Publisher's Synopsis
Perhaps the greatest individual phenomenon of 18th century Ireland was the rise of Speaker Conolly, an innkeeper's son from Donegal who the most powerful man of his generation. His magnificent Palladian residence at Castletown House, Celbridge, is one of the Irish nation's greatest treasures. The Speaker's eventual heir, "Squire Tom" Conolly was to the forefront of Irish politics in the lead up to the disastrous Rebellion of 1798 and married one of the beautiful Lennox sisters. In one particularly audacious adventure, another Tom Conolly attempted to run the Charlston Blockade in the American Civil War and was home in Donegal in time for an election. The house passed from the Conolly-Carew family in 1966 and is now open to the public.
