The house at Gardenmorris has stood on this ground for close to four centuries. It was built in 1631, extended in the late 18th century, and has been added to and repaired quietly in every generation since. The pink wash on the front is older than most of the trees on the avenue.

Founded in 1631 and redesigned as a French château in the nineteenth century, the house was burned during the Irish Civil War in 1923 and rebuilt in exactly the same style. The octagonal tower survived the fire and stands today. Peter and Eileen Queally raised their family in these rooms, and Eileen lives here still. This is not heritage assembled for effect. It is simply the life of the house, continued.

It has been a family home throughout. We are the current generation, which is a way of saying we are temporary custodians of something much older than any of us. The drawing room has been a drawing room since before the American War of Independence. The walled garden has been a walled garden since the Famine. The farm has been a working farm for every one of those years and still is.

None of that makes the house grand, exactly. It makes it lived-in. Rooms have accumulated things. Paintings have acquired stories. The floors complain a little in the mornings. We think that’s the best part of it.