How easily and quickly we have become accustomed to standards of food, hospitality and accommodation which were virtually unknown in Ireland a generation ago. The passing of Ivan Allen reminds us that experiences for travellers and diners in rural Ireland were once a very hazardous affair, at best predictably dull and mundane. So many of the improvements over the past 30 years can be attributed to him, since he played such a pivotal role in inventing the whole business of country-house hotels and restaurants.
It started in such a simple way that day in 1948 when the energetic young farmer went to support his old neighbours who were selling their house and farm at auction. He and a few other friends went along to ensure a good price. He raised his hand enthusiastically and found himself the owner of Ballymaloe.
He was undaunted by the rambling old house he had unexpectedly acquired, part medieval tower house, part 17th-century strong house and part late Georgian mansion. He had old houses in his blood just as his wife Myrtle had them in her blood; he had grown up in Ballsgrove in Drogheda. Together they saved Ballymaloe and in so doing they saved many an Irish house. Theirs was a joint effort, each encouraging and supporting the other, and it all happened so gently and smoothly as in the growing of a great tree.
John McKenna recorded Myrtle Allen's comment that being married to a gourmet made her into a great cook. Ivan was not only a connoisseur of good food, but of good wine, good pictures and refined living. This, combined with their acute sense of place, and confidence in the quality of local produce from land and sea, led to the opening of their dining room to the public in 1964. It was an important moment in quiet, rural, agricultural east Cork. Only visionaries would have dared such a venture. Three years later, the first bedrooms were opened and after that, there was no stopping him. While Myrtle set about rescuing Irish food, and according it a hitherto unknown status, Ivan foresaw the business possibilities.
Seeing how well it worked, others around the country followed suit and a great many places have kept their roofs on and the damp at bay by opening to paying guests. The Allens started a trend and set a standard many have tried to emulate.
`IVAN and Myrtle Allen are our inspiration," says Olda FitzGerald at Glin Castle in Limerick. "We would never have dared on such a venture if they had not showed the way and shown that it would work." At Glin, the top floor which was abandoned during building work 200 years ago, is now being turned into luxurious accommodation. Like many other great houses, Glin is again filled with guests and an army of staff to attend to them. The clock has been turned back; the place is alive and vibrant, functioning as was originally intended, bustling, full, hospitable and welcoming - only now the visitors pay to make it all happen. It is as if the Place Vendome had been transplanted from Paris and we now have several variations of the Ritz from which to choose.
Ivan's love of building, expanding and starting new enterprises carried through to all the family ventures centred on Ballymaloe. He was adventurous, with a childlike twinkle in his eye and a clear view of the wider picture. He pushed to expand the bedrooms, increase the number of dining rooms, he encouraged the shop, the cookery school, the gardens and farm. Jonathan Swift would have approved. "If one man can make two ears of corn grow where there was only one, he deserves more of the nations than the whole race of politicians."
Happy country we are to have known him.