Owners shut historic Irish estate

The owners of the house have announced it will close

The owners of Lissadell House in County Sligo have announced that they are closing the estate from next Monday and letting go 11 staff.

Lissadell is one of the Republic of Ireland's most historic premises and was the childhood home of high profile rebel Countess Markiewicz.

The house featured in a poem by W B Yeats, who was a frequent visitor.

Countess Markiewicz fought alongside the Irish insurgents during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

Condemned to death by the British authorities her sentence was later quashed and she was imprisoned instead.

After refusing to take her seat as the first woman MP at Westminster, she later sat as a member of the first Dail, the Irish parliament.

The decision to close the estate follows Sligo County Council's decision to preserve public rights of way along routes through the estate.

W B Yeats was a frequent visitor at the house

The owners, Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy, said the move created uncertainty about the future of Lissadell and that no property could be operated on the basis of uncontrolled access.

They said there were no public rights of way over the property and that when they took it over in 2003, there was no suggestion by the council that the internal roads or paths were subject to any rights of way.

Soon after purchasing the estate from Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth, the family closed a road leading to the front of the house.

The family said this road was not a public road and it was closed for safety reasons relating to their seven children.

However, the public can drive through the estate on another road and can also walk through the estate and access Lissadell beach.

In a statement the owners said it had become impossible to operate the house as a historic house or private home.

"No property whatsoever, let alone a large tourist facility, could be operated on the basis of unregulated, uncontrolled and unfettered access," they said.

Visitor numbers to Lissadell have grown from 4,000 to 40,000 annually and the estate employs about 23 people.

A Constance Markiewicz exhibition area, an art gallery, shop and coffee shop had been added to the estate and the old Victorian gardens were restored.

The family said they regretted the adverse economic repercussions of their decision to close but that they would meet all existing commitments and will continue ongoing maintenance to the estate.

A Sligo council spokesperson said they had no comment to make at the moment but would be issuing a statement on Monday.