123-637: Mount Stewart is a 19th-century house and garden in County Down , Northern Ireland , owned by the National Trust . Situated on the east shore of Strangford Lough , a few miles outside the town of Newtownards and near Greyabbey , it was the Irish seat of the Stewart family, Marquesses of Londonderry . Prominently associated with the 2nd Marquess, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh , Britain's Foreign Secretary at
246-647: A Convention Act that effectively outlawed extra-parliamentary opposition. When it was clear that these were not terms acceptable to the United Irishmen (who had been seeking to revive and remodel the Volunteers along the lines of the revolutionary French "National Guard" ) the government moved to suppress the Society. In May 1794, following the revelation of meetings between a French emissary, William Jackson , and United leaders including Tone and Archibald Hamilton Rowan ,
369-534: A base in Killaughrim Woods, in the north of the county, under James Corcoran . Others sought action elsewhere. On 24 June, 8,000 men converged in two columns led by Father Murphy and by Myles Byrne on Castlecomer in County Kilkenny where it was hoped the area's militant colliers would join them. Unprepared, the miners did not tip the balance and at the end of the day both garrison and rebels retreated from
492-565: A capital endowment partly funded by the sale in 1977, by Lady Mairi, of Giovanni Bellini 's painting "The Madonna and Child with a male Donor, a landscape beyond" which had hung over the altar in the chapel at Mount Stewart (having formerly been at Londonderry House , London). Lady Mairi, born in the house, was the last Londonderry family member to live full time at Mount Stewart, and the last member of this Anglo-Irish family to live full time in Ireland. She died at Mount Stewart on 18 November 2009, at
615-510: A company, and of three companies to form a battalion, the New System of Organisation was adapted to military preparation With only Ulster and Leinster organised, the leadership remained split between the two provincial directories. In June 1797, they met together in Dublin to consider the demands for an immediate rising from the northerners who, reeling from martial-law seizures and arrests, feared
738-432: A dog shot for the temerity of barking. Castlereagh inherited his father's title in 1821, but within the year took his own life. The next owner of the house was his half-brother, Charles, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (1778–1854) who had served as ambassador to Vienna and Berlin . He married Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest , the greatest heiress of her time, in appreciation of which he styled himself Robert Vane and ordered
861-737: A further address to the French Directory, Coigly was hanged, and the United network he had helped build in Britain was broken up by internment . In Dublin, Fitzgerald went into hiding. The Irish government imposed martial law on 30 March, although civil courts continued sitting. Overall command of the army was transferred from Ralph Abercromby to Gerard Lake who turned his attention to Leinster and Munster where from Ulster his troops' reputation for public floggings, half-hanging, pitch-capping and other interrogative refinements preceded him. Faced with
984-537: A further enlargement of the house replacing what remained of its 18th century fabric. Controversially in 1847, while spending £15,000 on the refurbishment, the Marquess of Londonderry gave just £30 to local soup kitchens for famine relief , and as the hunger persisted rejected rent reductions on grounds of "personal inconvenience". This was in contrast to his wife's management of her estate in Antrim. Even as she embarked upon of
1107-647: A growing commercial centre which, as a borough owned of the Marquess of Donegall , had no elected representation. In October 1791, amidst public celebration of the French Revolution , a group of Volunteer veterans invited an address from Wolfe Tone , a Protestant secretary to Dublin's Catholic Committee . Acknowledging his Argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, in which Tone had argued that they could not enjoy liberty until banded together with Catholics against
1230-578: A huge portico was added in the centre, and a smaller 'half portico' was added to the other side. The marriage also brought in much of the Vane-Tempest property, including land and coal mines in County Durham . Wynyard Park, Co. Durham was redesigned in the Neo-classical style . The couple bought Seaham Hall , also in County Durham , and then later bought Holdernesse House on London's Park Lane . This
1353-644: A large lake and many monuments and farm buildings. The Temple of the Winds, overlooking Strangford Lough, is an octagonal building designed architect James 'Athenian' Stuart in 1782–83. It was inspired by his study of the Tower of the Winds (the astronomical Horologium of Andronikos Kyrrhestes) in the Roman Agora in Athens which has a frieze depicting the eight wind deities ( anemoi ) of Greek mythology. Many country houses in
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#17328553792651476-686: A larger host at the Hill of Tara in County Meath (May 26) persuaded many of the Kildare insurgents that their cause was lost. Rebels were to remain longest in the field in south-east, in Wexford and in the Mountains of Wicklow . It is commonly suggested that the trigger for the rising in Wexford was the arrival on 26 May of the notorious North Cork Militia. On 27 May, underestimating the hill-top position and resolve of
1599-411: A legacy of the 3rd Marquess , who beginning in the 1830s refurbished and extended the original 18th century structure along neo-classical lines. The main entrance was shifted to the centre of the new north façade, with a large Ionic columned porte-cochère . Two domes were introduced, one placed in the centre of the roof to light the new full height main hall, and another to light a full height room to
1722-403: A legislature in Dublin, by republicans who invoked the name of Tone in the cause of complete separation and independence, and by unionists opposed to all measures of Irish self-government. Renewed in a bicentenary year that coincided with the 1998 Belfast "Good Friday" Agreement , the debate over the interpretation and significance of "1798" continues. In the last decades of the 18th century,
1845-463: A more sympathetic account has Defenders decamping only after Munro rejected their proposal for a night attack on the riotous soldiery in the town as taking an "ungenerous advantage". These were denied by James Hope who had been one of the principal United emissaries to the Defenders. He insisted that Defenders had not appeared among the rebels in separate ranks, and that the body that deserted Munro on
1968-434: A provincial, and, once three of Ireland's four provinces had organised, a national, directory. It was with this New System that the Society spread rapidly across Ulster and, eventually, from Dublin (where the abandonment of open proceedings had been resisted) out into the midlands and the south. As it did so, William Drennan 's "test" or pledge , calling for "a union of power among Irishmen of every religious persuasion",
2091-498: A quarter of a million men across Ulster , Leinster and Munster were preparing to join the "revolutionary army". The Irish government learned from Reynolds that a meeting of the Leinster Provincial Committee and Directory had been set for 10 March in the Dublin house of wool merchant Oliver Bond , where a motion for an immediate rising would be tabled. Camden decided to act, explaining to London that he risked having
2214-438: A rebel party hastily assembled under a local priest, John Murphy , a force of the militia and yeomanry was cut down outside the town of Oulart . The insurgents then swept south through Wexford Town where they released, and gave command to, the local United Irish leader, a Protestant barrister, Bagenal Harvey . On 5 June, Bagnel, leading a force of 3,000, failed in an attempt to storm New Ross whose capture might have opened
2337-469: A return prepared by Fitzgerald computed the number United Irishmen, nationwide, at 269,896. But there were doubts as to the number would heed call to arms and whether they could muster more than simple pikes (over the previous year the authorities had seized 70,630 of these compared to just 4,183 blunderbusses and 225 musket barrels). While the movement had withstood the government's countermeasures, and seditious propaganda and preparation continued, there
2460-595: A second French expedition was defeated in a naval action off the coast of County Donegal leading to the capture of the United Irish leader Wolfe Tone . In the wake of the rebellion, Acts of Union abolished the Irish legislature and brought Ireland under the crown of a United Kingdom through the Parliament at Westminster . The centenary of the rebellion in 1898 saw its legacy disputed by nationalists who wished to restore
2583-560: A series of debilitating strokes, he died in 1949. Flanked by statues of four Irish saints, he is buried in the estate's family graveyard. The ancestral home of the 7th Marchioness of Londonderry, Edith Halen Chaplin , was Dunrobin Castle in Scotland and it was that house's gardens which inspired her reworking of those at Mount Stewart with themed plantings (the Italian, Spanish, and Mairi gardens) and
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#17328553792652706-536: A series of violent attacks on magistrates in County Tipperary , County Kildare and King's County alarmed the authorities. They were also aware that there was now a faction of the United Irish leadership, led by Fitzgerald and O'Connor, who felt "sufficiently well organised and equipped" to begin an insurgency without French assistance. The Viceroy , Lord Camden , came under increasing pressure from hardline Irish MPs, led by Speaker John Foster , to crack down on
2829-502: Is also home to the No.1-ranked golf course, Royal County Down Golf Club , in not just Ireland, but the entire Great Britain , according to Today's Golfer . Former No.1 golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy , originates from Holywood , which is situated in the north of the county. " Star of the County Down " is a popular Irish ballad. The county is named in the lyrics of the song " Around
2952-412: Is frost-free and, as Lady Edith discovered, Mount Stewart enjoys island conditions, the atmosphere is humid and, in hot weather, there are heavy dews at night. Tender tropical plants thrive here and many greenhouse varieties have been planted outside with impressive results.In 1957, she gave the gardens to the National Trust . The present-day estate of Mount Stewart extends to 950 acres (380 ha) with
3075-460: Is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland , one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland . It covers an area of 961 sq mi (2,490 km ) and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the north, the Irish Sea to the east, County Armagh to the west, and County Louth across Carlingford Lough to the southwest. In
3198-515: Is reported to have landed in Newtownards with a "noisy gang of SS men" and the four-day visit became a national newspaper story. The house retains a memento of this private diplomacy: an Allach porcelain figurine of an SS Fahnenträger (SS flag bearer., A gift from Reichmarshall Hermann Göring , after the outbreak of war it was neither destroyed nor removed. With talk of his internment, Londonderry retreated to Mount Stewart where, following
3321-523: The 2021 census , County Down had a population of 552,261, making it the second most populous county in Northern Ireland. According to the 2021 UK census in County Down: The county was administered by Down County Council from 1899 until the abolition of county councils in Northern Ireland in 1973. County Down is now served by the following local government districts : Former railways within
3444-497: The Ards peninsula to Portaferry from which the rebels, under naval fire, were repulsed on the 11th, lasted but three days. Nugent moved on the 12th, and by the morning of the 13th had routed the main rebel conjunction under Dickson's successor, a young Lisburn draper, Henry Monro , outside Ballynahinch . Stories of Catholic desertion at the Battle of Ballynahinch were common, although
3567-684: The British Crown in Ireland faced growing demands for constitutional reform. The Protestant Ascendancy had relaxed the Penal Laws by which, in the wake of the Jacobite defeat in 1691 , it had sought to break the power, and reduce the influence, both of the Catholic church and of the remaining Catholic gentry . But the landed Anglican interest continued to monopolise the Irish Parliament, occupying both
3690-558: The British Crown in what was then the separate, but subordinate, Kingdom of Ireland . The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen . First formed in Belfast by Presbyterians opposed to the landed Anglican establishment , the Society, despairing of reform, sought to secure a republic through a revolutionary union with the country's Catholic majority. The grievances of a rack-rented tenantry drove recruitment. While assistance
3813-546: The Combination Acts and wartime food shortages, Coigly worked from Manchester to spread the United system across the manufacturing districts of northern England. In London, he conferred with Irishmen prominent in the city's federation of democratic clubs, the London Corresponding Society . With these he drew together delegates from Scotland and the provinces who, as "United Britons", resolved "to overthrow
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3936-527: The Congress of Vienna and with the 7th Marquess, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart , the former Air Minister who at Mount Stewart attempted private diplomacy with Hitler's Germany , the house and its contents reflect the history of the family's leading role in social and political life in Britain and Ireland. The original property, Mount Pleasant, was purchased with neighbouring estates in 1744 by Alexander Stewart (1699–1781). Exceptionally for an aspiring member of
4059-565: The Earls (later Marquesses) of Downshire , for control of the county's two parliamentary seats. In the increasingly troubled 1790s, Mount Stewart quietly converted to Anglicanism and stilled the contest, agreeing with Hillsborough that each should return a member to the parliament in Dublin unopposed. Titles and office followed. In 1795 Alexander's son, Robert Stewart (1739–1821) was elevated to Earl of Londonderry (Marquess in 1816), and in 1797 his son Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769–1822),
4182-639: The House of Lords and, through the system of pocket boroughs , half of the Commons . The interests of the Crown were meanwhile secured by a Viceregal administration accountable, not to the legislature in Dublin, but to the King and his ministers in London (and which also having boroughs in its pocket reduced to a third the number of Commons seats open to electoral contest). Additionally,
4305-456: The Kaiser warmed to his theme. The management of gardens is very like that of states. But Britain had done little to cultivate the unity of its empire, so that when he had asked his grandmother, Queen Victoria , leave to visit Ireland she had refused him. "Perhaps she thought I would steal the little place." When after the general laughter he persisted with questions on Ulster, Carson adroitly changed
4428-628: The Mourne Mountains , Silent Valley Reservoir, Ben Crom Reservoir, Spelga Dam and Lough Shannagh. The River Lagan forms most of the border with County Antrim. The River Bann also flows through the southwestern areas of the county. Other rivers include the Clanrye and Quoile . There are several islands off the Down coast: Mew Island, Light House Island and the Copeland Islands , all of which lie to
4551-810: The Mourne Mountains . There is a Narnia trail in Kilbroney Park, in Rostrevor . Sam Hanna Bell based his novel of Ulster rural life, December Bride (1951) in the Ards peninsula. A film version of the novel, also called December Bride , was produced in 1990 and released in November 1991. Several areas of County Down served as filming locations for the HBO series Game of Thrones including Castle Ward ( Winterfell ), Inch Abby ( Riverlands ), and Tollymore Forest Park . The Academy Award-winning short film The Shore (2011)
4674-544: The "Back Lane Parliament" was a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the Irish Lords and Commons. Anticipating war with the new French Republic , George III received a delegation from the convention (including Tone) at Windsor , and the British government pressed the Irish Parliament to match Westminster's Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 . This relieved Catholics of most of their remaining civil disabilities and, where (in
4797-465: The "boobies and blockheads" of the Ascendancy, and styling themselves at his suggestion the Society of United Irishmen , the meeting resolved: [that] the weight of English influence in the government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland; [and] that the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed, is by complete and radical reform of
4920-523: The "fascinating illusions" of French principles, in 1794 Catholics taking the United test were threatened with excommunication . Encountering a political outlook more Jacobite than Jacobin , and speaking freely to the grievances of tithes, taxes and rents, United agents sought to convince Defenders of something they had only "vaguely" considered, namely the need to separate Ireland from England and to secure its "real as well as nominal independence". As
5043-484: The 1790s, borrowing, like the United Irish societies (and, from 1795, their nemesis the Orange Institution) , from the lodge structure and ceremonial of freemasonry , this semi-insurrectionary phenomenon had regenerated as the largely but—with some latter-day adjustments to their oaths—not exclusively Catholic, Defenders . Originating as "fleets" of young men who contended with Protestant Peep o' Day Boys for
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5166-491: The 21st, and on the morning of the 23rd, Neilson, who had been critical to the planning, was seized. Armed with last minute intelligence, a large force of military occupied the rebels' intended assembly points, persuading those who had turned out to dump weapons and disperse. The plan to intercept the mail coaches miscarried, with only the Munster-bound coach halted at Johnstown, County Kildare , near Naas . The organisation in
5289-464: The 21st. All but their leaders benefited from an amnesty intended by the new Lord Lieutenant , Charles Cornwallis to flush out remaining resistance. The law was pushed through the Irish Parliament by the Chancellor, Lord Clare . A staunch defender of the Ascendancy, Clare was determined to separate Catholics from the greater enemy, "Godless Jacobinism." In the north, there had been no response to
5412-647: The 7th Marchioness, redesigned the gardens a lavish style that took advantage of the sub-tropical local climate. As Lady Edith discovered, Mount Stewart under the general influence of the North Atlantic Drift , on the Ards Peninsula Mount Stewart enjoys mild and humid island conditions, allowing tropical plants to thrive. Prior to her husband's succession to the Marquessate in 1915 the gardens had been plain lawns with large decorative pots. She added
5535-539: The 7th had been disrupted by the arrest of the county's adjutant general, William Steele Dickson , and all his colonels. But beginning on the 9th younger officers took the initiative. An ambush outside Saintfield , an attack upon Newtownards , and the seizure of guns from a ship in Bangor harbour, persuaded General Nugent to concentrate his forces for a counteroffensive in Belfast. The republic in north Down, which extended down
5658-451: The American war, and Arthur O'Connor (later, undistinguished, as an officer of Napoleon 's Irish Legion ). The directory believed themselves too weak to act in the summer of 1797, but through the winter the movement appeared to strengthen in existing strongholds such as Dublin, County Kildare and County Meath , and to break new ground in the midlands and the south-east. In February 1798,
5781-591: The British navy, but the Batavian fleet that the French had prepared for their forces at Texel was again opposed by the weather. In October 1797, after Tone and the troops he was to accompany to Ireland had been disembarked, the fleet sought to reach the French naval base at Brest and was destroyed by the Royal Navy at the Battle of Camperdown . In Paris, Tone recognised the rising star of Napoleon Bonaparte . But he found
5904-494: The British parliament presumed the right to itself to legislate for Ireland, a prerogative it had exercised to restrict rival Irish trade and commerce. The revolt of the North American colonies presented a challenge. War with the colonists and with their French allies drew down the Crown's regular forces in Ireland. In their absence Volunteer companies were formed, ostensibly for home defence, but soon, like their kinsmen in
6027-456: The County Down in the lyrics to several songs including "Northern Muse (Solid Ground)", "Mystic of the East" and the nostalgic " Coney Island ", which names several places and landmarks in the county. Van Morrison also covered "Star of the County Down" with The Chieftains as a part of their collaboration album Irish Heartbeat . C. S. Lewis , author of The Chronicles of Narnia , was inspired by
6150-521: The Dodo Terrace with its whimsical statuary (Ribbentrop described the effect as "paradise"). Rather than enter her gardens through a house door she would dive in and out of a sash window, followed by her dogs — of which there were 14 at one time, ranging from deer hound to Pekinese. Lady Edith also redesigned and redecorated much of the interior, for example, the huge drawing room, the Castlereagh Room,
6273-503: The French, resigned his command in Antrim. Amidst charges of betrayal by aristocrats, cowards and traitors, his colonels turned to the young Henry Joy McCracken . Fearful that the "hope of a union with the south" was otherwise lost, McCracken proclaimed the First Year of Liberty on 6 June. On 7 June, there were local musters across the county, and west of the Bann at Maghera . The green flag
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#17328553792656396-741: The Glynes with the Raughlines, Momerie and Carie, the Rowte M'William ( McQuillan ) and all lands between lough Coine and lough Eaghe, and the water of Strangforde and the Banne. To certify their proceedings before the 1st August." The county was privately planted during the Plantation period (16th–17th centuries). During the Williamite War in Ireland (1689–1691) the county was a centre of Protestant rebellion against
6519-412: The Irish Parliament turn against him. On the 10th, In March 1798, almost the entire committee were seized, along with two directors, the comparative moderates (those who, in the absence of the French, had counselled delay) William James MacNeven and Thomas Addis Emmet , together with all their papers. Meanwhile in England, O'Connor had been arrested alongside Coigly. Having been found in possession of
6642-482: The Irish property. Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry (1852–1915) returned to Ireland from Wynyard Park, first as Lord Lieutenant in Dublin, and then to Mount Stewart from which both he and the Marchioness, Lady Theresa Talbot , served as the titular leaders of opposition to Irish Home Rule . They presided, respectively, over the Ulster Unionist Council and the Ulster Unionist Women's Council (UUWC). Lady Londonderry (Theresa Chetwynd-Talbot)
6765-400: The Irish word for dun or fort, which is a common root in Gaelic place names (such as Dundee , Dunfermline and Dumbarton in Scotland and Donegal and Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland). The fort in question was in the historic town of Downpatrick , originally known as Dún Lethglaise ("fort of the green side" or "fort of the two broken fetters"). During the 2nd century the region
6888-402: The Mount Stewart Gardens were added to the United Kingdom "Tentative List" of sites for potential nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In 2015, the National Trust completed an extensive restoration of the house and its contents as well as the purchase of 900 acres (360 hectares) of the wider estate, thus re-uniting it, and plan to open for visitor access. The present house is largely
7011-399: The Shamrock Garden, the Sunken Garden, increased the size of the lake, added a Spanish Garden with a small hut, the Italian Garden, the Dodo Terrace with its 'menagerie' of cement animals, the Fountain Pool and laid out walks in the Lily Wood and rest of the estate. Lady It was she who first realised the benefits of the sub-tropical local climate. The Gulf Stream feeds Strangford Lough. The area
7134-399: The Society was proscribed. A year later, in May 1795, a meeting of United delegates from Belfast and the surrounding market towns responded to the growing repression by endorsing a new, and it was hoped more resistant, "system of organisation". Local societies were to split so as to remain within a range of 7 to 35 members, and through baronial and county delegate committees, to build toward
7257-446: The UK had adaptations of the 'temples' their owners had seen on their tours of the Mediterranean . The temple is similar to structures at Shugborough and West Wycombe Park , both National Trust properties. The house was used as a location for the third series of the BBC children's TV series The Sparticle Mystery . Other residences of the Marquesses of Londonderry: County Down County Down ( Irish : Contae an Dúin )
7380-426: The Ulaiden's refusal to offer him sanctuary from Brian Boru the previous year. The region was invaded by the Normans in 1177. From the 1180s–1600s the region saw waves of English and Scottish immigration. In 1569 the Irish Parliament passed "An Act for turning of Countries that be not yet Shire Grounds into Shire Grounds". In 1570 a commission was issued in pursuance of that statute "to survey and make enquiry in
7503-405: The War Ministry's Bureau Topographique , had drafted an invasion plan. In June, Carnot offered General Lazare Hoche command of an Irish expedition that would secure "the safety of France for centuries to come." Originally, it was to have been accompanied by two diversionary raids on England: one against Newcastle , the other against Bristol . In the event, because of pressing demands in Italy,
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#17328553792657626-450: The World ", from the film Around the World in 80 Days , which was an American top ten hit for Bing Crosby and UK top ten hit for Ronnie Hilton , both in 1957, although it was Mantovani 's instrumental version which was actually used in the film. Rihanna 's video " We Found Love " was filmed there in 2011, causing complaints when the singer removed her clothes to reveal a bikini. The Ulster singer Van Morrison has made reference to
7749-422: The abolition of the pocket boroughs and an extension of the franchise. But the question of whether, and on what terms, parliamentary reform should embrace Catholic emancipation split the movement". The Ancien Régime survived: the Anglican aristocracy remained entrenched under the patronage of a government that continued to take its direction from London. The disappointment was felt keenly in Belfast ,
7872-405: The age of 88, in the same four poster bed, hung with red silk damask, that she had been born in. On Lady Bury's death, her daughter Lady Rose Lauritzen, wife of art historian Peter Lauritzen, became the live-in family member. The National Trust took over the house and gardens in 1977. The Trust operates the property under the name "Mount Stewart House, Garden & Temple of the Winds". In 1999,
7995-415: The area's modern rail network. In association football, the NIFL Premiership , which operates as the top division, has three teams in the county: Newry City F.C. , Ards F.C. and Warrenpoint Town F.C. , with Banbridge Town F.C. , Bangor F.C. and Lisburn Distillery F.C. competing in the NIFL Championship , which operates as levels two and three. The Down County Board administers Gaelic games in
8118-446: The army intended to spearhead the invasion of Ireland was split up and sent, along with a growing Irish Legion , to fight in other theatres of the French Revolutionary Wars . Bantry Bay had nonetheless made real the prospect of French intervention, and United societies flooded with new members. There were increasing reports of Defenders and United Irishmen "marauding" for weapons, and openly parading. In May 1797, Yeomanry, which in
8241-450: The breaking-up of their entire system, Fitzgerald, joined by Samuel Neilson (publisher in Belfast of the Society paper Northern Star , recently released from Kilmainham Prison ), and by John and Henry Sheares , resolved on a general uprising for 23 May. There was no immediate promise of assistance from France (on the 19th a French expeditionary force had set sail, under Napoleon, but for Egypt, not Ireland). The United army in Dublin
8364-503: The burning town. Byrne led his men into the Wicklow Mountains where Joseph Holt and Michael Dwyer commanded a guerrilla resistance. Murphy's men passed into Kildare where, after the priest was captured, they joined rebels withdrawn under William Aylmer into the Bog of Allen . After a number of bruising engagements, the "Wexford croppies" moved into Meath making a last stand at Knightstown bog on 14 July. A few hundred survivors returned to Kildare where at Sallins they surrendered on
8487-413: The call from Dublin. On 29 May, following news of the fighting in Leinster, county delegates meeting in Armagh, voted out the hesitant Ulster directory and resolved that if the adjutant generals of Antrim and Down could not agree a general plan of insurrection, they would return to their occupations and "deceive the people no more". In response, Robert Simms , who refused to consider action in the absence of
8610-472: The capital, Dublin , in counties Meath and Kildare . In late August, after the rebels had been reduced to pockets of guerrilla resistance, the French landed an expeditionary force in the west, in County Mayo . Unable to effect a conjunction with a significant rebel force, they surrendered on 9 September. In the last open-field engagement of the rebellion, the local men they had rallied on their arrival were routed at Killala on 23 September. On 12 October,
8733-420: The coalitions that defeated Napoleon . In 1787, writing to her brother William Drennan (a disappointed supporter of the Stewarts' electoral ambitions, later to be targeted by Castlereagh as a United Irishman ), Martha McTier described visiting Mount Stewart, and meeting "with no one thing worth notice, unless great wall pounds are so – much expense, no taste, every thing unfinished and dirty, grand plans for
8856-536: The colonies, debating and asserting "constitutional rights". In 1782, with the Volunteers drilling and parading in support of the otherwise beleaguered Patriot opposition in the Irish Parliament, Westminster repealed its Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719 . Volunteers, especially in the north where Presbyterians and other Protestant Dissenters had flocked to their ranks, immediately sought to build upon this grant of legislative independence by agitating for
8979-511: The conqueror of Italy incurious about the Irish situation being in need of a war of conquest, not of liberation, to pay his army. In February 1798, British spies did report that the First Consul was preparing a fleet in the Channel ports ready for the embarkation of up to 50,000 men, but the preparations were soon reversed. Bonaparte deemed both the military and naval forces assembled inadequate to
9102-457: The construction a castellated summer residence ( Garron Tower ), the Marchioness not only reduced the rents of her tenants, but in dire cases of potato blight , waived them altogether. This remodelling created the present exterior of Mount Stewart. The small Georgian house and the small portico on the west wing were demolished and the house was increased to eleven bays . On the entrance front,
9225-477: The control of tenancies and employment in the linen-producing region of north Armagh, the Defenders organised across the southern counties of Ulster and into the Irish midlands. Already in 1788, their oath-taking had been condemned in a pastoral by the Catholic Primate Archbishop of Armagh . As the United Irishmen began to reach out the Defenders, they were similarly sanctioned. With cautions against
9348-578: The counties) Common's seats were contested, allowed those meeting the property qualification to vote. For Parliament itself the Oath of Supremacy was retained so that it remained exclusively Protestant. For a measure that could have little appreciable impact on the conduct of government, the price for overriding Ascendancy opposition was the dissolution of the Catholic Committee, a new government militia that conscripted Catholic and Protestant by lot , and
9471-454: The countries and territories ... that are not shire ground, or are doubtful to what shire they belong; to limit and nominate them a shire or county; to divide them into countries, baronies or hundreds, or to join them to any existing shire or barony" "for the countries or territories of Arde, as well this side Blackstafe as the other side, Copelande islands, the Dufferin, Clandeboy, Kilultoghe,
9594-464: The county include the Great Northern Railway of Ireland and Belfast and County Down Railway both of which were formed in the 19th century and were closed (or amalgamated) in the 1950s. The Downpatrick and County Down Railway operates a short section of the former Belfast and County Down line as a heritage railway between Downpatrick and Inch Abbey . Northern Ireland Railways operates
9717-431: The county. Down is the most successful team north of the border in terms of All-Ireland Senior Football Championships won with five (1960, 1961, 1968, 1991 and 1994) in total. In terms of Ulster, they share that accolade with Cavan who also have 5 titles. They currently have four minor All-Ireland titles, twelve Ulster titles and one under 21 all Ireland title (1979). The Ards peninsula is a hurling stronghold. County Down
9840-542: The delegates who redrew the map of Europe at Vienna . During the three-day "Year of Liberty" in Ards and north Down, 10 to 13 June 1798, Mount Stewart was briefly occupied by the United Irish insurgents. In the wake of the courts-martial that followed, the wife of the local Presbyterian minister, James Porter, appeared at the house with her seven children to plead for his life. Together with her younger sister, Lady Elizabeth, then dying of tuberculosis, Lady Londonderry
9963-406: The deployment of guns captured in an ambush at Tubberneering , at Arklow on 9 June. The rebels fell back toward the south, meeting the survivors of New Ross and forming a camp of 16,000 on Vinegar Hill outside the town of Enniscorthy . There, on 21 June, they were surrounded, bombarded and routed by a force of 13,000 under General Lake. The remnants of the "Republic of Wexford" established
10086-465: The east of the county is Strangford Lough and the Ards Peninsula . The largest settlement is Bangor , a city on the northeast coast. Three other large towns and cities are on its border: Newry lies on the western border with County Armagh, while Lisburn and Belfast lie on the northern border with County Antrim. Down contains both the southernmost point of Northern Ireland ( Cranfield Point ) and
10209-435: The easternmost point of Ireland ( Burr Point ). It was one of two counties of Northern Ireland to have a Protestant majority at the time of the 2001 census . The other Protestant-majority County was County Antrim to the north. However, as of the 2021 Census, it is now the only county in which there is a Protestant background majority, as Antrim has Protestant background plurality. In the 2021 census, Ards and North Down had
10332-453: The forty thousand men called for could not be mustered. Under Hoche, a force of 15,000 veteran troops was assembled at Brest . Sailing on 16 December, accompanied by Tone, the French arrived off the coast of Ireland at Bantry Bay on 22 December 1796. Unremitting storms prevented a landing. Tone remarked that "England [...] had its luckiest escape since the Armada ". The fleet returned home and
10455-496: The future, nothing pleasant nor even comfortable at present". Commensurate with the family's rising fortunes, Castlereagh moved to realise some of these plans. In 1803, he choose the architect George Dance to design a Classical Regency replacement of the west wing with new receptions rooms. A number of the present furnishings reflect Castlereagh's career, including a portrait of the French emperor , and chairs elaborately embroidered for
10578-492: The growing disorder in the south and midlands and arrest the Dublin leadership. Camden hesitated, partly as he feared a crackdown would itself provoke an insurrection: the British Home Secretary Lord Portland agreed, describing the proposals as "dangerous and inconvenient". The situation changed when an informer, Thomas Reynolds, produced Fitzgerald's report on manpower with its suggestion that over
10701-610: The height of the Home Rule Crisis , the German Emperor had occasion to refer to the Marchioness's gardens. Meeting the unionist leader Sir Edward Carson at a luncheon at Bad Homburg in August 1913, the Kaiser remarked that having seen a photograph of the gardens, he believed that they must be very beautiful. When Carson (who once proposed that he was "born to lounge and enjoy" himself at Mount Stewart) affirmed that indeed they were,
10824-514: The highest number of "No Religion" responses (30.6%) for Northern Ireland. In March 2018, The Sunday Times published its list of Best Places to Live in Britain, including five in Northern Ireland. The list included three in County Down: Holywood , Newcastle , and Strangford . The county has two cities: Newry and Bangor . The latter is the more recent, gaining city status on 2 December 2022. County Down takes its name from dún ,
10947-610: The immediate south of this. Portions of what are now Lady Londonderry’s sitting room, the music room, the Castlereagh room and the staircase were left untouched, but a new suite of rooms was added. Of these the principal is the Drawing Room, which looks out onto the main gardens and, before the building along the shore of the A20, would have had a view of Strangford Lough . The house's private chapel, with stained glass windows and Italian murals,
11070-617: The landed Ascendancy, the Stewarts did not conform to the established (Anglican) church. They were Presbyterians, farmers and linen merchants whose fortunes had been transformed by Alexander's marriage to the sister and heiress of Robert Cowan , the East India Company Governor of Bombay . As fellow Presbyterians, the Stewarts appeared to the county's enfranchised forty-shilling freeholders as "friends of reform", and on that basis Mount Stewart rivalled Hillsborough Castle , seat of
11193-417: The leadership in Ireland of a larger project. Beginning in 1796, United Irish agents had helped build networks of United Englishmen and United Scotsmen , societies whose proceedings, oath-taking, and advocacy of physical force "mirrored that of their Irish inspirators". Describing himself as an emissary of the United Irish executive, assisted by a tide of refugees from Ulster, and tapping into protest against
11316-538: The local rebels in the field, and the Reverend Thomas Ledlie Birch who urged them to "drive the bloodhounds of King George, the German king, beyond the seas"), were allowed American exile. Porter's offence may have been to have serially lampooned Londonderry in a popular satire of the landed interest, Billy Bluff. Porter caricatured the master of Mount Stewart as Lord Mountmumble, an inarticulate tyrant who has
11439-549: The north had begun recruiting entire Orange lodges , charged gatherings near Cootehill in Cavan killing eleven, and in Dundalk killing fourteen. Seeking to justify the suspension of habeas corpus in Britain, the authorities were quick to see the hand of both Irish and English radicals in the Spithead and Nore mutinies of April and May 1797. The United Irish were reportedly behind
11562-578: The north of the Ards Peninsula. Gunn Island lies off the Lecale coast. In addition, there are at least seventy islands (several inhabited) along with many islets – or pladdies – in Strangford Lough, although folk tradition says there are 365 islands in Strangford Lough, one for every day of the year. County Down is where, in the words of the song by Percy French , " The mountains of Mourne sweep down to
11685-620: The opportunity to strike was passing. The meeting broke up in disarray, with many of the Ulster delegates fleeing abroad. The authorities were sufficiently satisfied with the severity of their countermeasures in Ulster that in August they restored civil law in the province. The initiative passed to the Leinster directory which had recruited two radically disaffected members of the Patriot opposition: Lord Edward FitzGerald , who brought with him experience of
11808-560: The outer districts of the city nonetheless rose as planned and were swiftly followed by the surrounding counties. The first clashes of the rebellion took place just after dawn on 24 May in County Kildare . After the Munster mail coach was attacked on its approach to Naas on the night of the 23rd, a 1000 to 3,000 men approached the town. Their pikes could not prevail against grapeshot and steady musket fire. A garrison of less than 200 routed
11931-575: The point of view of the military, the insurrection in County Antrim ended on 9 June with the surrender of Ballymena (under an amnesty that spared it the fate of Randalstown , Templepatrick and Ballymoney—all set ablaze). A diminishing band under McCracken dispersed when, on the 14th, they received news of the decisive defeat of the Army of the Republic in County Down. Plans for a simultaneous rising in Down on
12054-586: The present Government, and to join the French as soon as they made a landing in England". In July 1797, the resolution of the United Britons was discussed by the leadership in Dublin and Belfast. Although addressed to the prospect of a French invasion, the suggestion that "England, Scotland and Ireland are all one people acting for one common cause", encouraged militants to believe that liberty could be won even if "the French should never come here". In early 1798,
12177-438: The promise of reform receded, and as French victories built hopes of military assistance, Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform became a demand for universal manhood suffrage (every man a citizen), and hopes for accountable government were increasingly represented by the call for an Irish republic —terms that clearly anticipated a violent break with the Crown. Beginning with an obligation of each society to drill
12300-488: The rebels, with a small cavalry detachment cutting down over a hundred as they fled. Success did attend a smaller rebel force, commanded by John Esmonde , a Protestant physician who had deserted from the Yeomanry, later that day at Prosperous . The town was not to be re-occupied until after a rebel defeat at Ovidstown on 19 June, but a succession of rebel reversals further afield, including defeats at Carlow (25 May) and of
12423-540: The representation of the people in parliament. The same resolution was carried by Tone's friends in Dublin where, reflecting a larger, more diverse, middle class, the Society united from the outset Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter. With the support and participation of United Irishmen, in December 1792 the Catholic Committee convened a national Catholic Convention. Elected on a broad, head-of-household, franchise,
12546-548: The resolution of the Nore mutineers to hand the fleet over to the French "as the only government that understands the Rights of Man". Much was made of Valentine Joyce, a leader at Spithead, described by Edmund Burke as a "seditious Belfast clubist". But no evidence emerges of a concerted United Irish plot to subvert the fleet. There had only been talk of seizing British warships as part of a general insurrection. The mutinies had paralysed
12669-568: The rest of East Ulster of Jacobite troops. Down contains two significant peninsulas : Ards Peninsula and Lecale peninsula . The county has a coastline along Belfast Lough to the north and Carlingford Lough to the south (both of which have access to the sea). Strangford Lough lies between the Ards Peninsula and the mainland. Down also contains part of the shore of Lough Neagh . Smaller loughs include Lough Island Reavy and Castlewellan Lake near Castlewellan, Clea Lough near Killyleagh, Lough Money and Loughinisland near Downpatrick and, within
12792-730: The rule of the Catholic James II . After forming a scratch force the Protestants were defeated by the Irish Army at the Break of Dromore and forced to retreat, leading to the whole of Down falling under Jacobite control. Later the same year Marshal Schomberg 's large Williamite expedition arrived in Belfast Lough and captured Bangor. After laying siege to Carrickfergus , Schomberg marched south to Dundalk Camp , clearing County Down and much of
12915-914: The sea", and the area around the granite Mourne Mountains continues to be known for its scenery. Slieve Donard , at 849 m (2,785 ft), is the highest peak in the Mournes, in Northern Ireland and in the province of Ulster. Another important peak is Slieve Croob , at 534 m (1,752 ft), the source of the River Lagan. Baronies Parishes Townlands (population of 75,000 or more at 2001 Census) (population of 18,000 or more and under 75,000 at 2001 Census) (Population of 10,000 or more and under 18,000 at 2001 Census) (Population of 4,500 or more and under 10,000 at 2001 Census) (Population of 2,250 or more and under 4,500 at 2001 Census) (Population of 1,000 or more and under 2,250 at 2001 Census) (Population of less than 1,000 at 2001 Census) As of
13038-517: The smoking room (whose mantelpiece displayed the Fahnenträger ) and many of the guest bedrooms. She named the latter after European cities including Rome and Moscow. The last châtelaine of the house (and the last surviving child of the 7th Marquess), Lady Mairi Bury (née Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscountess Bury), gave the house, and most of its contents to the National Trust in 1977, together with
13161-498: The south. In the north, it had included the Oakboys who, mobilising the aggrieved irrespective of religion, had in 1763 threatened to pursue fleeing Anglican rectors and tithe proctors into the city of Derry. There had also been the Hearts of Steel who, protesting land speculation and evictions, in 1770 entered Belfast, besieged the barracks, and sprung one of their number from prison. By
13284-495: The subject. Through the gardens of Mount Stewart the Kaiser had been probing intelligence that in the event of a European war conflict in Ireland might stay Britain's hand. In 1921, the 7th Marquess, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart , (1878–1949) accepted office as Minister of Education in the unexpected fruit of unionist agitation, the new home-rule Parliament of Northern Ireland . In 1935, his larger ambitions in London were dashed when he
13407-615: The task. In later exile, he was to claim that he might have made an attempt on Ireland (instead of sailing in May 1798 for Egypt) had he had confidence in Tone the other United Irish agents appearing in Paris. He describes them as divided in opinion and constantly quarrelling. These agents from Ireland included James Coigly . A Catholic priest who had been active in bringing Defenders into the movement in Ulster, Coigly sought to persuade both French Directory and
13530-516: The way to the large bodies of Defenders known to exist in Kilkenny and Waterford. During and after the battle, government forces systematically killed captured and wounded rebels. On news of the defeat, rebels in the rear killed up to 200 loyalist prisoners (men, women and children): the notorious Scullabogue Barn massacre . Meanwhile, attempts to break northward and open a road through Wicklow toward Dublin were checked 1 June at Bunclody and, despite
13653-506: Was added after the death of 3rd Marquess in 1854, and in his memory. The National Trust refurbishment, completed in 2015, sought to restore the interiors to how they appeared in the 1950s when the house belonged to Lady Edith, the seventh Marchioness. An exception is the Ionic-columned octagonal main hall, where the chequered stone floor laid by the 3rd Marquess has been uncovered and restored. After further alterations to house's interior,
13776-487: Was administered to artisans , journeymen and shopkeepers, many of whom had maintained their own Jacobin clubs, and to tenant farmers and their market-town allies who had organised against the Protestant gentry in secret fraternities. In rural Ireland, there was a "varied, energetic and complex structure of agrarian 'secret societies'", commonly referred to as Whiteboyism , after groups that had emerged mid-century in
13899-502: Was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland by the Lord Lieutenant , Londonderry's brother-in-law, John Pratt, Earl Camden. After helping, in the wake of the 1798 rebellion , to push the Act of Union through the Irish Parliament, bringing Ireland under the Crown at Westminster , Castlereagh went on to serve the new United Kingdom as Secretary for War and Foreign Secretary , building
14022-463: Was being sought from the French Republic and from democratic militants in Britain, martial-law seizures and arrests forced the conspirators into the open. Beginning in late May 1798, there were a series of uncoordinated risings: in the counties of Carlow and Wexford in the southeast where the rebels met with some success; in the north around Belfast in counties Antrim and Down ; and closer to
14145-486: Was filmed in and around Killough bay by director/writer Terry George and his daughter Oorlagh. The film starred Ciaran Hynds, Kerry Condon and Connleth Hill. Irish Rebellion of 1798 Suppression by Crown forces [REDACTED] Great Britain The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( Irish : Éirí Amach 1798 ; Ulster-Scots : The Turn out , The Hurries , 1798 Rebellion ) was a popular insurrection against
14268-623: Was forced to resign as Air Minister . Despite having preserved the core of the RAF when it was under attack from the Treasury , critics believed he was one of an aristocratic circle of " appeasers ". At Mount Stewart it was a suspicion Londonderry appeared to confirm when, following on a visit to Hitler in Berlin, in May 1936 he entertained the German Ambassador to London, Joachim von Ribbentrop . Ribbentrop
14391-532: Was hesitation to act without the certainty of French arms and assistance. In 1795, from American exile Tone had travelled to Paris where he sought to convince the French Directory that Ireland was the key to breaking Britain's maritime stranglehold. His "memorials" on the situation in Ireland came to the attention of Director Lazare Carnot , and by May, General Henri Clarke , the Irish-descendant head of
14514-507: Was home to the Voluntii tribe, according to Ptolemy . From the 400s–1177 County Down formed a central part of the kingdom of Ulaid . Ulaid was a frequent target of Viking raids in the eighth and ninth centuries, however fierce local resistance prevented the Norse from setting up permanent settlements in the region. In 1001 a fleet led by Sigtrygg Silkbeard raided much of the region in retribution for
14637-602: Was later renamed Londonderry House . In 1854, the Emperor Louis Napoleon was among the subscribers who helped raise a memorial tower to the 3rd Marquess north of Mount Stewart at Scrabo . The 4th Marquess of Londonderry , married the widow of Viscount Powerscourt and lived at her home, Powerscourt , near Dublin . The 5th Marquess lived at his wife's ancestral property, Plas Machynlleth in Wales. These long periods of neglect threatened an irreversible deterioration of
14760-452: Was raised in Ballymena , and there were attacks on Larne , Glenarm , Carrickfergus , Toomebridge and Ballymoney . But by the following morning, before any coordination had been possible, those who turned out had begun to dump arms and disperse on news of McCracken defeat. Leading a body of four to six thousand, their commander had failed, with heavy losses, to seize Antrim Town . From
14883-479: Was tearfully persuaded. (She had often received Porter at Mount Stewart and in correspondence with the United Irishwoman Jane Greg had referred to herself as a "republican countess"). But Londonderry was to see to it that Porter, convicted on uncertain evidence of having consorted with the rebels, was hung outside his church and home at Greyabbey . Other offenders ( David Bailie Warden who commanded
15006-461: Was to seize strategic points in the city, while the armies in the surrounding counties would throw up a cordon and advance into its centre. As soon as these developments were signalled by halting mail coaches from the capital, the rest of the country was to rise. On the appointed day, the rising in the city was aborted. Fitzgerald had been mortally wounded on the 19th, the Sheares brothers were betrayed
15129-511: Was valued for her family and political connections in England. In 1903, at Mount Stewart, she had hosted Edward VII and Queen Alexandra . She also proved an effective organiser, helping build the UUWC into a mass organisation, and in the preparation of an armed resistance to a Dublin parliament, the Ulster Volunteers to whom she offered Mount Stewart as a potential infirmary and triage site. At
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