School project to honour owner who donated Muckross House to State

A project to honour a man whose family presented Muckross House and 11,000 acres, which are now make up a large part of Killarney National Park, to the nation has been launched in Killarney.

The Billy Vincent Award is described as a challenge scheme for second-year students in three Killarney schools and is supported by the trustees of Muckross House.

In 1933, Mr Vincent’s father, Arthur Rose Vincent, and grandfather, William Bowers Bourn, donated Muckross House and surrounding lands to the people of Ireland. Muckross then became the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park, Ireland’s first national park.