Strokestown Park

The house served as the family home to the Mahons, a well-known military family, from the 1600s until 1981. Captain Nicholas Mahon was the first to be granted around 2,700 acres in the Barony of Roscommon in February 1666 while he was later granted over 3,000 acres in the baronies of Roscommon and Ballintober in July 1678.{{cite web |title=Strokestown House |url=https://www.irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/buildings-database/strokestown-house#:~:text=Thomas%20Mahon%20MP%20(1701%2D1782,of%20Strokestown%20in%20July%201800. |website=www.irelandxo.com |access-date=13 February 2023 |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Mc Kenny |first1=Kevin |title=Charles II's Irish Cavaliers: The 1649 Officers and the Restoration Land Settlement |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30008159 |website=Irish Historical Studies |access-date=13 February 2023 |pages=409–425 |date=1993}}{{cite web |title=Mahon/Pakenham-Mahon {{!}} Landed Estates {{!}} NUI Galway |url=https://landedestates.ie/estate/1463 |website=landedestates.ie |access-date=13 February 2023}} The later grant was originally in the possession of the O'Conor Roe and became the Strokestown estate.

In 1696, a house appeared to have been completed by John Mahon which had earlier been started by his father Captain Nicholas Mahon. This was likely built on top of a ruinous sixteenth century castle structure which was said to have been destroyed in 1552 by Mac Diarmada.{{cite web |last1=Maxwell |first1=Nick |title=Strokestown Park, County Roscommon |url=https://www.historyireland.com/strokestown-park-county-roscommon/ |website=History Ireland |access-date=13 February 2023 |date=30 June 2016}}

By the early 18th century, the estate comprised over {{convert|11000|acre|ha}}, scattered throughout northeast County Roscommon. Later, his great-grandson, Maurice Mahon, purchased several additional lands, following elevation to the Peerage of Ireland as the first Baron Hartland in 1800.

Many evictions of poor tenant farmers occurred during the Great Famine. The Mahon family alone in 1847 evicted 3,000 people.History of Ireland (2008), History Ireland, Volume 16 (No.6 (November–December 2008)) After the killing of Major Denis Mahon in November 1847, as a direct reaction to the large scale deaths of those sent on famine ships to Canada by the Strokestown estate {{cite web| url = http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A10423868%3A0%3A%3A| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130302223746/http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html| archive-date = 2013-03-02| title = RTÉ Radio Player}} at the height of the Famine, his only daughter, Grace Catherine, vowed never to return to her ancestral seat. She was on honeymoon at the time, having been married only weeks earlier, to Henry Sandford Pakenham, son of Dean Henry Pakenham of Tullynally, and heir to the vast Pakenham and Sandford estates in counties Longford, Westmeath and Roscommon. Grace Catherine never returned to Strokestown, but her marriage undoubtedly saved the estate from bankruptcy. On the eve of the Famine, the estate was in debt with over £30,000 having accrued as a result of family dispute over inheritance{{cite web| url = http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A10423868%3A0%3A%3A| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130302223746/http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html| archive-date = 2013-03-02| title = RTÉ Radio Player}} and expensive land purchases which had gathered from the second half of the eighteenth century.History Ireland, Volume 3, Issue 4. The marriage alliance (by which Henry Sandford Pakenham assumed the additional surname of Mahon), united the estates of both families to comprise over 26,000 acres, and the Strokestown estate remained one of the largest in County Roscommon until his death in 1893. The Pakenham fortune also enabled large scale investment in various estate improvement projects on the Strokestown estate, including drainage, turf cutting and agricultural schemes, development of the urban market in the town of Strokestown. However, despite the family fortunes improving, Strokestown continued a policy of assisted emigration to Canada and land clearances of tenant families.

File:Bilingual Irish English sign at the start of the National Famine Way in Strokestown Park, Roscommon (2022).jpg

In 1911 and 1912, over 8,600 acres were vested in the Congested Districts Board for Ireland in order to alleviate poverty by redistributing and making more efficient use of agricultural land.{{cite web |title=Mahon/Pakenham-Mahon {{!}} Landed Estates {{!}} NUI Galway |url=https://landedestates.ie/estate/1463 |website=landedestates.ie |access-date=13 February 2023}}

Since 1979, Strokestown Park has been owned by a County Roscommon-based company, the Westward Group. The last of the Mahon family, Olive Pakenham Mahon, left the house in 1981 and moved to England where she died a year later.{{cite web |title=An Irish Big House- The History of Strokestown Park House |url=https://www.enjoy-irish-culture.com/big-house-strokestown.html |website=Enjoy Irish Culture |access-date=13 February 2023}}{{cite web |title=Colonel Nicholas Hales Pakenham Mahon |url=https://www.independent.ie/world-news/colonel-nicholas-hales-pakenham-mahon-26852744.html |website=independent |access-date=13 February 2023 |language=en}}

In 1997, the {{convert|4|acre|ha|adj=on}} walled pleasure garden was officially opened by the then President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, having been faithfully restored.{{fact|date=June 2023}}

In 2013, Strokestown Park House was the setting for TV3's documentary, The Big House.

In 2022, the National Famine Museum and Palladian House were reopened after extensive restoration. The whole estate, while still privately owned, is now cared for and managed by the Irish Heritage Trust, a nonprofit charity.

The Strokestown estate houses the Irish National Famine Museum which contains some of the best records from the time of the Great Famine.S. Hood, "Through the gates—power and profit in Strokestown, County Roscommon", in Finn-Einar Elissen and Geir Atle Ersland (eds.), Power, profit and urban land. The museum was built by the Westward Group and all the documents on display are from the estate. The exhibit aims to explain the Great Famine and to draw parallels with the occurrence of famine elsewhere in the world today.{{cite web |title=Strokestown Park House Roscommon {{!}} Gardens, Parklands & Woodlands |url=https://strokestownpark.ie/ |website=Strokestown Park |access-date=13 February 2023}}

• [http://www.strokestownpark.ie/ Strokestown Park] - official site

{{Commons category|Strokestown Park House}}

{{Castles in Connacht}}

Category:Buildings and structures in County Roscommon

Category:Country houses in Ireland

Category:Museums in County Roscommon

Category:Historic house museums in the Republic of Ireland

Category:Palladian architecture in Ireland

Category:Strokestown