Destruction of Irish country houses (1919 1923)

The Big House as a target

By the start of the Irish revolutionary period in 1919, the Big House had become symbolic of the perceived or actual dominance of the Anglo-Irish class in Ireland at the expense of the native Roman Catholic population, particularly in the south of Ireland.

The Anglo-Irish, as a class, were generally opposed to the notions of Irish independence and held key positions in the British administration of Ireland. The Irish nationalist narrative maintained that the land of Irishmen had been illegally stolen from them by the landowning aristocracy, who had mostly arrived in Ireland as Protestant settlers of The Crown during the late 16th and 17th centuries. The Irish Big House was at the administrative centre of the estates of the landowners, as well as being the family seat from which the Anglo-Irish exerted their political control over the island.

This perception was popularly held by nationalists, despite a considerable increase in Irish landownership in the previous decades due to the Irish Land Acts. Whereas in 1870, 97% of land was owned by landlords and 50% by just 750 families, by 1916, 70% of Irish farmers owned their own land. Catholics had been emancipated in 1829 and the political dominance of the Anglo-Irish in Ireland had consequently declined following the electoral successes of Irish Parliamentary Party through much of the 19th century.

Irish War of Independence

In the destruction of the country houses of the aristocracy and landed gentry, the IRA hoped to overcome a culture of deference towards the landowning class. As early as 1918, IRA organiser Ernie O'Malley had his Volunteers train in demesne grounds in order to "rid them of their inherent respect for the owners".

During the Irish War of Independence, country houses were often targeted in reprisal for the destruction of houses by the British Army, who took to burning or defacing the homes of nationalists engaged in actions against the British administration in Ireland. Usually the local Big House and landowner had no influence over British military policy in the area, and the reprisal attack by the IRA would be carried out on the assumption that all Anglo-Irish were loyalists. "In April 1921, north Cork IRA leader, Liam Lynch, enraged by the destruction of several houses in reprisal for an IRA ambush declared, 'six big houses and castles of their friends, the Imperialists will go up for this.'"

At least 76 country mansions were destroyed in the War of Independence; 30 "Big Houses" were burned in 1920 and another 46 in the first half of 1921, mostly in the conflict's Munster heartland, i.e. counties Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Clare and Limerick.

Historian James S. Donnelly concluded in a study of the burning of over 50 country mansions in County Cork in 1919-21 that although there may have been agrarian or sectarian animosities at work, most burnings were carried out by the IRA either to deny them as potential billets to the British forces or as reprisals for house burnings committed by the British forces. Similarly a study of the border region of counties Louth, Cavan and Monaghan found there were no such burnings until June and July 1921, coinciding with a sizable British Army offensive in the area and that the main motive was to deny them garrisons. "In this region at least it was the guerrilla tactics of the IRA and not agrarian motives that were main motive for targeting the Big Houses".

The "Big Houses" did not become the subject of a concerted campaign until the Irish Civil War. In this period there was also a significant level of violence against southern Irish Protestants. In County Cork, between 1920 and 1923, the IRA shot more than 150 civilians. Of the 122 assassinated as "spies", 44, or about 36% were Protestants: about twice the percentage of Protestants in the civilian population of Cork. Mrs Mary (or Maria) Lindsay, an elderly Protestant from Coachford, was shot and killed, with her driver, in an outbuilding while her house was burning, after the authorities refused to commute the capital sentences of six IRA volunteers who were executed after Mrs. Lindsay had informed the authorities of a pending nearby ambush, after her efforts and that of a local priest to stop the pending ambush were ignored by the IRA. The degree to which such IRA violence can be categorised as sectarian as opposed to politically motivated is still the subject of much debate.

Irish Civil War

It is believed that 199 country houses were destroyed during the Civil War. Some mansions were destroyed in the fighting of the early months of the war, but the campaign against them began in earnest in late 1922. The leadership of the Anti-Treaty forces orchestrated a campaign of Big House destruction across Ireland. The order to burn houses of Free State supporters and 'Imperialists' (as the IRA called the Anglo-Irish upper class) was given after the government embarked on a policy of executions of anti-Treaty Republican fighters.

Liam Lynch, anti-Treaty IRA Chief of Staff, after the execution of four senior Republicans in Mountjoy Prison, issued a General order on 8 December 1922 that, "all Free State supporters are traitors and deserve the latter's stark fate, therefore their houses must be destroyed at once", and, on 26 January 1923, issued another order for property destruction and possible killing of Free State Senators in reprisal.

The ostensible reason for the coordinated attack on the 'Big Houses' therefore was that many of their owners were senators in the Senate or Seanad. However, others were targeted because the IRA listed them as 'Imperialists' or in some cases 'Freemasons'. Most country houses were isolated and in rural areas, and targeting them forced the National Army to allocate their stretched resources to protecting landowners, while also creating an atmosphere of panic among the Anglo-Irish, as well as unionists in general. As such, the country house was regarded by the IRA as a "soft target". Attacks were planned and organised, and generally focused on Irish peers who had sat in the House of Lords, members of the Senate of the Irish Free State and former Irish Unionist Party politicians.

The assault on the 'Big Houses' was part of a wider campaign against Free State supporters as a reprisal for the executions policy of the Government. In Dublin for instance, out of 28 homes burned by the IRA between December 10, 1922 and the end of April, nine could be counted as Big Houses or mansions associated with the Anglo-Irish class. As well as members of the gentry, the houses of other political enemies of the Republicans, including newspaper owners and editors, National Army and former British Army officers, and Justices of the Peace, were also targeted. Some Free State TDs, such as Liam Burke and Seán McGarry, were targeted; in the case of the latter causing the death of his seven-year-old son, Emmet. The former's home was demolished but the latter rebuilt his property. The Ballyboden home of the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, W.T. Cosgrave, was burned down in January 1923. The Foxrock, County Dublin home of the Anglo-Irish politician Sir Horace Plunkett, a distant relation to Count Plunkett, was burnt down in 1923, despite his reputation as a social reformer.

Some houses, such as Ballycarty House, were also attacked to prevent their being used as garrisons by Free State forces. The size of the buildings targeted ranged from small to palatial. Most were destroyed by being set on fire, their interiors having been doused in petrol, although in some instances houses were blown up using high explosives. The attempt to burn down Burton Hall, Stillorgan, the home of Henry Guinness, in March 1923 failed when a mine planted there failed to explode.

In most cases, no one was injured during the destruction of the house. It is recorded that in several cases, members of the IRA helped the targeted family to remove their possessions from the house before it was destroyed. When the home of Dermot Bourke, 7th Earl of Mayo, was attacked on 29 January 1923, he described the IRA guerrillas as being "excessively polite" and apologetic. Nonetheless, there were incidents of violence and deaths in such attacks. The Church of Ireland Gazette recorded numerous instances of Unionists and Loyalists being shot, burned out or otherwise forced from their homes during the early 1920s.

Senator John Philip Bagwell was kidnapped during the attack on his home. Country houses were often looted during and following their destruction, and in most cases a family's possessions were entirely destroyed. Homes of pro-Treaty Catholic nationalists, such as Oliver St John Gogarty and George Moore were targeted. The former was rebuilt, but the latter was not. The library of Moore Hall, County Mayo, containing ancient manuscripts relating to Irish and world history, was entirely destroyed in February 1923.

Not all such houses were regarded by the IRA as targets, depending upon their ownership. Mount Trenchard House in County Kerry was the home of Mary Spring Rice, a nationalist activist, and the building was used by the IRA as a safe house.

Aftermath

Most of the properties targeted by the IRA were abandoned following the attacks. The widespread use of petrol and other incendiaries ensured that the most of the buildings were completely gutted by fire and rendered uninhabitable. The state of the buildings, as well as fear of a repeat attack, meant that few of the country houses were rebuilt. Most were demolished, while others remain as ruins. Most of the owners sought compensation from the Irish Free State government. Ebenezer Pike claimed £62,000 for the destruction of Kilcronagh House, arguing that his loses were "enormous, for valuable furniture, paintings, and art treasures were all consumed in the flames." Both of Sir Augustus Digby Warren's properties in County Cork were destroyed. William Downes Webber sought compensation from the Irish Free State totaling £149,000 for the rebuilding and £18,000 for the contents of Mitchelstown Castle; £27,500 for the building and the full £18,000 for the contents were eventually awarded by Justice Kenny in 1926. Webber deemed the award for rebuilding too small and relocated to Dublin.

The period of the destruction of the Big House came to play an important part in Irish culture.

William Butler Yeats decried the targeting of Big Houses in the poem Meditations in Time of Civil War (1924), and lamented the concurrent passing of Anglo-Irish culture in Ireland. In The Last September (1929) the Big House was mythologised by Elizabeth Bowen as an ideal of civilisation and order, yet one which had its origins in injustice and could not be expected to survive in the modern world.

Resurgence during The Troubles

During The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the practice of targeting the "Big House" was revived by the Irish Republican Army, although there were relatively few of these in the six counties. Most notoriously, Tynan Abbey was attacked on the night of 21 January 1981. The 86-year-old Sir Norman Stronge, Bt., and his only son, James, 48 (both former MPs), were murdered by the PIRA attackers. The house was then burnt to the ground. The bodies of the father and son were later recovered from their blazing home.