Sarah Madden reports from Avondale House & Forest Park
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What is Sarah Madden reporting from Avondale House and Forest Park about?
We'll have Sarah Madness here. Sarah, good morning. Good morning, Pat. You enjoyed your coffee? I did indeed. Now, you were moseying around this estate for the last couple of days and you took yourself to the treetops, yeah?
I did indeed. Yeah. Well, there's lots of fun to be had here, Pat, especially on a gorgeous day like this. I hope you're wearing your Uachtar gráinne.
I am.
So there's the heritage of the house. There's the calm and peaceful grounds. There's the best view of the whole of Wicklow from beyond the trees. There really is just so much to do here, Pat. But I've never met a grand old house that I wasn't interested in poking around.
What first impressions and highlights does Sarah describe from exploring the Avondale estate?
So I kicked off my own Avondale adventure by joining one of the six daily house tours to learn a little bit more about it.
So this is the library here now. So before everything was sold off in 1901, there was over 6,000 books in this room. I'm Elaine and I'm a tour guide in Avondale House.
What are some of your sort of favourite pieces of information about the house, stories that you tell on the tour?
Every tour you're on, you have to gauge what you can talk about. So if you get a group of women, I would tell them about Charles Dior Parnell's sisters, Anna and Fanny Parnell, who set up the Ladies' Land League in 1881. They were two incredible ladies. And one of Charles Dior Parnell's sisters would have died in the workhouse, Emily Parnell. So people just can't believe that.
And what are people most interested in? Is it the kitty?
Gossip, yes. Especially women, gossip, yes. People always remember Kitty O'Shea and they have to correct them and say she wasn't ever known as Kitty O'Shea like so.
And I know you also have her wedding ring here.
Oh yes, it's in the drawer. Charles Stuart Purnell would have panned the river at the back of the house at Avonmore River five years before they were married and collected yellow gold. And the yellow gold in her ring is lined with platinum.
And it's in our drawer in our lovely library. I'm showing my grandchildren Parnell's house. I've always liked it and they only live up the road and they hadn't actually been in the house. So, you know, it is a beautiful place.
What are one or two of the things that you'll take away from today? What are some of the things you've learned?
I didn't particularly like him. I don't think he's what my mum would have called a nice man. I mean, Kitty and he were always, in my age group, it was the great romance. But when you look back on it, it's just a sneaky aside, wasn't it?
A sneaky aside.
What historical stories and artifacts are revealed on the Avondale house tour?
We'll be hearing all about that a little later on with Patrick Egan. The things I'll take home from that, one is he was panning for gold in the Avoca River. So we may start a new gold rush this morning with that particular news. And the second thing is one of the sisters died in the workhouse.
That's very interesting. Yes. One of his younger sisters, she married, I believe, a local man. He wasn't of the gentry. He was in the army, if I'm not incorrect. And when he left the army, he turned to the drink and she ended up in a workhouse.
Penniless.
Penniless indeed.
Now, one of the things you notice is a lot of local employment here and your guide was local.
Yes, she is. Good spot, Pat. She is from Arklow with the lovely accent to prove it. And she had lots of insider information, lots of local stories, because of course, none of the servants in the house lived in the house itself. They all lived in Rathdrum and they had to come down the servant stairs to go and work in it. lots of the families around here have their own histories of the house which is really interesting lots of the staff here are local as you say and lots of the visitors are too and we're here in the pavilion we also have the adventure playground to our left there's the seed cafe the walled garden and there's a jam-packed annual events calendar here so this has become a really key resource to those who call this area home sharon is the sales and events manager here and she knows all about it
I am just from out the road, about 10 minutes drive in Ockram.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is Sarah Madden reporting from Avondale House and Forest Park about?
0:01–0:46
2
What first impressions and highlights does Sarah describe from exploring the Avondale estate?
0:46–2:33
3
What historical stories and artifacts are revealed on the Avondale house tour?
2:33–4:23
4
Which Parnell family mysteries and local gossip come up during the tour?
4:23–9:14