Burning the Big House

by Terence Dooley Yale University Press 368pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 In this thoughtful, “impeccably researched” book, Terence Dooley narrates the“tumultuous history” of Irish country houses in the early 20th century, said Gareth Russell in The Times. During the War of Independence (1919-21) and the civil war that followed it, the IRA burned down some 300 of the country’s biggest houses – a fifth of the total. Some were buildings of great architectural value – such as the vast Palladian mansion Summerhill House in Meath, known as the “wonder of Ireland” – while others were relatively small. It’s usually assumed that the IRA targeted the “Big House” because it was a “symbol of foreign oppression and condescension”, said Andrew Gailey in Literary Review. Expelling their Anglo-Irish owners was “an act as…

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The Week United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, 1377

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