Mount Trenchard House
Mount Trenchard House is an Irish stately home located near Foynes, County Limerick, overlooking the River Shannon. It was the ancestral seat of the Rice, and subsequently Spring Rice, family.[1][2]
Mount Trenchard was built in the late 1770s by the Anglo-Irish Rice family, who were major landowners in County Limerick. The house was built in the late Georgian style, but has some Victorian additions. The family estate was greatly increased in 1785 following the marriage of Stephen Edward Rice to a daughter of the Spring family, also important landowners in south-west Ireland.[3] Their descendents were subsequently raised to the peerage as Barons Monteagle of Brandon.[4] The house remained the seat of the Spring Rice family for 175 years, although its surrounding estate was gradually reduced in size. During the Irish War of Independence, Mount Trenchard was used as a safe house by IRA fighters, looked after by Hon. Mary Spring Rice. In 1944, the house was occupied by the Irish Army. In 1947, the house and estate were sold to Lady Holland, who lived there until 1953. That year, the house was again sold to the Sisters of Mercy, who opened a private school for girls. They extended the complex to include a large 1960s dormitory block, classrooms and a church.[5]
Mount Trenchard was sold again in 1996, and is today used as a centre for holistic medicine.
References
- ↑ Landed Estates Database, Ireland (Mount Trenchard) http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-show.jsp?id=2274
- ↑ Dictionary of National Biography - Spring Rice
- ↑ Landed Estates Database, Ireland (Spring Rice) http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=1977
- ↑ Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon (History of Parliament online) http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/rice-thomas-1790-1866
- ↑ Landed Estates Database, Ireland (Mount Trenchard) http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-show.jsp?id=2274
