Anglo-Irish big house

Russborough House, Ireland. One of the many country houses designed in Ireland by Richard Cassels.

The Anglo-Irish elite went to great lengths in the process of designing their homes, as well as furnishing them. They almost exclusively looked to Great Britain and the continent for style and design, claiming to "bring culture back to the Irish homes"[3] and emphasising their separation from the culture and tastes of the native Irish. Many of the Big Houses are known today for their immense architectural value, with some acting as the only surviving work of famous Irish and European architects. Regency style became the fashionable mode of architecture for an elite home in the mid to late nineteenth century Ireland. Features of regency design include the renowned Scagliola columns of Italian influence, made of imported stone, as well as French style plaster and painted ceilings. The objects within the house were also decidedly foreign and could range from collections of valuable Flemish paintings from the Northern Renaissance all the way to the installation of Lusterweiblen, Austrian light fixtures made of antlers and carved wood. The procuring of these items was often a considerable task and served to emphasise the purchasing power of the elite and their ability to live in decadence.

The Big House had extensive parts of it devoted to leisure and entertainment, included ballrooms, drawing rooms and parlours, as well as the outside grounds of the demesne that allowed for hunting or playing fashionable sports, like cricket. Much time was devoted to these spaces as the elite had the means to pursue leisure extensively. Photography became a major leisure activity among the Anglo-Irish in the late 19th century, and photographs today serve as one of the principle references for historians of the Anglo-Irish big house.

Similarly to photography, the ability to read and write so extensively was also a sign of privilege. Maria Edgeworth is one of the earlier Anglo-Irish Big House writers who wrote often satirical stories about the demise of estates thought the mishandling of the often absent family members. Much of her fiction is said to mirror that of her own life and family. The fact that she was a nineteenth century female writer emphasises her status as a woman of privilege. Another later and quite influential Big House writer is Elizabeth Bowen who wrote extensively on the precarious position of the elite as the power they had held for generations was retracted from them piece by piece over the period of great social and political change where Catholics were no longer denied power and land agitation and nationalism were growing. Her writings chronicle the decline of the Big House as experienced from within.

Moore Hall, County Mayo, a Big House burnt down by the IRA in 1923, and subsequently abandoned.

Successive social and political changes that took place in the nineteenth century in Ireland, such as the abolishing of the Penal Laws and the 1801 Act of Union, and also the various land acts and reforms, served to level the privileges of the landed class with those of the previously disenfranchised and largely Roman Catholic Irish population. The Great Famine in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century also served to impact many, though not all, Big houses and landed families. The inability of tenants to pay rents and the high eviction rates experienced during the famine led to extreme rent arrears that gravely affected the landlords income. Coupled with agricultural depression, increased land agitation, and the Land Acts of 1885 and 1891, the 'late nineteenth century saw considerable deterioration of 'big' houses and grand estates in Ireland.'[4] For the majority, these factors 'led to landlord indebtedness which resulted in the selling off of household contents such as art and furniture and also the parcelling off and sale of demesne lands.'[5] Attempts to end landlordism in Ireland with the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 saw financial incentives given to landlords to sell off their estates which resulted in "the sale of estates on a revolutionary scale."[6]

By the time of the Irish revolutionary period, the Big House had lost much of its historical control and influence over Irish society. Nonetheless, the houses remained an important symbol of a divided society and they were regarded with great hostility by the native Irish. This resulted in the targeting of Big Houses during the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War by the Irish Republican Army.[7] The War of Independence saw the destruction of approximately 275 'big' houses, with an estimated 199 of the houses being burnt and destroyed from 1920 to 1923.[8] While much republican sentiment argued that these houses had to be burned because they symbolised Irish oppression, the levelling of the landed class was also meted out under socialist rhetoric. The Republican revolutionary Ernie O'Malley stated that "Under the Republic all industry will be controlled by the state for the workers' and farmers' benefit... all banks will be operated by the state... the lands of the aristocracy will be seized and divided".[9] Many of the Big House were abandoned after they had been attacked, and only a small minority were rebuilt or restored.

After Ambrose Congreve died in 2011 aged 104, Mount Congreve was described as the "last Big House", meaning the last in which a member of the ascendancy family was resident.[10][11] Killegar House has been similarly described, and is home of the widow of John Godley, 3rd Baron Kilbracken, who died in 2006.[12][13]