Rossenarra House is a country house situated in new Rossenarra Demesne (formerly Castlehale and Snugsborough), near the village of

Kilmoganny Kilmoganny (officially Kilmaganny; ) is a small village in the County Kilkenny in the south-east of Ireland. Saint Mogeanna was an Irish virgin whose feast day in the Irish Calendar of Saints is 29 January. It is home to a primary school, post ...

in County Kilkenny,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It is thought in local lore to have been designed by the architect

James Hoban James Hoban (1755 – December 8, 1831) was an Irish-American architect, best known for designing the White House. Life James Hoban was a Roman Catholic raised on Desart Court estate belonging to the Earl of Desart near Callan, County Kilkenny ...

, who was also responsible for designing the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It was built in 1819/24, the most likely designer being George R. Paine (who had worked in 1823 for William Morris-Reades relation the Ist Baron Carew) or Miles Kearney of Piltown (whose widow Ellen sued Williams widow for moneys owed in 1850). Built in the Palladian style, it was commissioned by William Morris-Reade, the owner of a large estate some 7,000 acres near

. It passed to William Morris-Reade's second son Frederick Richard Morris-Reade, who was born 1833 at Rossenarra and died as a pauper in the Work House at Michelstown,

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

in 1898. In 1850 and again in 1852 the whole estate and house was offered for sale by the Incumbent Estates Courts due to bankruptcy following the "Great Hunger" with some 1,500 acres being bought by the Morris family. In 1901/03 it came into the possession of the McEnery family who had been tenants of the house and some 1,000-odd acres of the remaining Reade Estates. It was sold to them by the Morris Reade descendants of Frederick's elder brother who were resident in Canada and where they still live. Sir

John Lavery Sir John Lavery (20 March 1856 – 10 January 1941) was a Northern Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime depictions. Life and career John Lavery was born in inner North Belfast, baptised at St Patrick's Church, Belfast an ...

, the Irish artist celebrated for his portraits and related to the McEnerys through marriage, resided at Rossenarra during the last few years of his life and died there on 10 January 1941. The house was also for a time the home of the American author

Richard Condon Richard Thomas Condon (March 18, 1915 – April 9, 1996) was an American political novelist. Though his works were satire, they were generally transformed into thrillers or semi-thrillers in other media, such as cinema. All 26 books were writte ...

, famous for such works as ''

The Manchurian Candidate ''The Manchurian Candidate'' is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. Th ...

'' and ''

Prizzi's Honor ''Prizzi's Honor'' is a 1985 American black comedy crime film directed by John Huston, starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner as two highly-skilled mob assassins who, after falling in love, are hired to kill each other. The screenplay co-w ...

''. Condon lived in Rossenarra from 1971 until he returned to the United States in 1980. During this time, famous guests to the house included

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

and Frank Sinatra. The title of Condon's memoir, ''

And Then We Moved to Rossenarra ''And Then We Moved to Rossenarra: or, The Art of Emigrating'' is a memoir by American political novelist Richard Condon, published by Dial Press in 1973. A native of New York City whose early career had mostly been that of a press agent for v ...

; Or, The Art of Emigrating'' (1973), refers to his time there. The most recent residents of the house were American tycoon Walter Griffith and his Irish-born wife, Christine.

References

Further reading