Sir, – We have just concluded the 25th annual Parnell Summer School in the beautiful setting of the Avondale demesne, the ancestral home of Charles Stewart Parnell.
As outgoing academic director of the summer school, I would like to acknowledge the support Coillte has given the summer school over many years. Coillte owns Avondale House and Forest Park, and has responsibility for its maintenance.
I must also, however, highlight the need for serious investment in the house and in the infrastructure around it in order to guarantee its survival as a significant tourist attraction in Co Wicklow and as a memorial to one of Ireland’s greatest nationalist leaders, whose appeal stretched across the political spectrum from strict constitutionalists to the Fenians whom he brought in from the cold in the New Departure of 1879.
Regular participants in the summer school have noted with alarm the deterioration in the state of the house and its surroundings in recent years, and it is a matter which requires urgent attention before it is too late. – Yours, etc,
FELIX M LARKIN
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.