| Description |
Bary states that "Ballydowney is a very old house, probably built in the early 18th century. It was the house in which Robert Emmet, the patriot hanged in Dublin in 1803, was born. His mother was Elizabeth Mason". The Ordnance Survey Name Books record that the proprietor, St. John Mason, had leased the townland to Richard McGillycuddy in the 1830s. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation, the house was valued at £4 and being leased by Charles Daly from Daniel Cronin. In the early 1940s, the Irish Tourist Association Survey also refers to the possible association with Robert Emmet though it indicates that this story may refer to an earlier house, "replaced by the present one, built about a hundred years ago". In 1942 it was occupied by a Mr. Blanchfield and is still extant. |
