" targeted by the IRA. By the start of the Irish revolutionary period in 1919, the Big House had become symbolic of the 18th and 19th-century dominance of the Protestant Anglo-Irish class in Ireland at the expense of the native Roman Catholic population, particularly in southern and western Ireland. The Anglo-Irish, as a class, were generally opposed to
Irish republicanism and held key positions in the
Dublin Castle administration. The
Irish nationalist narrative maintained that the land of Irishmen had been illegally stolen from them by the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, who had mostly arrived in Ireland as
Protestant settlers from
Great Britain during the
plantations of Ireland. The Anglo-Irish big house was at the administrative centre of the estates of the landowners, as well as being the
family seat from which the Anglo-Irish exerted their political control over the island. This perception was popularly held by nationalists, despite a considerable increase in Irish landownership in the previous decades due to the
Irish Land Acts. Whereas in 1870, 97% of land was owned by landlords and 50% by just 750 families, by 1916, 70% of Irish farmers owned their own land. Catholics had been
emancipated in 1829 and the political dominance of the Anglo-Irish in Ireland had consequently declined following the electoral successes of the Catholic nationalist
Irish Parliamentary Party through much of the 19th century. The former Protestant Ascendancy had lost its economic power following the
Great Famine of 1845-49, and the
Long Depression of the 1870s; and then lost its political power after the
Representation of the People Act 1884. By 1915 the
Irish Land Commission had transferred over 60% of Irish farmland to tenant farmers, leaving most of the former
landed gentry with a house and a home farm known as a "demesne". The former landlords could afford to employ gardeners and household staff as they had received, as a group, the equivalent of over €60 billion (in 2019 euro) in compensation from the British government. Burning country houses from 1919 was therefore a largely symbolic act.
Irish War of Independence In the destruction of the country houses of the aristocracy and
landed gentry, the IRA hoped to overcome a culture of deference towards the landowning class. As early as 1918, IRA organiser
Ernie O'Malley had his Volunteers train in
demesne grounds to "rid them of their inherent respect for the owners". During the
Irish War of Independence, big houses were often targeted in reprisal for the destruction or defacement of houses owned by suspected IRA members or sympathisers by British forces (most commonly the
Black and Tans and
Auxiliary Division of the
Royal Irish Constabulary). Anglo-Irish landowners typically held no influence over British counterinsurgency policies in any given area, and reprisal attacks on big houses by the IRA were bolstered by the assumption that their owners were always
unionists. "In April 1921, north Cork IRA leader,
Liam Lynch, enraged by the destruction of several houses in reprisal for an IRA ambush declared, 'six big houses and castles of their friends, the Imperialists will go up for this. At least 76 country mansions were destroyed in the Irish War of Independence; 30 big houses were burned in 1920 and another 46 in the first half of 1921, mostly in the conflict's
Munster heartland, i.e. the counties of
Cork,
Kerry,
Tipperary,
Clare and
Limerick. The "Big Houses" did not become the subject of a concerted campaign until the
Irish Civil War. In this period there was also an increase in the level of violence towards protestant members County Cork. Of the 122 assassinated as "spies", 44, or about 36% were Protestants: about twice the percentage of Protestants in the civilian population of Cork. Mrs Mary (or Maria) Lindsay, an elderly Protestant from
Coachford, was shot and killed, with her driver, in an outbuilding while her house was burning, after the authorities refused to commute the capital sentences of six IRA volunteers who were executed after Mrs. Lindsay had informed the authorities of a pending nearby ambush, after her efforts and that of a local priest to stop the pending ambush were ignored by the IRA. The degree to which such IRA violence can be categorised as sectarian as opposed to politically motivated is still the subject of much debate.
Irish Civil War in County Kilkenny, which was attacked on 2 July 1922 during the Civil War. It is believed that 199 country houses were destroyed during the Civil War. Some mansions were destroyed in the fighting of the early months of the war, but the campaign against them began in earnest in late 1922. The leadership of the Anti-Treaty forces orchestrated a campaign of Big House destruction across Ireland. The order to burn houses of
Free State supporters and "Imperialists" (as the IRA called the Anglo-Irish upper class) was given after the
Irish Free State government embarked on a
policy of executions of anti-Treaty Republican fighters.
Liam Lynch, anti-Treaty IRA Chief of Staff, after the execution of four senior Republicans in
Mountjoy Prison, issued a General order on 8 December 1922 that, "all Free State supporters are traitors and deserve the latter's stark fate, therefore their houses must be destroyed at once", and, on 26 January 1923, issued another order for property destruction and possible killing of Free State Senators in reprisal. The ostensible reason for the coordinated attack on the "Big Houses" therefore was that many of their owners were senators in the Senate or
Seanad. However, others were targeted because the IRA listed them as "Imperialists" or in some cases "
Freemasons". Attacks were planned and organised, and generally focused on
Irish peers who had sat in the
House of Lords, members of the Senate of the Irish Free State and former
Irish Unionist Party politicians. The assault on the "Big Houses" was part of a wider campaign against Free State supporters as a reprisal for the executions policy of the Government. In Dublin for instance, out of 28 homes burned by the IRA between 10 December 1922 and the end of April, nine could be counted as Big Houses or mansions associated with the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. The
Foxrock, County Dublin home of the Anglo-Irish politician Sir
Horace Plunkett, a distant relation to
Count Plunkett, was burnt down in 1923, despite his reputation as a social reformer. in County Wexford, was burned in February 1923 and not repaired or rebuilt Some houses, such as Ballycarty House, were purportedly also attacked to prevent their being used as garrisons by Free State forces. The size of the buildings targeted ranged from small to palatial. Most were destroyed by being set on fire, their interiors having been doused in petrol, although in some instances houses were blown up using high explosives. The attempt to burn down Burton Hall,
Stillorgan, the home of
Henry Guinness, in March 1923 failed when a mine planted there failed to explode. Not all such houses were regarded by the IRA as targets, depending upon their ownership.
Mount Trenchard House in Foynes, County Limerick was the home of
Mary Spring Rice, a nationalist activist, and the building was used by the IRA as a
safe house. ==Aftermath==