Historic Houses of Ireland hosts a two-day conference on 21 and 22 October 2025 at Lisnavagh House in Co Carlow.
The event features panel discussions and networking under the theme Living Heritage: Public, Private and Shared Futures for Historic Houses. Confirmed panellists include Darina Allen, Catherine Fitzgerald, Hugh Wallace, Laura Fitzachary, Santina Kennedy and Robert O’Byrne.
HHI represents over 200 private heritage properties, from thatched cottages to large estates like Kilruddery and Stradbally. Members contribute to local economies through tourism, food, drink and community events while preserving biodiversity in parklands and woodlands.
Thomas Emmet shared: “The charity represents over 200 houses in private heritage and that’s anything from thatch vernacular up to the large estates like Kilruddery or Stradbally but we represent members, we put on events for them and we connect them with heritage experts in order to keep the preservation of their fantastic houses going into the next generation.”
A lot of our members would be open to the public, it’s not a requirement for membership but what we’re seeing is that there is a trend towards a lot of our members see that the future of historic houses is having them open to the public whether that’s as museums, house and garden tours or as research centres.”
My parents will get to retirement at some point and I think there is a need for there to be a network of people that are talking to each other about what it means to take over these historic houses and the challenges but also the opportunities that are there.”I’m in the middle of looking at lighthouses that could be potential members, I was at the Irish Light conference last week, we’re a fast growing organisation but we’re also Ireland’s largest private heritage organisation.”
