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The clutter usually removed from sight for interiors shots is centre stage in photographs of Irish country houses, inspiring questions about the people who lived, loved and died in them, writes EILEEN BATTERSBY

EVEN DEEPER THAN nostalgia is the sense of sadness that lingers in a forgotten space. We come to pay homage at the homes of long-dead writers and gaze respectfully at the pens carefully placed on a desk never again to be disturbed, or study a composer’s piano now silent although the music remains. A photograph of a grand drawing room may inspire thoughts about the lady who once presided over gatherings there on a winter’s evening, but genuine emotion is reserved for the images of more private, neglected corners. That oyster-coloured dressing gown frozen in time, photographed more than two decades ago, hanging on the back of an upstairs room in Lissadell House: who wore it? What happened to her? We presume it was a she, but about her we know nothing.