Emo Court: Portrait of a Survival

Irish Arts Review

Emo Court: Portrait of a SurvivalAuthor(s): Judith HillSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 110-115Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503122 .

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HERITAGE

EMO COURT: PORTRAIT OF A SURVIVAL

Emo Court:

Portrait of

a Surviva JUDITH HILL discusses the splendid but little-known Emo Court, in Co Laois,

where ongoing work by the OPW prepares the house and demesne for the

latest role in its long history

1 Emo Court, County Laois, North Front

James Gandon

(1742-1823)

2 Detail from one of a pair of Coade stone

panels on the attic

storey of the pavilions

3 The Saloon,

formerly the library and during the time

of the Jesuits, the

refectory

If you drive out of Emo village and, ignoring the main entrance into Emo Court, turn instead into a ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

rutted lane marked by a pair of elaborate cast iron gates, you will find yourself driving between vast ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

sequoias, and if, when you come to a gap in the brambles that grow beneath them, you look to the ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^fl

right, you will see, perched on a rise in a distance, flanked by lines of mature trees, Emo Court, in ^^^^^^^^^^^^^IHH

miniature perfection. It is a picturesque vision from the 18th century; the house at ease in a vast landscape ^mmmmmmmmmmmm^m^^^^^

(Fig 1). Yet, although the house was positioned and its surroundings designed with an eye to such a view, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^f^^H this potential was not realised until the mid-19th century when the sequoia avenue, Wellingtonia gigantea, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^P

was planted, shortly after the species was introduced into Ireland. Even then, it was another half century or ^^^^^^^^^B????I?a

more before the trees were mature enough to attain the necessary grandeur. Now many of the trees are past ^^^^^^^^^^^ HHHi their peak and the problem is how, and what, to restore. Thus are we introduced to the historically com-

^^^^^^^^^^^^^B__H posite nature of the country house, and the inevitable cycles of growth and decay. This in turn suggests ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^|

ImimmmBgg^m another theme: survival. So many houses like Emo Court have been ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1

HH^H|^H reduced to ruin or rubble that the inescapable and fascinating question ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^HHH^^H immediately presents itself; how did this one survive? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1 m?]?W^^^^m? Its progenitor was John Dawson (1744-1798) (Viscount Carlow in

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^mWM?W??l? 1779, first Earl of Portarlingon in 1785), a wealthy man who had done the ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

|fe-'*WR|fl|IH Grand Tour, had a unique collection of books of drawings, prints and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| ?S&^riHw-! maps, was MP of Por tari i ng ton, and in 1778, at the age of thirty-four, mar-

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^|

jMBfcyBS ried Caroline Stuart, daughter of the English politician, the third Earl of ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| HH^H^H Bute. He inherited the dilapidated Dawson's Court at Emo a year later and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^|

^^^^^^^H immediately set about improving the house and landscaped grounds. But ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| j^^^^^^Hl both he and his wife?she sent regular reports of the hardships she suf- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| I^^^^HhRB fered in Ireland to her sister in England; although she was dazzled by ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^|

Wmmmmmmmmmm Carton?were ambitious to build an imposing modern house. Their chance Wmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

110 I

IRISH ARTS REVIEW WINTER 2004



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WINTER 2004 IRISH ARTS REVIEW |

111



HERITAGE

EM0 COURT: PORTRAIT OF A SURVIVAL

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came in 1780 when Carlow and John Beresford, Chief

Commissioner of the Irish Revenue, were negotiating with James

Gandon (1742-1823) to move to Ireland to design a new Custom

House for Dublin. Gandon, thirty-eight, and with only a moder

ate reputation, was a political choice; they needed an outsider,

whose presence in Ireland they could initially conceal. But

Carlow, Beresford and their associates had known Gandon for

some time within the cultured milieu of the artist, Paul Sandby,

and being discerning and fashionable men, they recognised his

potential as an architect. The year before Gandon came to Ireland

Carlow employed him to design a house for him to replace

Dawson's Court; a modest scheme for the front and rear facades

(the latter signed and dated 1780) and designs for gates dated

1780 still exist in the Irish Architectural Archive. His designs for

a new and deliberately conspicuous parish church at

Coolbanagher for Carlow were more quickly realised; it was con

secrated in March 1785. Here, as Edward McParland has dis

cussed, Gandon revealed his genius for the subtle manipulation

of surface projections and recesses within an austere neo-classical

scheme in a design which showed a maturing of the style

employed for the Shire Hall in Nottingham thirteen years earlier.

Although Thomas Sandby (Paul's brother) had been employed to

Gandon revealed his genius for the subtle manipulation of surface projections and recesses within an austere neo-classical scheme in a design

Hv?v,^ - v ̂ v . ?^SwB??__ , :'tJ__^__^__^__^__^__HRw_> __^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__ '"*v^P*w*-^-: -A.4 >?m _d?__^__^__^__^__^__Hrj??# __^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^__^_i >'-'

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do designs for Emo, when George ^^^^^^^^^?x ; AMI

Hardinge visited in 1792 the new ^^^^^^^^^Hj^^/v ; house was being built to Gandon's ^^^^^^^^^^^^^Hl design. Much of the exterior (the ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H Coade stone panel dedicated to the IIIHH-------MHI arts is dated 1794 (Figs 2, 5&7), a

Gandon drawing of the portico dated 1796, and the pediment is

dated 1796) although little of the interior (there is a plaster frieze

decorated with lyres in the former billiard room, the staircase,

subsequently reconstructed, and some marble fireplaces), was fin

ished by the time Portarlington died of pneumonia caught on

campaign in Mayo during the rebellion of 1798.

The house he left is not huge, and, with its front portico and

slightly projecting flanking pavilions seems a (radically) con

densed version of the river front of the Custom House; it man

ages to be grand in concept but intimate as an experience. The

finely detailed windows in the shallow niches on the pavilions

display Gandon's finesse with surface layering, and the whole,

stretched and elegant, with its balustrading and restrained fenes

tration, must have been satisfyingly different for Portarlington to

the more upright, many-windowed villas that were common

among the Anglo-Irish landowners.

For the next fifty years relatively little changed in the house as

the first earl's son preferred to spend his money enjoying himself.

However, he did employ the fashionable, eclectic London architect,

Lewis Vulliamy and an obscure Dublin architect, M Williamson

(there is a drawing of a rear portico (not as built) by him dated

to 1822). They built a portico on the rear facade, plastered the

dining room ceiling (which is compartmented, exuberant and

French Empire in inspiration) and designed the interior of the

rotunda and the dome that Gandon had envisaged but not built

(Figs 4 <Sl 6). In 1845 the earl handed over a heavily encumbered

estate and debts of up to ?600,000 to the third earl, and in 1852

part of the estate was sold. The Advocate gives a glimpse of the

state of the still uncomfortably incomplete house, something that

was not apparent in the illustrations given to perspective buyers

at the auction: 'The principal apartments in the house are a

grand reception saloon [the rotunda] at the entrance, and a state

drawing room, but these rooms, although built nearly sixty years

y^^^^^^^^^^î iWtVIPl^â^*I^B^SiiiiiBB^?iflB^^^

^''^ i HBP^?B??tijlMB^BBHBI^^^^^^^BBtf^M

Qs^^^^^^H ̂ BBB^Î^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Î

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H remain unfinished, with

m^HmmHIHH rough bricks and stone **

ble', and there was scaffolding,

heaps of mortar and tools lying around where work, commis

sioned sixteen years previously, still remained to be done.

With the proceeds of the sale (the house was not sold) the third

earl spent the next eleven years 1850-61 finishing the house. He

commissioned the Dublin architect, William Caldbeck (c.1824

1872) who completed the rotunda, giving the walls marble pilasters

and entablature, a coffered ceiling to the copper dome, and a richly

inlaid parquet floor and solid mahogany doors and plate glass sash

windows. He also decorated the library and the ante-room; for the

latter there was a stucco ceiling of sinuous design, neo-rococo

chimneypiece and inlaid floor. It was an exuberant encrustation of

4 The Rotunda, decorated with

marble pilasters and an inlaid parquet floor

5 Detail from one of

the Coade stone

panels; the putti on

this panel represent the Arts, some

(unseen) point to

Gandon's plan

6 The cupola with

coffered dome and

Corinthian pilasters

7 Detail from one of

the Coade stone

panels; the putti in

this panel are part of a pastoral scene

WINTER 2 004 IRISH ARTS REVIEW |

113



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The religious orders have been a vital link in the chain of survival of a significant number of Irish historic houses. But they minister aid at a price-the house must be converted into an institution

the stately sequence of rooms bequeathed by Gandon, inspired by

nearby and opulently decorated Ballyfin, whose form, designed in

1822 by Richard and William Morrison, had in turn been influ

enced by Emo. Although the decoration at Emo does not match

the architecture in style, the quality of work is comparable.

Equally, the hierarchy of spaces is not upset. Today, you enter the

spacious but enclosing space of the entrance hall, are drawn for

ward into the soaring richness of the rotunda, and, if you turn

right, are led through a drawing room (Fig 8, once the ante

room,) into what was once the library, the heart of the house, a

room divided into three with richly veined green marble columns

and a gently curving bow window (Fig 9). The decorating was a

proclamation of the earl's wealth and taste, not extended to the

bedrooms on the first floor and in the pavilion attics where sim

ple chimney pieces and plain plaster were the rule. In 1874 the

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photographer, Lord Brownlow, visited Emo Court (Fig 10) and

left us an impression of the reception rooms of the mid-Victorian

house with their clutter of ornately carved furniture and picture

frames, tightly packed library, patterned fabrics and ubiquitous

objects d'art But the comfort was deep rooted and the estate was

a going concern. The earl installed gas, at least one bathroom and

built a separate bachelor apartment, connected to the main house

with a serpentine picture gallery and cast iron conservatory. The

kitchens in the vaulted basement were well equipped, and the ser

vants came and went via a tunnel which emerged in woods on the

way to the distant coach houses. There was a neatly constructed

octagonal meat larder, two-acre walled garden, orchard, and fine

two-storey houses for the head gardener and game keeper. From

the house one saw clipped yews, wide lawns, woods and arbore

tum trees, a distant folly (a domed octagonal turret atop a tri

umphal arch) built for the old house, and a vast lake: no sign of

the activity which kept it all smoothly running and immaculate.

This life lasted for forty years. It weathered the land war, but

faltered on the brink of the First World War, one of the first in a

closely spaced series of cataclysms that would prove disastrous for

many Irish country houses. The house was shut up in 1914, and

the family left for England. In 1920 the 11,150-acre estate was

sold to the Land Commission, but the house was not inhabited

again until the Society of Jesus bought it, along with 280 acres in

1930 and, establishing a noviciate, ensured that several genera

1 1 4 I



HERITAGE

EMO COURT: PORTRAIT OF A SURVIVAL

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tions of Irish Jesuits would have experience of Emo Court.

The religious orders have been a vital link in the chain of sur

vival of a significant number of Irish historic houses. But they

minister aid at a price; the house must be converted into an insti

tution. The furniture is sold and the walls and floors stripped of

coverings. In the case of Emo the wall between the rotunda and

ante room was demolished to form a chapel, the rotunda con

verted into a sanctuary with half the floor taken up to accom

modate the altar. The library columns and chimney piece were

removed to open up the space for a refectory for ninety men and

boys. Central heating was installed and tiled shower cubicles were

built in the basement. Teaching rooms were added to the attic,

just visible behind the balustrading. But this destruction was mit

igated by the fact that most of what was removed was retained;

stored or repositioned. And when the charismatic Fr Donal

O'Sullivan (Rector from 1947-59) resisted the architect, Michael

Scott's proposal to demolish the house, they also embarked on a

comprehensive programme of maintenance, treating the extensive

dry rot, repaired the roof, rendering the exterior, repairing the

bachelors' quarters. The Jesuits, intent on self-sufficiency, also

kept the estate humming, establishing a farm and saw mill, main

taining the orchard and gardens, while they established playing

fields, used the croquet lawn and kept up the grounds as a place

for exercise and meditation.

In 1969 the Jesuits seeking a less isolated location, moved to

Dublin, and the estate was sold to Cholmeley Harrison, a retired

major in the British army with connections in Ireland, who

employed the London architects Sir Albert Richardson <Sl Partners

to restore the house. It was, for the time, an unusual and impor

tant investment of private money and personal dedication. His

chosen firm had absorbed its founder's obsession with Georgian

architecture, and, discovering drawings by Gandon sold in 1920,

the architects not only reinstated the elements removed by the

Jesuits but introduced Gandon details never before realised, most

notably in the entrance hall where they commissioned the paint

ing of a trompe Voeil impression of the plaster design intended for

the ceilings in the apsed ends, and added urns to Gandon's design

in the two niches. Some of the work emphasised appearance over

substance (solid walls replaced by stud partitions) and there is a

1970s tinge to some of the colour schemes and surface textures.

But Cholmeley Harrison introduced antique furniture (some neo

classical), pictures and photographs and, having lived there for

thirty years, has reinvigorated the house.

He bequeathed Emo Court to the state in 1994, and the state

subsequently acquired the furniture. Now it is in the hands of the

Office of Public Works (OPW) which has the expertise and

resources to ensure that the buildings and landscape will be fully

conserved and available to the public. Minister of State Tom

Parl?n TD, the Minister responsible for Ireland's built heritage

and the OPW, is anxious that members of the public have full

access to the demesne. As Cholmeley Harrison is still alive and

living in the house, the OPW's plans have been largely confined

to routine maintenance, making the house safe for and accessible

to visitors and, most magnificently, work on the park. Here the

lake has been cleared and filled with water, hedges and trees

removed to open up the lawns and arboretum, paths con

structed, the ha-ha revealed, the yews clipped and the outhouses

renovated and brought into use. There for the public all year

round are grounds as immaculate as and, in their maturity, much

grander than, the Portarlingtons ever experienced. Soon deci

sions will have to be made about how to present the entire com

plex to the public; Should the Jesuits' attics be removed? When

will it be feasible to replace the hard cement render on the facade

with a softer lime plaster? Should an exhibition be installed in

the plain bedrooms with their spectacular views? How to simu

late the living presence that is so vital to a house? Emo Court, one

of the most impressive neo-classical houses and complete estates

in Ireland, stands on the threshold of yet another incarnation,

one in which this time the country is invited to participate.

JUDITH HILL is a writer and an architect.

All photography except figs 1, 2, 5, 7 and 10 by Frank Fennell.

I would like to acknowledge Paddy Friel, Park Superintendent with the OPW and

John Cahill, Conservation Architect with the OPW for giving me an extensive tour of the house and grounds, Denis Murphy of the OPW for information, and Fr Frank O'Neill SJ for telling me about his time at Emo.

References include:

The Dublin Builder 1 June 1860 p75; 'Emo Park' The Dublin Builder 15 August 1861 pp25-6; Irish Province News, vol. x, July I960; R HBrennan 'Novices Move House' The Jesuit Yearbook 1971;Niall Meagher, 'A Gandon Drawing of the Portico at Emo,' Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society, xiv, no. 4

(1969-70), pp. 377-81; Edward McParland, 'Emo Court, Co. Leix I', Country Life, 23 May, 1974, pp. 1274-77; II, Country Life, 30 May, 1974, pp. 1346-49; John Pat Colclough, 'Emo Temple, Co. Leix', Irish Georgian Society Newsletter, Spring 1986, pp. 1-2; Mark Bence-Jones, A Guide to Irish Country Houses, London,

Constable, 1988 Jacqueline O'Brien and Desmond Guinness, Great Irish Houses and Castles, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992; Mary Cecelia Lyons, Illustrated Incumbered Estates Ireland, 1850-1905, Whitegate, Ballinakella

Press, 1993; Anthony S'ymondson, 'A Miraculous Survival: Emo Court, County Laois', Irish Arts Review, vol. 18, 1997, pp. 113-121; Hugo Duffy, James Gandon and His Times, Kinsale, Gandon Editions, 1999; National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Laois, Duchas the Heritage Service 2002.

8 Drawing room with

rococo chimney and

ceiling?the Rotunda lies beyond the door

9 The Saloon,

formerly the Library

showing the

bow window and

columnar screen

10 Emo Court, 1874

photograph taken by Lord Brown low

(1844-1921)

WINTER 2004 IRISH ARTS REVIEW |

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Emo Court: Portrait of a Survival

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