Power and Privilege: The ‘Big House’ in Ireland
From the time of the Elizabethan conquest, the Big House was the residence of planters, manifested first in fortified castles, subsequently in Palladian mansions, modest rectories or fantasies of the Gothic Revival, the focus of what was long perceived as an alien Landlord class. Fuelled by rents from its tenantry, the life-style of the inhabitants of the Big House widely condemned by, among others, Frederick Engels, varied between splendid civilised living, extravagance, debt, irresponsibility, and eccentricity, reaching its zenith…