Private buyer expected to purchase Lissadell House

The owner of Lissadell House in Co Sligo has revealed that he is on the verge of selling the property.

Josslyn Gore-Booth, whose family has lived in the mansion for several generations, said last night that the sale had almost been agreed and reports this morning said a wealthy private individual was the likely buyer.

Gore-Booth put the house on the market for €3.75m in May and many historians have called on the Government to buy it due to its connections with Irish history.

The house was the birthplace of nationalist icon Constance Markievicz and her poet sister Eva Gore-Booth and was mentioned in the poetry of WB Yeats.

However, other commentators have said that the two sisters would be disgusted if the Irish State bought the property as they had renounced their aristocratic roots to work with the poor and oppressed.