1916 Centenary: Country house society shaken by year of conflict

From the Easter Rising in Dublin to the slaughter and carnage of the Battle of the Somme, 1916 was a fateful year in the minds and lives of Irish country house owners.

To the country house community, the 1916 Rising was an act of treason and the response was one of revulsion towards the conspirators.

It was also condemnatory of the incompetence of the British administration in Ireland. Harriot, the marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, for example, had harsh things to say of chief secretary Augustine Birrell: “I trust Mr Birrell will be got rid of after this. A good man, and not an old joker, is wanted here.”