Another side of Irish history unveiled

It could be described as Downton Abbey Irish-style — a glimpse of life in those great houses in wooded estates behind high stone walls.

It’s a way of life that has almost vanished. But traces still remain and memories of a lost world live on in the minds of ageing descendants of lords and ladies of the manor. Their memories make up a new collection of interviews with 100 of the country’s prominent landowners, to be launched in the National Library on Wednesday.

Egerton Shelswell White, of Bantry House, in West Cork, says when he was a child, the estate wall seemed like a prison wall keeping him in, not keeping other people out.