A Vanishing World: The Irish Country House Photographs of Father Browne Edited by Robert O'Byrne | Messenger Publications

Fr Francis Browne SJ is renowned for his images of the Titanic on her doomed maiden voyage and of everyday life in mid-twentieth century Ireland. Less well-known until now are the pictures that he took of Irish country houses over a decade from 1946 onward.

The owners of over 50 of these mainly private properties gave Fr Browne unique access to their homes, and he recorded the buildings and their interiors, filled with treasures accumulated over generations.

In most cases, his pictures show us interiors that no longer exist or have been radically altered. Some of the buildings he visited have been entirely demolished, and others sold, giving a particular poignancy to his images.

Architectural historian Robert O’Byrne has selected 20 houses, ranging from Shelton Abbey, County Wicklow, now an open prison, to Dunsany Castle, County Meath, occupied since the early 15th century by the Plunkett family. These beautiful photographs offer an insight into what was by then a fast-vanishing world. This is a priceless record of the Irish country house at a critical moment in its history.