Politics, Pleasure and Empire - Part 2 | The Lyric Feature
May 31, 2026 · 57 min · 9 segments
Mary Brophy explores the influences, characters and obsessions that brought Ireland's historic gardens into being. Part 2.
May 31, 2026 · 57 min · 9 segments
Mary Brophy explores the influences, characters and obsessions that brought Ireland's historic gardens into being. Part 2.
Mary BrophyHost
Finola O'KaneGuestTerence Reeve SmithGuest
Matthew JebbGuestPowerscourt Gardens StewardGuest
Turtle BunburyGuest
Sarah SlazengerGuestGarden HistorianGuest
Cian MurphyGuest
On a March morning in 1692, a 30-year-old Arthur Rawdon waited for news from the harbour in Carrickfergus.
Alehouses were crowded and from arriving ships, cases of French wine, silk cloths, tableware and books were being unloaded for the Ulster settlement.
His precious cargo and the return on an expensive investment made some three years earlier had not yet arrived.
He wrote to his friend, the botanist Hans Sloane, I much wonder what has become of James.
Well, the Rawdon's really, the story of Moira and Rawdon's really comes with the family, the Conway family.
The Conroy family became probably the richest landowners in Ireland by the 19th century.
They had inherited and acquired, should we say, in the early 17th century, vast estates in County Antrim and County Down around Lisbon, a huge sweep of land right up to Belfast.
The first agent that Fuchs Conway had in Ireland, now Conway was often an absentee, so he had an agent called, well, George Rawdon to start with.
And it becomes even more interesting when the estate is inherited by the second Viscount Conway.
um in the mid 17th century because he is particularly interested in gardening the first house in morrow was built by george rawdon in the early 17th century but it was massively enlarged and it had a very formal landscape associated with it both created by george rawdon and by his son sir arthur rawdon Huge landscape with canals, that's formal ponds that were a very common feature of these early gardens and various geometric bosquets and all the rest of it.
I mean a very impressive landscape altogether associated with the house and also associated with it was a kitchen garden obviously and it had a stove.
We don't know very much about the stove except that we knew he had to accommodate a thousand plants.
He shared a collector's passion for plants with his circle, including family friend Sir Han Sloane from Killyleagh, just 30 miles away.
He'd been elected to the Royal Society, he frequented the new Chelsea Physic Garden, and both he and Rawdon had developed a network of naturalists through which they sourced seeds and plants.
On a March morning in 1692, a 30-year-old Arthur Rawdon waited for news from the harbour in Carrickfergus.
Alehouses were crowded and from arriving ships, cases of French wine, silk cloths, tableware and books were being unloaded for the Ulster settlement.
His precious cargo and the return on an expensive investment made some three years earlier had not yet arrived.
He wrote to his friend, the botanist Hans Sloane, I much wonder what has become of James.
Well, the Rawdon's really, the story of Moira and Rawdon's really comes with the family, the Conway family.
The Conroy family became probably the richest landowners in Ireland by the 19th century.
They had inherited and acquired, should we say, in the early 17th century, vast estates in County Antrim and County Down around Lisbon, a huge sweep of land right up to Belfast.
The first agent that Fuchs Conway had in Ireland, now Conway was often an absentee, so he had an agent called, well, George Rawdon to start with.
And it becomes even more interesting when the estate is inherited by the second Viscount Conway.
um in the mid 17th century because he is particularly interested in gardening the first house in morrow was built by george rawdon in the early 17th century but it was massively enlarged and it had a very formal landscape associated with it both created by george rawdon and by his son sir arthur rawdon Huge landscape with canals, that's formal ponds that were a very common feature of these early gardens and various geometric bosquets and all the rest of it.
I mean a very impressive landscape altogether associated with the house and also associated with it was a kitchen garden obviously and it had a stove.
We don't know very much about the stove except that we knew he had to accommodate a thousand plants.
He shared a collector's passion for plants with his circle, including family friend Sir Han Sloane from Killyleagh, just 30 miles away.
He'd been elected to the Royal Society, he frequented the new Chelsea Physic Garden, and both he and Rawdon had developed a network of naturalists through which they sourced seeds and plants.
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