The Fota Island Trust Company Ltd is preparing to launch a national and international fundraising appeal for £2 million to enable the final phase of restoration to be completed on one of Ireland's great houses. Fota House is an important Regency-style building designed by the Irish architect, Richard Morrison, and built by John Smith-Barry in the early 19th century.
Standing in rolling parkland to the east of Cork city, the house and the 780-acre estate were acquired for £400,000 by UCC in 1975.
In 1983, it was opened to the public and a collection of period furniture and important paintings owned by the Cork businessman, Mr Richard Wood, was on display. But in the early 1990s, it had to be closed due to structural defects.
The question was how it could be saved, and who would bear the cost.
The answer came in the form of the Fota Trust.
Established at the beginning of the 1990s, the trust includes the two local authorities in Cork, UCC, Duchas (the heritage service), Fota Golf Club and two independent members, Prof W.A. Watts, former provost of Trinity College, who is chairman, and Mr David Bird, president of Cobh Chamber of Commerce.
Duchas, Bord Failte, the EU, the local authorities and the trust's resources provided £3 million to enable the first phase of restoration work, now nearing completion, to begin last January.
It has meant taking the house apart at its seams, literally, to allow a full investigation of the extent of dry rot, decay, timber fatigue and damage to plaster work and hand-painted wallpaper.
The Office of Public Works is managing the restoration. The senior architect in charge of conservation is the OPW's Mr John Cahill, and Mr David Givan is the project architect.
The clerk of works is Ms Susan Seager, who holds a degree in building conservation from the University of Bournemouth.
On a day-to-day basis, the interior of the house is being restored and lovingly reassembled by Ms Seager and a team of up to 40 people including experts in joinery, plaster-work, the restoration of ceilings and original paint work.
It has taken painstaking analysis to get to the core of the original building, make it safe, and bring it back slowly but surely to its former splendour.
On a recent visit, the house resembled a building site with work in progress but there was evidence everywhere of rebirth and a new beginning for a building that should belong to posterity as much as it did to the past.
Fota, says Prof Tom Raftery, who was instrumental in its acquisition by UCC when he headed the department of agriculture there, is entering a new and hopeful era and for the first time in decades, its future is assured.
The last link with the Smith-Barry family ended in 1974, the year before Fota was purchased by UCC.
Under Prof Raftery, a successful dairy farm was operated on the estate for some years but for various reasons, not least changes in EU agricultural legislation, UCC sold on the estate at the close of the 1980s to the English group, London and Edinburgh Trust, trading as LET Leisure.
By then, the Fota Trust, a registered charity, had been formed, and LET, which was concentrating on providing golf and other leisure activities at Fota, later handed over ownership of the house, gardens and some 120 acres of parkland to it. Even then, although the trust was doing what it could to stabilise the house internally and externally, it could not be said with certainty that Fota would ever see the glory days again.
Only the firm support of the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, Duchas, the local authorities who will underwrite any losses during the first 10 years following the opening to the public, and Bord Failte have made that possible.
It took a leap of faith for the various bodies to commit such a huge sum, given the condition of Fota and the work to be carried out.
They did so, and since last January, the dedicated team of artisans has been working wonders on the ground floor of the heritage building.
By next March, it will be open to the public and will live again as a heritage centre and a venue for recitals, corporate functions, exhibitions and conferences. The trust also told Southern Report that the National Museum had agreed in principle to display appropriate material in the refurbished house.
Phase two will involve the completion of the remainder of the house and work on its immediate surrounds.
That will require an additional £2 million but the trust is confident this will be raised through public and corporate subscription over the next 18 months.
The fund-raising drive has not yet been formally announced and a brochure which will be circulated at home and overseas is being prepared.
Full details will also be available on the website: fotahse@gofree.indigo.ie
The completion of the house, Prof Raftery says, will give Cork and the State a unique amenity/tourism package.
In its vicinity is the Fota arboretum and gardens, the orangery and Italian garden and the championship golf course, now owned by Killeen Investments, which will host the Murphy's Irish Open for the next two years. Of course, there is also the Fota Wildlife Park, the open-air zoo which has become a huge attraction in the region. Fota Island is just 15 minutes' drive from Cork and is also served by the Cork/Cobh rail line. With the help of a serious make-over, Fota House is about to take its rightful place as the centrepiece of a national gem.