Eleventh Annual
Historic Houses of Ireland Conference
‘Castletown, the Conollys and
Country House Collections’
Castletown House
9 – 10 May 2013
(RIAI CPD approved)
PROGRAMME and BOOKING FORM
Supported by:
Day 1
Castletown and the Conollys: fresh perspectives
10.00-10.45
Registration; Tea/Coffee
11.15
Conference Opening: Terence Dooley, NUI Maynooth and
Mary Heffernan, Office of Public Works
Session 1
Chair: Marian Lyons, Head of Department of History, NUI Maynooth
11.30
Marie-Louise Legg, Katherine Conolly at Castletown, 1729-47
12.00
Patrick Walsh, Between the Speaker and the Squire: the untold story
of William Conolly junior
12.30
Lunch
Session 2
Chair: Alison FitzGerald, Department of History, NUI Maynooth
13.30
Karol Mullaney-Dignam, Princes, poets and polo: Castletown in the
Edwardian era
14.00
Emer Crooke, ‘The public … has only the vaguest notion of what it is desirable
to preserve’: the OPW and the Irish country house, 1930-60
14.30
Jeanne Meldon, The story of a trust and its collection: the history of
the Castletown Foundation
15.00
Tea/Coffee
Session 3
Chair: Kevin Baird, Irish Heritage Trust
15.30
Kerry Bristol, 'Our gallery was in great vogue': Lady Louisa Conolly's
Pompeiian redecoration of the Long Gallery at Castletown
16.00
Christine Casey, Carton, Castletown and the Ticinese phenomenon
16.30
Address by Ms Clare McGrath, Chairman of the Office of Public Works
17.00
End of proceedings
Day 2
Country House Collections
Session 1
Chair: Mary Heffernan, OPW
09.30
Jo Mangan and Tom Swift, ‘Big House Festival’: reigniting a 300-year tradition
of arts and entertainment at Castletown
10.00
Dawn Williams, Prelude Speaker: contemporary Castletown
10.30
Tea/Coffee
Session 2
Chair: Edward McParland, TCD
11.00
Christopher Ridgway, Widening the canon: defining country house collections
in the twenty-first century
11.30
Gareth Fitzpatrick, Four houses, three dukes, two countries, one collection
12.00
Helen Clifford, The East India Company at home 1757-1857: eastern goods in
the British country house
12.30
Jane Fenlon, Magnificence on display – seventeenth-century tapestries in the
Ormonde collections
13.00
Lunch
Session 3
Chair: Patrick Guinness, President IGS
14.00
Brian Crowley, ‘Such is O’Connell at Derrynane’: understanding O’Connell
through his ancestral home
14.30
Ana Dolan, The Conolly Folly restoration by the National Monuments Service
15.00
Gretta Doyle and John Olley, Louisa’s riverside walks at Castletown: their
creation and their restoration
15.30
Christopher Ridgway, closing remarks
16.00
Optional tour of house
Eleventh Annual
Historic Houses of Ireland Conference
‘Castletown, the Conollys and
Country House Collections’
Castletown House
9 – 10 May 2013
(RIAI CPD approved)
BOOKING FORM
PLEASE COMPLETE THIS FORM IN BLOCK CAPITALS AND RETURN WITH THE RELEVANT BOOKING FEE TO THE
CSHIHE BY MONDAY 22ND APRIL 2013 (details below)
 Conference Registration Fee €100 per person Number of delegates:__________________
including teas/coffees and lunches*
Total amount enclosed: € __________________Payment must be made in euro only
Payment method: ___________________Payment must be made by cheque or bank draft only
DELEGATE REGISTRATION DETAILS:
First name(s): _____________________________________________________________________________________
Surname(s):____________________________________________________________________________________
E-mail or Postal Address(es): _________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Telephone Number(s): _______________________________________________________________________________
Institutional affiliation/position (if any):_______________________________________________________________
Dietary or other requirements: _______________________________________________________________________
Booking Information
Please send the completed registration form by post only to CSHIHE, Junior Infirmary, South Campus, NUI Maynooth,
Maynooth, Co. Kildare by 22ND April 2013. Cheques and bank drafts should be made payable to Centre for the Study of
Historic Irish Houses & Estates or, simply, CSHIHE.
* Places will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Payment of conference registration fee must be received to
guarantee a booking. Receipt of payment will be acknowledged by e-mail unless otherwise requested. Refunds for
cancelled bookings will not be made.
Please note that information provided above (name, institutional affiliation & e-mail address only) may be compiled into a
delegates listing to be distributed at the conference. Please tick here if you do not wish your information to be included in the
delegates list 
DIRECTIONS TO CASTLETOWN: http://www.castletownhouse.ie/VisitorInformation/
Enquiries: e-mail: cshihe@nuim.ie Telephone: + 353 (0) 1 708 6706