How Cork's Doneraile Court was brought back from the brink

A visit to a rural hamlet takes in history, Irish crafted design, interior design and good food to make for a satisfying day out

John Lee's Clann dining table in the entrance hall at Doneraile House. Picture: Daragh McSweeney, Provision Photography

I HAVE had a hankering to venture to North Cork for a snoop around 300-year-old Doneraile Court, once the seat of the St Ledger family, since I saw it featured on RTÉ’s Great Irish Interiors about 18 months ago.

Focusing on how it was brought back from the brink of dereliction by the Office of Public Works, the programme detailed the start of restoration and conservation work which is now ongoing, with some downstairs rooms completed and open to the public.

Basket work by Annemarie O'Sullivan sits by a fireplace as similar baskets would have done in the past to hold sticks and turf for the fire. 

Situated in the heart of charming Doneraile, reckoned to be the most haunted town in Ireland, as a first-time visitor I didn’t encounter a single ghostly spectre but a mix of history and modernity thanks to the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland’s PORTFOLIO exhibition for 2021-2022, Conjuring Form taking place in the mansion.

It’s curated by Alice Stori Liechtenstein, whose initiative, Schloss Hollenegg for Design, based at her family’s castle in Graz, Austria, offers exhibition space and a residency programme for young emerging designers. There she skilfully integrates contemporary design into a historic context so the Doneraile exhibition wasn’t likely to consist of a minimalist space repurposed from the old stable block or a barn with objects on white boxy plinths.

Instead, Doneraile Court was a déjà vu experience where I flashed back to some of the first crafted design exhibitions I ever attended and which introduced me to the world of Irish crafted design, including the work of Sasha Sykes.

Four of Joseph Walsh’s Enignum II Locus chairs made from ebonsied ash surround the house’s antique dining table. 

Her resins and acrylics are formed into transparent furniture pieces embedded with objects from nature. Stop and pause to see her recently crafted table just inside the front door.

Amble up a few stone steps for an encounter with the work of John Lee who made the presidential chair for the inauguration of President Michael D Higgins. For the moment, Doneraile Court is home to his dining table, Clann, the scale of which would certainly accommodate a family.

Drift on to the restored reception rooms where ceramic vessels, glassware and silver are sited on antique sideboards and console tables giving them context. The addition of the new to the old adding a fresh layer of character to the house and looking far from out of place.

In the dining room, an antique table is surrounded by four Enignum II Locus chairs by Joseph Walsh. 

Vintage side plates hang alongside contemporary work by Gráinne Watts, made from stoneware clay.

On to the beautifully proportioned drawing room to two beauties worthy of your gaze: The ceramics of Sara Flynn, a testament to the maturation of her work and how her development of innovative glazes continues, while furniture makers Susan Zelouf and Michael Bell continue to thrill with their mix of creativity and function.

Knowing they were among the exhibitors beforehand, I hoped for the treat of a dazzling drinks’ cabinet or bar cart, the must-have furniture pieces of the 2020s.

But not quite.

It turns out their contribution is a coffee table, but beneath the lid hides a cocktail bar so you wouldn’t have to leave the sofa to fix a drink were you to install it at home.

Called Stella’d, the piece is definitely Generation Z, hip, immaculately turned out, with plenty of space for botanical gins. It’s placed between two sofas right in the sightline of an elderly Georgian fireplace which 100 years ago could have seen the bright young things of the Roaring ’20s steady their Gin & It glasses on its mantlepiece.

Kathleen Walsh's Blue Dune #1 vessel in sycamore, gold, turquoise and black resin, and Amber Wave #2 and #1 in oak, gold, amber and black resin sit on a console table beneath an antique mirror reflecting Matt Smith's The Lovers, a reworked textile and wool hanging.

From there, wend to a snug panelled room where the Viscounts Doneraile might have repaired after dinner, donning a smoking jacket to puff on a cheroot. Here Cara Murphy’s silver smithery pops against sombre walls in bowls which 200 years ago might have played receptacle to an aristocratic flick of ash.

All this legging around an exhibition inevitably works up an appetite, so if you visit before the exhibition closes on September 12, drop into the Townhouse Café on Main Street for a restorative tea or a lunch as yummy as the historic interior and courtyard dining area.

• Doneraile Court, Doneraile, Co Cork, is open Thursday to Monday, 10am–6pm.
  
  This article was edited on August 9, 2021 to reflect updated information.