Few regions in the country can boast as many fine buildings as the midlands. There is a treasure around every corner.
Most are relics of another era, the age of the Big House before independence, when many such houses elsewhere in the country were destroyed.
One such wonderful building is Ballyfin House in Co Laois, which was designed by the famous father and son team of architects Richard and William Morrison.
In 1822 they were called in by Sir Charles Henry Coote to complete a house which had been started by Dominic Madden.
They produced several schemes before the design was agreed.
The gifted father and son team produced a house which architects agree is a classical masterpiece. It is also totally in keeping with the other famous buildings they designed.
These include Borris House, Co Carlow, Carton House, Co Kildare, Fota House in Co Cork, Lismore's magnificent cathedral, Tullynally, Co Westmeath and the courthouses in Carlow, Tralee, Trim, Portlaoise and Clonmel.
The house they designed in Ballyfin is regarded by those who know as a unique gem among the many architectural treasures of Ireland.
It stands overlooking a manmade lake.
The house contains some of their most important work, especially the plasterwork, the most important of which is in what is known as the Gold Room.
Sadly, these treasures are in danger and major problems with the stonework have resulted in water pouring into the Gold Room, where the plasterwork has deteriorated to a critical point.
The house has been in the hands of the Patrician Brothers, who purchased it in 1927. Since then the order has been running it as a highly successful secondary school.
Now the brothers need £2 million to rescue the building before it is destroyed by its leaking roof and other structural damage caused by the passage of time.
Already the Heritage Council has, with the guidance of the architectural services of the Office of Public Works, given a grant of £250,000 to carry out emergency repairs to preserve all it can. It is the only statutory body which can help and it has a limited budget.
The problem with the building is that because it is privately owned, the State cannot fund it directly.
And because it is a working school the brothers cannot turn it to commercial use to fund the repairs.
Tonight the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms Sile de Valera, will be in Ballyfin to launch a public appeal by the brothers to save the building.
They are hoping for a generous response from the public and from the many thousands of past pupils who have been educated at the school in the decades since 1927.