A tale of lords, ladies, a big house and ultimately poverty

There was a time back the years, when I made regular enough trips to Dublin (apart from matches that is) to explore some of the treats of our capital city. Okay, there are the traffic woes and it’s not exactly the cheapest place in the world to spend a few days but it does offer some variety of exploration options.

Out of the blue, a couple of weeks back, what we’d call in our game ‘a little freebie’ came my way involving a two-day, one-night trip to Dublin, where the world of furiously belting at a keyboard to meet deadlines or ‘topping’ thistles that had passed their flowering date, could be left aside.

The Westin Hotel in the heart of Dublin City – an absolute treat to stay in if a tad on ‘the dear side’ for a country lad – opened up this little window of opportunity for me and along the way, unearthed one of the hidden treasures of our capital city.

Our Saturday morning visit to a house with the humble title of 14 Henrietta Street, showed little sign on the outside of what was to come over the course of the following 90 minutes, as our little group took a step back in time, to a story that began back in 1748.

The first occupants of 14 Henrietta Street were the Right Honourable Richard Lord Viscount Molesworth and his wife Mary Jenny Usher, who lived there in the very lap of luxury with specific areas for ‘masters, mistresses, servants and children’ . . . but only for the Winter months.

Every April the whole house packed up – lock, stock and barrel – and moved out to their country residence for the Summer months where they enjoyed all of the outdoor activities that gave pleasure to the nobility such as shooting, hunting, fishing, horse-riding and partying.

Read the full Country Living column in this week’s Connacht Tribune.