09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Ancestral Kerry home of Daniel O'Connell to feature on new TV series
Legacy is a new four part documentary series for RTÉ featuring 15 of Ireland's National Historic Properties with each episode having a specific theme: Centres of Power, Writers and Collectors, Memory and Commemoration, and The Art of the Portrait.
The first episode features four properties, each one a centre of power, and this includes Derrynane house - ancestral home of lawyer, politician and statesman, Daniel O'Connell, known worldwide as The Great Liberator, and whom some called the unofficial King of Ireland.
Daniel O'Connell worked on his campaigns for Catholic Emancipation and for Irish freedom from British rule at Derrynane and held court there like an old Gaelic Chieftain.
His greatest triumph was achieving Catholic Emancipation in 1829, giving Catholics the right to sit in Parliament.
After O'Connell's death, the house remained the O'Connell family home until, in 1948, the Derrynane Trust was founded, preserving the house as a museum and memorial to Daniel O'Connell.
In 1964, the house was transferred to the Commissioners of Public Works, and following restoration work completed in 1967, the house was officially opened by President Eamon De Valera.
This year will mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O'Connell so it is fitting tribute to the man and his seat of power in Kerry to be part of the series.
Writer and director of Legacy David Hare, who wrote and directed Great Lighthouses of Ireland, explains the background to the documentary.
'The traditional way to approach this subject would be chronologically or geographically, but instead we've done so thematically. The thematic approach enabled us to include very different and seemingly unrelated buildings and sites from very different eras, and weave them together so that the connections between them become clear.'
The first episode also features Dublin Castle, Oldbridge House, located beside the River Boyne, and Pearse Museum in St Enda's Park in Rathfarnham. From their power bases in Derrynane and Rathfarnham, using very different methods and separated by almost a century, Daniel O'Connell and Patrick Pearse fought back against British rule.
Legacy will air on RTE one on Sunday May 11 at 6.30pm.
