The Parsons have been custodians of Birr Castle since the 17th century and have produced some remarkable family members down the years, writes Eileen Battersby
Birr Castle in Co Offaly is far more than a tenaciously surviving ancestral home. It is a living monument to the singular genius of an ascendancy family that has contributed to the intellectual, scientific and cultural life of Ireland since 1620 and continues to do so.
Set in a magnificent demesne shaped by parkland planned around a lake and dominated by planting created by inspired collecting, the castle in its current manifestation has an atmospheric Gothic presence, the legacy of extensive remodelling undertaken in the early 19th century by Sir Laurence Parsons, later the second Earl of Rosse. He had actively campaigned against the Act of Union while a member of the Irish House of Commons. So disillusioned was he by the passing of the act that he withdrew from politics to Birr where he designed the town's malls and both churches, as well as continuing projects such as dredging the lake and landscaping the park, begun by his father, the first earl. Sir Laurence would become a close friend of novelist Maria Edgeworth.
Eventually, Sir Laurence returned to public life as joint postmaster general, involved with the building of the General Post Office in Dublin. Independence of mind and natural curiosity have always been hallmarks of the Parsons clan. It was a Rosse, the third earl Sir Laurence's eldest son, William, who favoured science over politics and designed the giant telescope, completed in 1846. The Leviathan would remain the largest reflecting telescope built until it was surpassed in 1917.
Sir William's eldest son, another Laurence, the fourth earl, continued the family passion for astronomy and designed an instrument for measuring the heat of the moon, while Sir William's youngest son, Sir Charles Parsons, was a pioneering scientist whose finest achievement was the invention of the steam turbine, which ultimately revolutionised naval transport across the world. William's wife, Mary Field, from Bradford in Yorkshire, was a talented designer and also contributed to the development of photography.
Her original darkroom, dating from the 1850s, is the oldest fully equipped surviving darkroom in the world.
Throughout the centuries, the Parsons had been drawn to gardening. At the beginning of the 20th century the family, through the fifth earl and his wife, had begun to landscape and plant the gardens. About this time, they also began introducing plants grown from seeds collected in China. A tradition for inspired plant collecting was established which the present Lord Rosse, the seventh earl, who inherited in 1979, carries on, through regular seed expeditions to the Far East, often travelling by yak "or anything that happens to be available". The demesne holds the largest collection of rare trees in Ireland and also hosts the country's largest number of champion trees including the spectacular Carrierea calycina, which was planted from a seed collected in China between 90 and 96 years ago, during the present earl's grandfather's short-lived tenure of Birr. He had inherited in 1908, went to war in 1914 and died in action in 1918.
In 2004, this beautiful Chinese tree flowered for the first time. It so excited Lord Rosse that he commissioned botanical artist Susan Sex to paint it. It now features in the current exhibition, Flora Birrensis, at the castle, which depicts plants growing at Birr. The gardens, which are open every day of the year, are in themselves a generous gift to all who visit. Birr, a planned Georgian town thanks to the prevailing Parsons's vision, possesses an impressive range of surviving period buildings, and is one of the most attractive settlements in Ireland.
The castle as an employer contributed to Birr's economy up until the 20th century; now it continues this contribution through the 40,000 visitors the demesne attracts each year.
BY REMAINING IN the private ownership of the family, Birr Castle has been able to withstand many of the compromises and overt commercialism imposed by State-controlled heritage tourism. Nor are visitors corralled as is usual in many of the sites. Although the castle itself is closed to the public, the access to the various exhibitions, particularly the science museum, as well as the extensive grounds with their freedom to wander ethos, confers a relaxed mood untypical of most stately homes.
To get a sense of where it all began, it is a good idea to seek out the majestic O'Carroll oak, which was planted about 455 years ago and appears set to remain for as long a span again. Standing at the tree, looking southwards, it is possible to see the castle, the family's red pennant fluttering against the sky. Possibly because it is still a family residence, Birr Castle gives the impression of settled ease, not defiance, despite its long history of enemy attack. It is worth recalling that Birr was the western stronghold of the territory of Ely O'Carroll, an ancient tribal system which by the early 17th century had collapsed into chaos, with four warring factions competing for control.
Change was inevitable. Some years earlier, about 1590, several Parsons brothers, at least three and possibly five, most notably William and Laurence, had arrived in Ireland from England, probably as adventurers.
William, the elder, was granted the original manor of Parsonstown in Co Wexford by King James I. Much later, in the 17th century, William's descendant, Sir Richard Parsons, would be elevated to the peerage as the first Lord Rosse.
Back to the arrival of the first Parsons: Laurence Parsons had settled in Youghal, Co Cork, as Sir Walter Raleigh's successor in the Myrtle Grove stately home, and recorder for the town of Youghal. In 1612, he was appointed attorney-general for Munster. Within eight years he had moved to Birr, having been granted 1,000 acres of arable land with a further 277 acres of wood and bog.At that time Birr was dominated by the O'Carroll Black Tower and gate house.
From his initial arrival, Laurence Parsons set about developing the town, Parsonstown, imposing his own rather strict code of behaviour such as no female bar maids, and also built a glass works outside the town; it was still operating in the 18th century.
Yet his major achievement was the enlarging of the existing castle. Between 1620 and 1627, he altered and added to the original stronghold, employing two English masons, each of whom were paid two shillings per day.
Central to this construction project was, as Mark Girouard reports in the first of three informative articles written for the English magazine Country Life in 1965, "The building or rebuilding of a gatehouse 46ft (14m) by 25ft (7.6m) which forms the hall and centre of the present building; the archway of the gatehouse ran through what is now the basement under the main entrance, and the long narrow shape of the present entrance hall is due to the fact that it was the room under this archway. This new gatehouse was steadily enlarged until it became the main house. At some, on the available evidence, undatable stage it absorbed what appears to have been originally two free-standing towers set diagonally to either side of the main gatehouse and known, in the military language of the day, as 'flankers'."
Inside the eastern flanker is the muniments room, which houses an invaluable collection of documents consulted by scholars and others engaged in research work. Decorating the room is a Jacobean plaster frieze, consisting of floral patterns interspersed with gargoyle-like heads. It is the only surviving complete example of such work in Ireland. It was extensively restored in the 1980s by Seamus Ó hEocha. Access to the papers, which include letters from Edmund Burke and Henry Flood, contained in the archive is available on joining the Friends of the Demesne.
THE ARCHITECTURAL GENESIS of Birr Castle is fascinating, if unusually complex. Standing with one's back to the main entrance, it is possible to note the wall of the moat redesigned during the 1840s as part of a Famine Relief project. Beyond it extends a vast expanse of what is now, summer wildflower meadow, which will not be mowed until late July. Only a carefully trimmed circle, surrounding the base of the O'Carroll oak, has been cut. To the south of the great house with its rich store of furnishings, portraits, (including portraits of members of the Parsons family by Irish artist Garret Morphy, circa 1676-1716), photographs, artefacts and archive material - reflecting the respective interests and collections of more than a dozen generations of Parsons as well as a textured social history of Irish and European life spanning four centuries - the land level falls away below the 19th-century Gothic saloon, to the River Camcor.
The present Lord Rosse, Brendan Parsons, is energetic, driven and has the polite impatience of the very clever. He has dedicated himself to Birr and its demesne. A graduate in history, he, like his father and grandfather before him, served in the Irish Guards. He also spent 20 years as a principal officer with the United Nations Development Programme. His various postings brought him to places throughout north and west Africa, including Algeria and Dahomey (now Benin), as well as Iran and Bangladesh. Throughout his UN service, he only visited Birr once a year. Since returning with his family in 1980, he has shaped a guardianship that is determined to leave Birr a strong position for the next generation.
Visitors to the grounds are often greeted by him as he traverses the park, checking the trees and plants with the care of a farmer tending his stock.
There are many collections of specimen plants in the demesne, the most dramatic of which may well be the magnolias, from the M.delavayi on the terrace, to the incense-scent M. officinalis, ranging in colour from white to dark pink. For all the history and science and creative energy the Parson family has generated, its finest legacy must be the creation of a botantical wonderland.
Birr Castle Demesne is open to visitors every day from 9am-6pm in summer and in winter from 10am-4pm.