The Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses & Estates is delighted to announce the donation of the Ardtully papers which has been facilitated by Elizabeth Knowles. Ardtully House, located near the village of Kilgarvan in county Kerry was burned in 1921 during the War of Independence.
Speaking about the donation of the papers, Elizabeth Knowles stated:
I am delighted that thanks to the good offices of Professor Terence Dooley and Dr Ciarán Reilly of the CSHIHE, and the unremitting efforts of Nicola Kelly of OMARC, the final tranche of the ‘Ardtully Papers’ is now safely in Ireland—I’d regard it as coming home. As I completed the final listing of the material for transmission, I looked again, especially, at the photographs of my Orpen grandmother and her siblings in their lively youth in Kerry in the 1900s. As a member of the last generation who knew them in their later years, I feel so grateful that through you I and my cousins have been able to ensure that these memoranda will now be preserved to add to the understanding of this part of Ireland’s history by students of the future. I have no doubt that Norah, Mollie, and their sisters and brothers would have been equally happy at the outcome.
