A home of convivial elegance in Co Dublin
This lovingly restored 19th-century residence was once the social centre of north county Dublin’s middle-class Catholic elite.
The existence of a Catholic elite in 19th-century Ireland is not often emphasised in traditional histories of this country. Though small in number, the landed Catholic gentry generally enjoyed as far a distance from the experience of crushing poverty as their Protestant counterparts.
Among this cohort of prosperous Catholics were the O’Reillys of north Co Dublin, who resided at Knocknagin House, near Balbriggan, for six decades until 1891. Built in the late 17th ...
