For the first time in five years Ireland has won a number of awards from the European heritage organisation, Europa Nostra.
In Copenhagen this morning three Irish restoration projects will receive diplomas for their work, while a Georgian house in Dublin will be presented with €20,000 towards the refurbishment of a rococo ceiling.
The awards are to be made by the Prince Consort of Denmark, who is president of Europa Nostra.
The three winning projects are Kylemore Abbey, Co Galway, for the reinstatement of a large, abandoned 19th-century walled garden by Buchan Kane Foley, Dublin architects specialising in restoration; Leinster House in Dublin, where both restoration and new building work by the Office of Public Works have been blended successfully to provide additional office space; and the Lyons Estate in Co Kildare, restored as a private home during the last decade by Dr Tony Ryan.
The citation for the last of these refers both to the "comprehensive restoration" of one of this country's finest country houses, including the "meticulous cleaning and restoration" of its early 19th-century murals, as well as the rehabilitation of the surrounding gardens and park.
The Dublin house receiving financial assistance is 10 Henrietta Street.
Originally designed around 1730 by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce for Luke Gardiner, the building is currently being restored by its owners, the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, who discovered a unique mid-18th century papier maché ceiling in a first-floor drawingroom.
More than 90 projects throughout Europe were entered for the awards, organised since the mid-1970s by Europa Nostra, a federation of more than 200 non-governmental heritage organisations from 35 countries.
Although the Republic annually proposes restoration schemes for consideration, no awards have been won here since 1997 when the Office of Public Works received a medal for its work in the National Botanic Gardens and a diploma was given to the Ceide Fields visitor centre in Co Mayo.
Other winners in Ireland include the Custom House in Dublin, an 18th-century house in Limerick and the Jameson Heritage Centre in Midleton, Co Cork.