Desmond Guinness purchased Castletown House and surrounding 120 acres for the Society in the 1960s, with The Office of Public Works accepting the property on behalf of the State in 1994. Below is an report on the re-opening of Castletown House Celbridge from the Nationalist and Leinster Times of 7 July 1967.<\/p>\n
Nationalist and Leinster Times 7 July 1967<\/em><\/h4>\nGeorgian Society at Castletown opening<\/h4>\n
\u201cWe are now the best-housed amenity group in the world,\u201d said the Hon. Desmond Guinness of Leixlip Castle, welcoming hundreds of members of the Irish Georgian Society to the re-opening of Castletown House, Celbridge, on Saturday evening.
\nIt was recently purchased for the Society by Mr. Guinness. Former home of Lord Carew and family, Castletown is the largest private residence in Ireland and has many unique features.
\nNo more ideal day could have been chosen for the colourful \u201cAt Home\u201d as many racegoers returning from the Curragh availed of the opportunity to view the huge building which is remarkably well preserved.
\nVoluntary workers have refurnished sections of the house, and the ranks of these do-it-yourself painters and cleaners are growing daily in response to the appeal by Mr. and Mrs. Desmond Guinness.
\nStudents are to be accommodated in the upper storey. Some of the main reception rooms have been furnished with period items, paintings and prints, and it is hoped to have more furniture and paintings donated.
\nUniversity students have joined members of the trinity College Archaeological Society and townspeople of Celbridge in the formidable task of cleaning and painting the interior of the building; it is hoped to restore the impressive fa\u00e7ade to its former glory.
\nMr. Guinness announced that the \u00a37,500 required to meet immediate needs, \u00a34,000 has been subscribed, and his recent trip to the U.S. had netted sufficient to cover the central heating costs.
\nHe especially thanked the local Committee led by Mrs. Lena Boylan, wife of local D\u00e1il Deputy Mr. Terence Boylan, and the voluntary workers. Castletown will be open to public on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 to 6 p.m.
\nIt was built in 1772 for the then Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr. William Conolly, who preferred to be to be known as Mr. Conolly of Castletown, and scorned offers of a title. Unique features of the house include the long gallery and the print room, the former providing a view of Conolly\u2019s Folly, a remarkable obelisk in the spacious grounds.<\/p>\n
Georgian Society would later be housed in Castletown House in Celbridge.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Castletown-Guide-front-cover-300x191.jpg\")
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Desmond Guinness, Castletown & The Irish Georgian Society Desmond Guinness made an immense contribution to the preservation of the architectural heritage of Ireland with the saving of Castletown House in Celbridge and the co-founding of the Irish Georgian Society among his many legacies. Following the destruction of historic Georgian buildings in Dublin in 1957, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,22],"tags":[62,63,72,77],"class_list":["post-4484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-built-heritage","category-digitised-resources","tag-castletown","tag-celbridge","tag-desmond-guinness","tag-georgian"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Irish-Georgian-Society-1958-Obelisk.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Irish-Georgian-Society-1958-Obelisk.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8217,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions\/8217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIt was recently purchased for the Society by Mr. Guinness. Former home of Lord Carew and family, Castletown is the largest private residence in Ireland and has many unique features.
\nNo more ideal day could have been chosen for the colourful \u201cAt Home\u201d as many racegoers returning from the Curragh availed of the opportunity to view the huge building which is remarkably well preserved.
\nVoluntary workers have refurnished sections of the house, and the ranks of these do-it-yourself painters and cleaners are growing daily in response to the appeal by Mr. and Mrs. Desmond Guinness.
\nStudents are to be accommodated in the upper storey. Some of the main reception rooms have been furnished with period items, paintings and prints, and it is hoped to have more furniture and paintings donated.
\nUniversity students have joined members of the trinity College Archaeological Society and townspeople of Celbridge in the formidable task of cleaning and painting the interior of the building; it is hoped to restore the impressive fa\u00e7ade to its former glory.
\nMr. Guinness announced that the \u00a37,500 required to meet immediate needs, \u00a34,000 has been subscribed, and his recent trip to the U.S. had netted sufficient to cover the central heating costs.
\nHe especially thanked the local Committee led by Mrs. Lena Boylan, wife of local D\u00e1il Deputy Mr. Terence Boylan, and the voluntary workers. Castletown will be open to public on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 to 6 p.m.
\nIt was built in 1772 for the then Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr. William Conolly, who preferred to be to be known as Mr. Conolly of Castletown, and scorned offers of a title. Unique features of the house include the long gallery and the print room, the former providing a view of Conolly\u2019s Folly, a remarkable obelisk in the spacious grounds.<\/p>\n
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