Abandoned Ireland

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Images of abandonment, from decaying big houses to humble cottages, eerily empty convents, schools and asylums left to crumble, are endlessly fascinating to photographers and viewers. These busy years faded with the austerity of war, and the property gradually declined and was sold to the State, which failed to care adequately for the house. LACKEEN CASTLE, COUNTY TIPPERARY: Connolly says: 'When this medieval tower house was rebuilt in the 16th century, the Stowe Missal was found, an illuminated mass book dating from seven centuries earlier. There is nothing particularly special of the content- it exists everywhere and others have been photographing it for decades.

During lockdown, I was going through some old files, and I posted a cottage that I was lucky to document in Co Tyrone. Despite its present condition, however, Cairndhu is not actually lost to the world: the roof remains intact; and the house might yet be pressed again into action.In Abandoned Ireland, discover Athassel Abbey on the banks of the River Suir and the largest medieval priory in Ireland; marvel at the imposing Carrigogunnel Castle, destroyed during the second siege of Limerick in 1691; explore Carrigglas Manor, a turreted fairytale exterior with a bloody history; see Hilden Mill, a former factory with ghostly sightings; explore the creepy, overgrown ruin of Ennis District Lunatic Asylum in County Clare; and wander the ruins of Rinn Dúin (“fortified headland”) overlooking the River Shannon, a key military and trading town fought over by Norman barons and Irish chieftains. DERELICT COTTAGE, WATERVILLE, COUNTRY KERRY: Connolly says there are many derelict cottages across Ireland, which shows 'signs of rural depopulation, as people have been attracted elsewhere by better prospects than living off the land'.

It was while peeling back the layers of this house and photographing its state of raw dereliction that I found I was more interested in the history of these buildings and people who lived in them than the paranormal. Cairndhu is the epitome of abandonment: its windows are bricked up, the once-elegant ironwork of its wide veranda sorry and rusting. They were constructed to house those who were ‘poverty stricken’ and some who were sent there for punishment. These could be homes, hospitals, mills, workhouses, churches, schools, courthouses and even castles. Today, remnants of the country’s heritage can be found in every corner of this fascinating land, from the thinly inhabited west coast to the modern, populated areas of Leinster.We all pass by properties everyday that eventually we overlook but have wondered about, this book tells some of those buildings stories. Princess Margaret has even been recorded visiting the house and having lunch there while on a tour of Northern Ireland.