Government ‘should have purchased’ Lissadell

THE Government was roundly criticised by local politicians yesterday for its failure to buy Lissadell House, the Sligo stately home where Countess Markievicz and her sister, poet Eva Gore Booth, spent their formative years.

The historic pile has been bought by an Irish couple who insisted on a confidentiality clause that prevented them being identified. Despite the criticism, the head of a Markievicz remembrance committee said he was happy it was remaining in Irish hands.

Joe McGowan, chairman of the Markievicz Committee and author of an autobiography on the first woman elected to a Dáil seat, claimed the sale of the property had been turned in to a political football.