Madam, - As an early member of the Irish Georgian Society I am pleased to endorse your exhortation that the Irish State should secure the future of Lissadell as recognition of the social and political history, artistic creativity and architectural splendour that are so concentrated in this exceptional house.
Having stayed at Lissadell in the 1930s I retain vivid childhood memories of a place of exceptional vitality. May I make a proposal for the critical review of your readers in the hope that the name of Lissadell may excite the imagination of people well beyond Ireland, even as its populations have spread around the globe?
An appeal for patronage from anyone of Irish descent of €1,250 per year for 10 years should provide the essential financial basis to repay the Government for the immediate cost of purchasing the estate, completing repairs, and modifying the accommodation in the house and stables, and to provide for any, or all, of the proposals submitted.
The principal issue, however, is the need for the Government to purchase the property in the name of the State despite present economic constraints. This would allow time for the assembly of private funds for repayment.
Three prospects emerge which may possess practical significance in the name of Lissadell:
1. The toll of famine.
2. The implication of culture.
3. The stimulation of creative crafts.
As a planner, architect and painter, I am deeply conscious of the benefits to be gained from the use of historic experience and fabric as an instrument of re-creation and recreation, whereby the past shakes hands with the future, in giving it fresh purpose and new directions.
Lissadell is a placid place, as so many artists attest, and it can serve as a haven, stimulating creative ventures
1. If the State were to purchase Lissadell for adaptation as the World Centre for Famine, a "watchdog" authority under the auspices of the UN, much credit would be achieved both for Ireland by reason of its timely initiative, for the UN in the widening of its ability to respond to crisis, and for the agricultural community for its productivity in emergency.
Records of the Irish Famine show that the Gore-Booth family responded to the crisis as their resources allowed them to charter ships, purchase land in Nova Scotia to accommodate emigrants, and organise the departure of entire families who wished to leave. Their example of concern and effort endows Lissadell as a natural focus for such an enterprise in the name of humanity and in anticipation of similar disasters ahead.
2. Lissadell is too well known as a place of culture to require analysis here other than to say that an "atmosphere of cultivation" is all-pervading. It is associated with literature, painting and music (I remember dancing to local string and pipe ensembles in the great gallery), while the cultivation of seeds from rare plants were bred for export to Japan. There were wildlife specimen collections (which so appealed to my big-game hunting and exploring father) and stuffed-bird specimens in the halls and passages, revealing that such a house is really a museum of fascinating objects. All these gleanings by a lively family are stimulated further by the pages of successive visitors' books! Who came to stay, and why? How often? And what impressions did they leave?
Recent decades have revealed the growth in Ireland of an entirely new range of small-scale industries and "contributing parts" to such enterprises. Cottage industries have become computerised and Ireland has many thriving examples to prove the success of such activities. I suggest, therefore, that a review be undertaken of such prospects in Sligo and adjacent counties to find out what else might be introduced to help the local economy by the creation of an industrial agency at Lissadell.
Perhaps a formalised public appeal could be established under the mayors of the cities and towns of the northwest counties under the leadership of The Irish Times in logical extension of the publicity you have already provided in this cause, inviting practical suggestions for means and purposes of the extended future of Lissadell House. - Yours, etc.,
PATRICK HORSBRUGH, St Vincent Street, South Bend, Indiana, USA.