Co. Galway: There are no more hunt balls or revels within the walls of Tyrone House. Its stately Georgian rooms lie empty. Music no longer echoes through its cavernous halls. The dance and all merriment have ceased. No warmth comes forth from its hearths. Now there is only the bone chill and the sad whistle of the wind from the sea. An arson committed in 1920, put an end to its grand days. The home never recovered from this affront, although it stands as a battered monument to the Irish ascendancy's decline and the nation's turbulent political past. Tyrone House was immortalized by the late Irish poet laureate Sir John Betjeman in his poem "Ireland with Emily." It was the inspiration for Edith Sommerville and her writing partner Violet Ross when they wrote their novel, "The Big House of Inver." And George Henry Moore drew from it the source of much recollection in "An Irish Gentleman." "There in pinnacled protection One extinguished family waits A Church of Ireland resurrection By the broken rusty gates. Sheepswool, straw and droppings cover Graves of spinster, rake and lover, Whose fantastic mausoleum Sings it own Te Deum In and out the slipping slates." - Sir John Betjeman Tyrone House was built in 1779 by the enterprising Christopher French St. George (1754-1826), the scion of an old Co. Galway family with Norman Irish roots. The family's centuries-long success at good marriages expanded their properties and developed important blood connections to other large landowning families. Bolstered by his ever-expanding prosperity, St. George chose John Roberts (1712-1796), the esteemed Co. Waterford architect, to design the splendid edifice. Built in the Palladian style, the house reflected the growing Irish passion for beauty and sensitive artistry in domestic residences. It was fashioned for sea views and Galway Bay sunsets, the grandest in Europe. A big solemn house, three stories high, Tyrone is dramatically located atop its ocean promontory and dominates the landscape for miles around. Within the house, no expense was spared for high detailed design or for whimsy. High in the massive front hall stood the image of the family's fortune and! good luck, a life-size white marble statue of the second Lord St. George, arrayed in the regalia of a Roman emperor. From his niche, he was a constant reminder of family bloodlines and the classical taste of the age. Emblazoned above the statue was the St. George family coat of arms, replete with the baronial coronet. Entering the estate along the main avenue in its heyday, the visitor would first pass the old dower house, Kilcolgan castle, the old ruined abbey at Drumacoo, the gate lodge, and finally the deer park, where deer were plentiful until the end of the 19th century. Beyond the big house was the great yard, the gardens, the turf yard, and the quay along the Kilcolgan River. Tyrone's front faces south, and its northern side is protected by a thick, dense wood. The gardens were enlivened by the soft warmth of the subtropical Gulf Stream. Within the garden's 12-foot limestone walls, groves of peaches and pears grew in abundance beside apple and cherry trees. Hothouses were in use as early as 1838, and here black Hamburg grape and white grapes were grown up to the 20th century. Roses were a signature flower of the house. The story of Tyrone House is the tale of a wondrous classical Irish dwelling of note. Its art, craftsmanship, and sophisticated design demonstrate an Irish m! astery of high architectural development. Later Tyrone House became a center of foxhunting in season. The St. Georges were a family of flamboyant huntsmen and grandson Christopher St. George (1810-1877) was involved in the economic and sporting affairs of local life. He went on to create one of the finest hunting packs in Ireland. In 1839, he helped to establish the raucous hunt known as the Galway Blazers, which to this day remains Ireland's premier hunt. His passion for horse racing was so keen that he developed a famous stud farm at the Curragh in Co. Kildare, the ancient home of Irish horse racing. Closer to home, he helped to establish the Galway Races. So devoted to their horses were the St. Georges that one master of Tyrone had his horse, Barebones, placed in a solid bronze casket when it died. The horse, it seemed, had once saved his life. (Unfortunately, a later owner of Kilcolgan castle, Martin Niland, threw it into the Kilcolgan River). An intense interest in marine farming moved Christopher St. George to establish large oyster beds along the Galway coast near Tyrone that today are among Europe's choicest. As long as the St. Georges were in residence at Tyrone and Kilcolgan, the people treated the family with the old respect. But the forces of history and the subsequent wearing away of an old way of life took their toll on Tyrone, as on many other Irish country homes. The St. Georges left Tyrone following the death of Honoria Kane St. George, the widow of the second Christopher St. George, in 1905. By then, the fortunes of the St. George family lay elsewhere - in Dublin for some and in the U.S. for others. The treasure of the house, its paintings, silver, furniture, and the accumulation of centuries of living there, were divided and dispersed among the family. Over the years the house has suffered burning, looting, vandalism. At one time there was a grand total of well over 3,000 great houses in Ireland; today, there are only about 30 major houses still surviving. Disintegrating slowly, the ghostly specter of Tyrone House remains an archectural wonder - radiant still in the half-light that dances off the water of Galway Bay, but also a sad reminder of the vanquished treasures of Ireland's glorious though vanishing 18th-century past. Note is made that Lord St. George Usher (who later became Baron St. George), was father of the 2nd Duchess of Leinster. -- Excerpt, "The World Of Hibernia," Spring 2000. Article contains many old photos of Kilcolgan Castle (includ. 1904, with Walter Dyas and daughter Maureen (ggdaughter of Christopher St. George), and lovely Honoria Kane St. George.