Saving the big house: Shared heritage now in jeopardy

IF we did not have, like all European countries, a big-house tradition, Irish literature would be a far less spectacular vista and our politics would be pretty different too.

We are different, though, in that so many of our great houses were destroyed, needlessly some might argue, during our struggle for independence.

It may be easier to reach a less hostile, a less destructive position at this remove in time, but it is hard not to think that the destruction of so many magnificent buildings, even if they were symbols of denial and oppression, has not diminished our national heritage.