History of the area
Parteen’s story begins on the southern banks of the River Shannon, a vital artery flowing through the west of Ireland. Since antiquity it supported early monastic communities and commerce and subsequently attracted Viking raiders from the 9th century, who established longports upstream of Limerick and left behind earthworks along the Shannon’s course.
Through the medieval era, these lands formed part of the Gaelic Kingdom of Thomond, ruled by the O’Brien chieftains, who left their mark on the landscape and local customs.
In the 20th century, the village of Parteen was reshaped by the construction of the Shannon Scheme in the 1930s. The hydroelectric power station at Ardnacrusha channelled the river water from O’Brien’s Bridge to the dam and then through the tail race which was cut through the heart of the village, drowning much of the archaeology and cutting parts the community off from the house and church. Several large houses were destroyed in the process and their ruins lie under the tail race. It was this project that separated the congregation of church of St Patrick from the building - which subsequently fell out of use and became the first Church of Ireland parish in Limerick to close its doors.
Parteen A Lax traces its origins to the Viking settlers who raided their way up the River Shannon. They established a fortified outpost on nearby St Thomas’s Island and formalised the salmon harvest at the current weir in the village, building a set of piers spanning the river, through which the salmon swam into nets.
Scandinavian adventurers established and named colonies along Ireland’s coasts and riverways such as Wicklow, Smerwick (Viking or Wiking places) perhaps Limerwick, and Carlingford, Waterford, Wexford (settlements on inlets known at home as fiords. Parteen-a-lax near Limerick is interesting as, like many other sites, it possibly incorporates two language imputs, Pairteen (the little port) na Lax (of the salmon) or the salmon weir, language also still used in Scandinavia.
This amalgamation of languages summarises the close history between the viking and Irish communities that developed. Many of the stone foundations on the estate grounds date from this period..
The Viking occupation of Ireland wasn’t all rape and pillage and though a number of factors changed Ireland for the better. This period saw many improvements in Ireland’s social and economic infrastructure such as the creation and development of trade routes, the infusion of new blood, and through the adoption of coinage. Its prime benefit lay inadvertently though the need to unify the tribes of Ireland under one ruler Brian Boru.
When the Vikings first visited Ireland in 795AD, these benefits were not likely outcomes. The Scandinavians robbed and burned down the church on Lamburg island. This was followed by raids all over coastal Ireland and later, inland, as they travelled up the rivers to the source of the finest of religious artefacts, usually covered in jewels and gold. The monks would pay large ransoms for their return. These initial atttacks were certainly not constructive in terms of developing the early Irish christian culture, but they would force the religious communities to take better care of their resources and treasures, and it is unlikely that their materials would have survived if these precautions were not taken. Certainly, many aspects of Irish cultural heritage, including those who joined (willingly or not) were taken by the vikings to the continent, so the spread of Irish culture to Europe has its roots in this aspect of Viking displacement.
This domination of the country was facilitated because at the time Ireland was intensely rural, and many Irish farmers' defences were poor and unorganised. Any wealth was lodged in and ‘protected’ by local monasteries that amassed local produce, including grains and animals, and ancient artefacts. These weakly defended targets encouraged the vikings to continue their exploration of the country, and the constant losses forced the Irish to embrace stronger communities and citadels, even if this meant cohabiting with the occupiers. This compromise encouraged the Irish to live more peacefully in the cities that the Vikings created such as Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Wexford.
This urbanisation was to profoundly effect the livelihoods of the Irish living in these towns. In addition to the development of skills and crafts, the occupation created the emergence of craftsmen and opportunities for commerce such as carpenters who would specialise in building boats or housing. These craftsmen helped Ireland's become an important trade route to western Europe, helped along by the spoils gathered from the Viking raid on their own and other targeted countries.
During this time, the Vikings brought more people to these towns and formed Ireland's first real plantation. Even though it was more of an immigration opportunity for Scandinavians and a marginalisation of the Irish, it would have a profound impact on the relevance of Ireland as a trading partner with the rest of Europe. While the indigenous population became diluted the Irish culture and religion dominated the social mix. Examination of graves shows us that Scandinavian’s graves in Ireland transitioned from traditional viking graves with jewellery and weapons and became indistinguishable from Irish graves.
This mergence of culture between the Irish and the Scandinavians was strongly aligned by the mergence of their DNA.
As towns grew in importance in Ireland and the desire for trade within Ireland grew coins emerged as a more usual form of payment. This tallied in well with the international trade where coinage was gaining acceptance.
It was the Irish desire to rid itself of the worst aspects of the Scandinavian conquest that finally united the country under the rule of Brian Buru. He rose to dominate the province of Munster and defeated the Vikings at Limerick in 977 and although he was killed in the Battle of Clontarf in an army as much composed of Scandinavians as of Irish soldiers, he is credited with the first efforts to unite the Irish against the Vikings, and this unifications would represent the cohesion that would resist foreign rule of Ireland until 1921.
Pressing fast forward over the generations of O’Brien chieftains to live in the region since Brian Boru, Parteen A Lax, the main house on the estate emerges as an O’Brien residence in the 19th century when the land is acquired by the son of the 12th Lord Inchiquin, the leader of the Young Ireland rebellion William Smith O’Brien. The site was more convenient for his constituency business as a politician in Ennis and then Limerick than Cahirmoyle his family home in West Limerick (d1846). His political career was not to develop, and after his exile to Tasmania for treason following the Young Ireland Rebellion, the site lay dormant until his son, Robert Donough (1844–1917) who studied architecture solely to build this one house, completed the building in 1901and lived here for the remainder of his life.
The current Parteen A Lax manor house was designed in an elegant Georgian style, characterised by rusticated limestone walls, de-entillated eaves, and a graceful portico entrance. Set within extensive gardens overlooking the Shannon, the single-storey four-bay layout features timber sliding sash windows, a central hall, and intricately carved stone chimneystacks at each corner, epitomizing turn-of-the-century country-house refinement.
With its rusticated limestone walls, dentillated eaves, and graceful portico, the residence epitomised country-house grandeur at the turn of the century. Somewhat clinically, the heritage council of Ireland’s technical listing describes the house as:
“a detached four-bay single-storey house, built 1901 by architect Robert Donough O'Brien. Recessed entrance bay having portico. Canted bay window to rear. Shallow segmental vaulted roof with replacement aluminium sheeting, cut-limestone circular-profile chimneystacks to each corner, central rendered chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rusticated limestone walls with advanced frieze, dentillated eaves, cut-stone end bays and plinth. Cut-limestone entablature and canted pilasters to timber panelled door, approached by steps. Timber sliding sash windows set in single, paired and tripartite arrangements. Three-bay single-storey house to side. Complex of stables/garages to site. Monolithic cut-stone piers with wrought-iron gate.”
The house passed to his niece Lucy Gwynn who was the first woman registrar of Trinity College Dublin, and brother of Edward Gwynn who was Provost of Trinity College Dublin. Lucy Gwynn was appointed first lady registrar of Trinity College Dublin in February 1905.[6] Trinity College had finally admitted women to the university just the year before, in 1904.[7]
Despite coming from a family of academics Lucy Gwynn had been unable to get a university education herself. She was 39 years old when appointed to her position in the university.
Students described Lucy Gwynn as a pioneer. Her role as women's registrar was described by one of her charges as "to control our movements to some extent and to protect the college and the students from criticism”.
In 1907 Lucy Gwynn was summoned before the Fry Commission on Dublin University to defend the position of women at Trinity. She was supported by the parents of the students. The result was that the commission endorsed the principle of women's admission to the university. In 1922, the Dublin University Women Graduates’ Association was founded, under Lucy Gwynn's presidency.
Lucy Gwynn never married. As an eldest daughter she was required to assist in the management of her parents' household and attend to them in their old age. From her mother's brother Robert Donough O'Brien (1844-1917), an architect, she inherited the house he had designed and built at Parteen-a-Lax in County Clare, close to Limerick City. It was there that she retired at the end of her working life. Her hobby was tending its beautiful garden which lay next to the river Shannon and she lived there until her death in 1947.
Donough had designed a simple single storey house to meet his needs as a Batchelor but had drawn up plans for a second floor for the house in case subsequent owners required a family home. Evidence of this can be seen in the roof, itself designed as a temporary structure, where the brickwork for a stair case lies unused. As a career woman, academic, passionate gardener and a spinster, Lucy had no need for more housework. She also lived in the house during the construction of the Shannon scheme, itself a time of uncertainty for the big private estates. Most of the estate lands were requisitioned by the government for the scheme and the ability to sustain a large house with a dwindling footprint was questionable. The first family to move into the house was Lucy’s niece, Cicely O’Brien, who has passed the house down through her children but by the time a family lived here the skills, material and protected status of the house made Donough’s plans for a second floor development impossible.
The house overlooks St Thomas's Island, the site of a medieval monastery and the 'Castle of the Weir' which are accessible from the house. Visible from the manor’s river front gardens, St Thomas’s Island sits just offshore, crowned by the ruins of a 17th-century defensive castle and a salmon weir built across the Shannon’s channel. Accessible only by boat or at exceptionally low tides, these stone remnants recall complex interactions between riverine trade, local power, and strategic defense in early modern Ireland.
Dan McCarthy: Hidden history of St Thomas's Island
As the River Shannon spreads its wings and becomes an estuary it scatters several islands along its banks: Sod Island, Waller’s Island, Saint’s Island and several others. There were islands that once existed but no longer do including Dernish and Piggott’s Island. Further upstream there are many islands where the Shannon courses through Lough Derg. In between, the lough and the estuary are several more. The largest of these is St Thomas’s Island where the river turns northwards at Corbally before making a U-turn and heading southwards. This riverine island is very flat as is to be expected as when a river reaches the sea it deposits its load. It is privately owned and grazed by a rag of colts which imperiously guards the banks. At first sight there is nothing to behold, but a profusion of dark ivy gives the game away. Buried beneath are the walls of a former residence. The remains of a salmon weir known as the lax weir stretches from the southern side of the Shannon to the northern bank. It was established by the Danes (lax is old Danish for salmon) before coming under the possession of Norman and then English power. The operation of the weir was discontinued in the 1930s when the Shannon Hydro-Electric Scheme was established and the company was given the fishery rights. In medieval times it was known as one of the most lucrative salmon fisheries in Europe.
The limestone castle of Caslaunnacorran (Caislean na Coran) marks the western tip, though strictly speaking it is detached from St Thomas’s Island. It was an outpost of the Irish garrison during the siege of Limerick in 1651 when Cromwell’s son-in-law Henry Ireton attacked the city. The oratory was constructed in the 12th century by Dominican friars after their St Saviour’s Friary on King’s Island was deemed too small. It was dedicated to the giant of medieval intellectual thought, Thomas Aquinas, hence the name. The monks lived in harmony on the island till the 16th century Reformation.
Henry VIII deprived the monks of all their possession including the lax (salmon in Danish) weir and lands at Monabraher. The oratory was obliterated and no trace of it remains today.
St Thomas’s Island played an important role in the siege of Limerick in 1691 when the Williamite general Ginkell bombarded the city. St Thomas’s Island was a crucial part of his strategy and his forces stormed across the island and eventually surrounded the city. The Irish army under Patrick Sarsfield was forced to surrender and the Treaty of Limerick was thus signed. In the course of the siege 200 Protestants, mainly women and children, were brought off the island by the Williamites having been in “great misery” and “starved for want of food”. A differing view held that the prisoners were so well treated that they only reluctantly accepted liberation. There are the ruins of a second building on the island. A Georgian mansion was the residence of a milling family called the Russells. This house was later owned by a J Tuthill. Its 21 acres comprised elegant gardens, villas, a greenhouse, and grazing for cattle. A visitor to Tuthill wrote: “His unaffected politeness made us enjoy our little excursion very much. The view upwards to the enchanting Shannon cannot be excelled. His verdant banks are covered with cattle, adorned by charming villas at intervals.” One of the last occupants of the island was a farmer who was known to frequent the milk market with more tanks than the milk from his cows could possibly fill. When apprehended by a suspicious constable, the tanks were found to contain poteen. The heyday of St Thomas’s Island was undoubtedly in the medieval period. Its quotidian life was captured in an evocative poem of the same name by Arthur Lysaght. Faint comes the slap of water against wood
As black bows hover darkened pools
And peak-capped men ply cobwebs out of boats
An arc of silver breaks the water surface
A monk is silhouetted on the weir
Adjacent to the main house stands St Patrick’s Church, built in the mid-19th century and serving the local community until the 1950s. Deconsecrated and acquired by the O’Briens in the 1990s, this historic chapel has since been lovingly restored as a distinctive wedding and event venue.
Today, Parteen A Lax is a lovingly curated guest house where history and hospitality intertwine. From the echoes of Viking longboats to the tales of river spirits in local folklore, every corner of the estate invites guests to step into Ireland’s past while enjoying modern comforts.
The Young Ireland Rebellion and William Smith O'Brien’s Legacy
Introduction
William Smith O’Brien is a controversial and misunderstood figure within Irish political history. As a member of the British establishment, and an aristocratic member of the Church of Ireland he cuts an unlikely and sometimes absurd figure against his fellow Irish Catholic nationalist revolutionaries. However, his influence in the British political establishment aroused sympathy for Irish nationalism and his legacy as the acceptable face of revolutionary zeal developed a level of tolerance in Britain for Irish issues that provided a more sympathetic platform for the dialogue on independence. In strong contrast with the absurd caricature of a reluctant revolutionary dressed in a swallowtail coats and a top hat, scrapping with the local constabulary for Irish independence amongst Widow McCormac’s cabbages, Smith O’Brien led an articulate and successful movement to oppose the worst aspects of imperial rule and implement the relationship that set Ireland on its independence trajectory. His positing of an Irish constitution based on the French ideal inspired his design of the Irish Tricolour and was adapted to articulate the repeal movement. His contribution to the acceptance of the Irish language is similarly overlooked. Life of William Smith O’Brien WIlliam Smith O’Brien was born on the 17th October 1803 in Co.Clare and was the second son of Sir Edward O’Brien - an Irish parliamentarian who sat in the House of Commons from 1802 to 1826. His mother was Charlotte Smith an Irish woman who inherited Cahermoyle House, an early 19th century house in Country Limerick where he lived with his wife, Lucy, and their seven children. As descendents of Brian Boru (the High King Of Ireland) and a leading Church of Ireland family the O’Briens owned large estates in County Limerick and County Clare. William was privately educated in England and later studied law in London and Dublin. In 1828 he followed his father’s footsteps and joined the Tory party in Westminster representing Ennis and by 1835 was the MP for Limerick. In Parliament he lobbied for help for the Irish poor and a broader education and at home he promoted the Irish language. Politically, William Smith O’Brien initially aligned himself with Daniel O’Connell’s anti-union Repeal Association, a movement for independence and democratic reform in Ireland during the 1840s. He led a faction of this movement known as the Young Irelanders, some dissatisfied nationalists within the Repeal Association. However following personal disputes with O’Connell and political disputes over the Repeal Association’s compromises on Irish independence (which Smith O’Brien believed were inspired by O’Connell’s personal grudges), and the stated intention of empowering the Catholic church’s political authority, the Young Ireland movement broke away from the Repeal Association. In 1847, Smith O’Brien and others formed the Irish Confederation, with the intention of gaining full legislative and executive independence from Britain. The mood in Ireland was supportive because of general disappointment in Britain’s mishandling of the famine, and the contagious wave of nationalism and liberalism on the European mainland. Many of these European revolutions were bloodless and William Smith O’Brien hoped that uniting the Irish landlords and the tenants would oblige Britain to grant independence but instead, in July 1848 Britain announced that members of the Irish Confederation, the Young Irelanders, could be arrested and imprisoned without trial. Wiliam Smith O’Brien, and the other leaders, were forced to decide between fleeing Ireland, surrendering to the authorities or open rebellion. Faced with the threat of imprisonment, the young Irelander leadership chose to rebel and the following day led a march from County Wexford towards Dublin, gathering support as they went. The Young Ireland Rebellion William Smith O’Brien had travelled from Dublin to Wexford on the 22nd July to visit friends and still wore his Dublin attire when he discovered that the habeas corpus’ was suspended and his arrest was ordered. The next day, he was joined by Thomas Francis Meagher, John Blake Dillon and other leaders of the Irish Confederation who pushed for an immediate rebellion, rising in Wexford, with the goal of travelling through the country to Dublin - gathering support as they went. In the large towns of Wexford and Kilkenny, thousands of people turned out to follow, many of them armed. Wiilliam Smith O’Brien confidently promised them an independent Ireland within ten days. From the 23rd until the 29th July, they moved from town to town, giving public speeches and recruiting support. However, there was very little in the way of logistical support for this rebellion. William Smith O’Brien ordered that only those who could feed themselves could join. The Irish Confederation had been founded on the premises of honour, morality and reason and William Smith O’Brien therefore refused to let his rebels steal as they travelled through the countryside, and so, with little money available, many of his supporters dropped out of the march for lack of food. The rebel numbers depleted as it progressed towards Dublin and support fell away. In Tipperary at a village called The Commons, less than 100 of the most determined rebels remained for a gathering on the 28th July. Smith O’Brien’s supporters had erected barricades to prevent his arrest because the Irish Constabulary were shadowing the rebellion. When the rebels saw the constables, they left their barricades in The Commons and chased them across the fields. Sub-Inspector Trant and his 46 armed constables took refuge and barricaded themselves in a large two-storey house belonging to a Widow, Mrs McCormack near Ballingarry, County Tipperary. Her five children were kept in the house, possibly as hostages. The rebels surrounded the house and there was a stand off since the house was very secure. William Smith O’Brien was directly outside the house and spoke with the police through the windows but at some point shooting broke out. The police account claims that O’Brien ordered the rebels to kill the police inside and tried to burn down the house, police, hostages and all. Other accounts say the police opened fire without provocation. Two rebels who attempted to extract O’Brien from the immediate danger were wounded. Two more rebels were later killed. No police were hurt. The battle continued for a few hours until police reinforcements and a troop of British cavalry approached. The rebellion ran out of ammunition and steam and so the rebels faded away into the countryside. William Smith O’Brien was spotted and arrested at Thurles railway station a week later attempting to return to his family. Other leaders of the abortive rebellion were also arrested or escaped Ireland. Aftermath and Conclusion O’Brien was sentenced to death for his leadership of the Young Ireland Rebellion, but his family political connections in Britain, a popular public petition and Queen Victoria’s personal intervention saved his life. Instead of execution for treason O’Brien was exiled for life to Van Diemen’s Island - now Tasmania. During his five years there, he wrote his diaries and painted and explored under guard. He was released on parole and was granted a full pardon in 1856 and was allowed home to Ireland. When he was under sentence of death he had signed his estate over to his eldest child - Edward, but on his return, he was an embarrassment to some of his family and his son withheld the money and property William had signed over. William Smith O’Brien toured Europe and America and gave lectures but he died in Wales in 1864 aged 61. The rebellion ended the repeal movement and the actions of ‘the cabbage garden heroes of 1848’ (quote from Robert Peel, who William Smith O’Brien subsequently challenged to a duel) effectively set back Irish independence for a generation until the home rule movement. However ill advised or ludicrously portrayed, the rising sparked international sympathy for Ireland and directly resulted in the creation of the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States and later the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Ireland. However, the involvement of O’Brien in the rebellion, as a representative of aristocratic protestant Ireland gave the British establishment alot to worry about and won an independent Ireland sympathy in many political and social quarters in the empire.. From his diaries, we understand that William Smith O’Brien later regretted his decision to rebel when threatened with arrest in 1848. If he had surrendered to the authorities and been tried, there would have been no case or evidence against him and the British Crown would have been embarrassed on the world stage. O’Brien would have been released and the cause of Irish nationalism strengthened. However the decision to rebel was forced on him by hotter heads, dwindling support and spiralling events and according to Richard Davis’s book Revolutionary Imperialist - Willaim Smith O’Brien was a ‘reluctant rebel’. In his defence affidavit on ‘the affair at Ballingarry’, Smith O’Brien blamed the rising solely on the unjustified nature of the warrant for his arrest. Thomas Meagher and others blamed the failure of the rising on O’Brien’s leadership style and sense of morality that forbade the requisition of food and shelter from the famished local population. Smith O’Brien accounted for his failure in the rising because he didn't have support from the clergy, without whose sanction the Irish people would not fight. One other criticism by Thomas Meagher, (who wanted to burn the farmhouse down with the police and Mrs Macauliffe’s children inside) was that O’Brien lacked revolutionary warfare experience. This is unjustified because O’Brien had suggested two guerilla actions to arm the rebels and thwart the constabulary during the march to Dublin that his lieutenants rejected. William Smith O’Brien’s legacy is always tarnished by the Young Ireland Rising’s failure but his contribution to Irish politics and the Language are overlooked. By virtue of his rank and upbringing O’Brien represented a reasonable case for Irish Independence that the British establishment could not ignore. At home though, William Smith O’Brien’s wife Lucy died and his children, (except one) rejected nationalism. He continued to campaign around the world for Irish independence and watched helplessly as European nations gained their’s while Ireland didn’t. Review It has been difficult to be totally objective about a national figure that is maligned in so many accounts, but is also an iconic figure within my own family, we even use his furniture on a daily basis. Following the failed 1848 rising, the authors of the primary sources are evidently keen to distance themselves or to blame someone else. In William’s case, he was the scapegoat for the nationalists, the lone wolf in the dock for the British empire and the black sheep to his family. Commentary is essentially negative. It is only his own diaries, (which we have at home) written in exile after the event, and the affidavit he prepared for his defence against the treason charge (also in our collection) that seems to defend his reputation. However - the pages are faint and I find his hand writing very difficult to read. Later biographers and historians such as Richard Davis and our family historian Grania Weir (O’Brien) have provided a more balanced view that restores his reputation and reminds us of his significant contribution to Irish independence, the downtrodden of Ireland and the nation’s cultural heritage that we enjoy today. It was not an accident that his statue once stood alongside the ‘Liberator’s’. In 1870, his statue was originally sited directly facing O’Connell’s on D’Olier Street, but its relocation in 1929 to its present site reflected the statue’s impact on Dublin’s traffic planning policies and ignores William Smith O’Brien’s impact on Ireland. William Smith O’Brien’s dining table and side board, at home Bibliography O’Brien. Grania R. These My Friends & Forebears. The O’Brien’s of Dromoland. Ballinakella Press. Ireland 1991. pp 7, 104, 106,113 - 150, 198 Touhill. Blanche M. Wiliam Smith O'Brien and His Irish Revolutionary Companions in Penal Exile. University of Missouri Columbia and London, 1981 Davis. Richard, William Smith O'Brien Ireland 1848 Tasmania. Geography Publications, Kennington Road, Templeogue, Dublin 6W, 1989 Davis. Richard, Revolutionary Imperialist. William Smith O'Brien, 1803-1864. Published by the Lilliput Press, 62-63 Sitric Road, Arbour Hill, Dublin 7. 1998 Davis. Richard, To Solitude Confined The Tasmanian Journal of William Smith O'Brien, 1849-1853. Crossing Press, PO Box 1137, Darlinghurst 2010, New South Wales. Davis. Richard and Marianne edited. The Rebel in his Family. Selected Papers of William Smith O’Brien. Cork University Press, Cork, Ireland. 1998 Smith O’Brien. William, Affidavit Unpublished, Family collection. Smith O’Brien. William, Tasmanian Journals. Unpublished, Family collection. Smith O’Brien. William, European tour Journals. Unpublished, Family collection. William Smith O’Brien’s travel diaries Front page - William Smith O’Brien’s affidavit Song, ‘Oh, Weep Not For Me’, written by William Smith O’Brien, from exile in Tasmania Poem, ‘Spring to the Exile’, written by William Smith O’Brien, from exile in Tasmania
Originally part of the ancestral lands of the O’Brien dynasty, stewardship of the estate passed through successive generations of that family, who maintained both the property and its traditions. The estate remains under private ownership by his descendants, who continue to welcome guests with genuine Irish hospitality.
Robert Donough O'Brien
1844-1917
Son of William Smith O'Brien and Lucy Caroline O'Brien
Brother of Edward William O'Brien; William Joseph O'Brien; Lucy Josephine Gwynn; Very Reverend Lucius Henry O'Brien; Charlotte Grace O'Brien and 1 other
Donough trained as an architect but never built another house before or after Parteen. He ran a successful land agency that managed the estates of local gentry, mainly of the Anglo-Irish who at that stage were struggling in the new republic and in a state of terminal decline. When Parteen was completed, he moved from an apartment above his office in O’Connell Street in Limerick City and lived in the house until his death.
The land agency business passed to his nephew Donough O'Brien who ran the business until the last of the big estates had closed. The offices on O'Connell Street were cleared and the records thrown out. Luckily for posterity, they were rescued by local historians and now form the basis of a deep understanding of the social and commercial impact of the big estates before, during and after Ireland's transition to independence.
Lucy Gwynn
Lucy Gwynn was born in County Donegal in Ireland. Her father John Gwynn was a Syriacist and Regius Professor of Divinity at Trinity College Dublin. Her mother was Lucy O'Brien, daughter of MP William Smith O'Brien. Her eight brothers included the author and politician Stephen Gwynn, the academic Edward Gwynn, the career soldier Major General Sir Charles Gwynn, the cricketers Lucius Gwynn and Arthur Gwynn, the academic cleric and social reformer Robin Gwynn, the Indian civil servant and journalist Jack Gwynn and the Irish civil servant Brian Gwynn. She had one sister, Mary Gwynn, the wife of Henry Bowen and stepmother of the writer Elizabeth Bowen. She was a niece of Harriet Monsell (1812-1883)
Lucy Gwynn was appointed first lady registrar of Trinity College Dublin in February 1905. Trinity College had finally admitted women to the university just the year before, in 1904. Despite coming from a family of academics Lucy Gwynn had been unable to get a university education herself. She was 39 years old when appointed to her position in the university.
In 1922, the Dublin University Women Graduates’ Association was founded, under Lucy Gwynn's presidency.
Lucy Gwynn never married. As an eldest daughter she was required to assist in the management of her parents' household and attend to them in their old age. From her mother's brother Robert Donough O'Brien (1844-1917), an architect, she inherited the house he had designed and built at Parteen-a-Lax in County Clare, close to Limerick town. It was there that she retired at the end of her working life. Her hobby was tending its beautiful garden which lay next to the river Shannon.
Cicely O'Brien
Artist
Geraldine O’Brien
1922-2014
Geraldine Mary O’Brien was in Limerick to father Donough Richard O’Brien and mother Cicely Maud Carus-Wilson. Artistic abilities ran through her blood as her mother was a successful artist, as well as her cousins Dermod O’Brien, Brigid Ganly, and Kitty Wilmer O’Brien. She honed her craft and was educated in Dublin, eventually defining herself as a botanical artist, working primarily with oils.
At the age of 17, O’Brien was winning prizes from London’s Royal Drawing Society, and by 18 she was exhibiting at the Royal Hibernian Academy, a place she would exhibit consistently throughout her career. Her professional career began to take off around the time of the second world war, and this meant it was near impossible to travel to study in other locations. O’Brien did not let this effect her creativity, as during this period she turned her hand to mechanical period until she ultimately returned to still lives of botanical scenes.
After her studies in Dublin she was led back to Limerick where she worked in her studio, or ‘The Piggery’ as it was known. She would bring plants that she grew in her garden into the studio and would work directly with them. Her work is always rich in colour and brings life to the canvas with realism and depth.
A proud Limerick woman, she lived with her husband, David Coote Hely Hutchinson, in Parteen from 1948, until she passed away in St. Martha’s Nursing Home in Cork.
## The Artists associated with the house
The estate’s artistic legacy is most famously embodied by George Francis Mulvany, whose 19th-century portrait of William Smith O’Brien graces the manor’s main reception room, lending colour and context to the house’s historical tableau. Over the years, visiting painters and sketchers have also captured the estate’s riverbank views and gardens, their works preserved in private collections and local archives.
