with the advice of James, 1st Duke of Leinster, her brother-in law. The ceiling is based on that in the first floor dining room in Leinster House, designed by Isaac Ware. On the west wall, the posthumous portrait of William Conolly, in his robes as Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, was painted by Stephen Catterson Smith and is based on Jervas' portrait in the Green Drawing Room. Original to Castletown are the two 18th-century giltwood tables as are the three gilded mirrors or pier glasses. The Butler’s Pantry Here, food that had been brought from the kitchens in the west wing, quite a distance away, was reheated before being served in the Dining Room. The Brown Study Used as an office and later as a breakfast parlour, this room retains its original 1720s pine panelling and tall narrow oak doors. The Red Drawing Room One of a series of State rooms used on important occasions in the 18th century, it was redesigned in the mid 1760s and completed c.1768. The ceiling is based on a published design by Sebastiano Serlio. Much of the furniture is original to the room and is displayed in the formal arrangment of the 18th century. The walls are covered in damask probably dating from the late 19th century. The Green Drawing Room Again, the whole design of this room reflects the influence of Isaac Ware’s interiors at Leinster House. Originally lined with green silk, traces of which survived, the wall covering has recently been replaced with green silk woven in France. This was the principal reception room or saloon where the Conollys formally received visitors to the house. Either side of the central door are two portraits by Charles Jervas, on the right is the portrait of Speaker Conolly and on the left that of his wife Katherine with her niece. The Print Room One of the earliest print rooms and probably the only intact 18th century one left in Ireland, the decoration of this room is attributed to Lady Louisa Conolly, wife of Tom Conolly and her sister who, as was the fashion for the time, cut out favourite prints and decorative borders to attach to the walls and screens. The Conolly Bedroom Until his death in 1729, the Conolly Bedroom would have been used by Speaker Conolly in the morning to receive important guests as was the custom in the French Court. The mock leather wall paper dates from the 1840s, when this room became a library. The Healy Room Originally a dressing or sitting room, this now contains photographic enlargements of drawings of horses belonging to Tom Conolly. The drawings are the work of the gifted young Irish artist, Robert Healy. The Map Room or Closet The estate maps from the 1750s show the formal layout of the park, avenues and the orderly plantation of trees. The panelling dating from the 1720s has been painted over with Victorian wood ‘graining’. The Upper Corridors On the first floor are the principal bedrooms. Lady Louisa's apartment consists of her boudoir, bedroom and dressing room. The Pastel Room The pastel room contains a collection of pastel portraits, including seven by the Irish pastellist Hugh Douglas Hamilton. The Long Gallery Redecorated in the mid 1770s in the Pompeian style by two English artists, Charles Reuben Riley and Thomas Ryder, the Long Gallery measures almost 27m by 7.5m. This was perhaps Lady Louisa's favourite room and was used as a living room. At either end of the room over the chimney pieces, are portraits of Tom and Louisa Conolly. The glass chandeliers were made in Venice. When they eventually arrived, Lady Louisa wrote that “the chandeliers have arrived intact but they are the wrong blue for the room.” The statue of Diana stands in the central niche with above it the painting of Aurora, goddess of the dawn, derived from a ceiling decoration by Guido Reni. The Obelisk Paid for by his widow, the Conolly Folly or Obelisk, closes the vista to the back of the House and can be seen from the Long Gallery. A monument to Speaker Conolly, it was built in 1740 as a Famine Relief Scheme, the design being attributed to Richard Cassels (Castle). The Family William Conolly, (1662-1729) the son of a prosperous Donegal innkeeper, was of a relatively humble background. He was elected M.P. for the Borough of Donegal in 1692 and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in 1715. By the 1720s, he was acknowledged to Castletown Castletown, Co. Kildare, is Ireland’s largest and finest Palladian-style country house. Background: a design for the layout of the Park, c.1739 The construction of Castletown began around 1722 for William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. The facade of the main block was designed by the Italian architect Alessandro Galilei (1691-1737) whose best known work is the facade that he added to the old basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. Built in the style of a 16th century Italian town palace, most of the work on Castletown was supervised by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, a young Irish architect, employed by Speaker Conolly in 1724 to complete the project. Pearce had, at that time, recently returned from Italy, where he had been acquainted with Galilei. He added the colonnades linking the east and west pavilions to the main body of the House. The interior was unfinished at the time of Speaker Conolly’s death in 1729 and it was only in 1758, after the marriage of his great-nephew Tom Conolly, who had inherited Castletown, that this work recommenced. During the 1760s and 1770s the restrained neo-classical designs of the English architect, Sir William Chambers influenced the decoration of some of the main rooms of the House. The Entrance Hall and Staircase The impressive two-storeyed entrance hall with its black and white chequered floor,was designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and is unchanged since the building of Castletown. At gallery level, there are tapering pilasters with baskets of flowers and fruit carved in wood. The chimney-piece is of black Kilkenny marble. The grand staircase of cantilevered Portland stone with its balustrade of brass columns was not built until 1760, the work being carried out under the direction of Simon Vierpyl, a protégé of Sir William Chambers. The walls were decorated in the rococo stuccowork manner, typical of the Swiss-Italian Lafranchini brothers. This incorporated family portraits including, at the foot of the stairs, the bust of Tom Conolly, William's great-nephew. The four seasons are represented by four heads on the piers at ground level. The Dining Room Originally two smaller panelled rooms, the dining room was completed in 1767 by Lady Louisa, wife of Tom Conolly, Background: The Print Room continued overleaf The Long Gallery Lady Louisa (1743 – 1821) after Sir Joshua Reynolds (The Irish Architectural Archive) Ceiling plasterwork in the Long Gallery Plasterwork detail. (The Irish Architectural Archive)