillon

Presents

‘Kerry’s Downton Abbey’

In this upcoming webinar Thomas Dillon will examine in detail the historical significance of Kilmorna House. As Thomas explains “Charles Stewart Parnell, WB Yeats, Maud Gonne, as well as songwriter Percy French and Home Rule advocate John Redmond had one thing in common  – they all stayed at Kilmorna House just outside Listowel in the later years of the 19th century. Their signatures appear with dozens of others in the Kilmorna visitors book which records their visits to the home of Pierce Mahony, nationalist MP and renowned philantropist, horticulturalist and Irish chieftain. He was the half-brother of Sir Arthur Vicars, the former Ulster King of Arms and keeper of the Irish Crown Jewels, who was killed by the IRA on April 14th, 1921 at Kilmorna and the Great House burned to the ground”.

Historian Tom Dillon will explore the history uncovered by the Kilmorna visitors book and discuss how it gives an insight into life on the Kilmorna estate in the late 1800s when it welcomed some of the most prominent political and cultural figures of the time. Overall, this webinar promises to explore many facets of this famous house and it’s esteemed guests, nowadays labelled ‘Kerry’s Downton Abbey’.