A few little nuggets of history were thrown out at the official opening of the newly restored Formal Gardens at Birr Castle last Tuesday.
The first was a bound-to-be-disputed claim by the man who did the honours at the sun-drenched gardens, Senator David Norris, who claimed Queen Elizabeth of England had more Irish blood than Gerry Adams.
The senator, whose famous flow of language remains unmatched in this State, was praising the contribution made by the Rosse family in the area when he suddenly launched an attack on Mo Mowlam. He recalled Ms Mowlam's suggestion that the queen should be forced to move into "a bungalow in Putney." If that happened, he said, she would be welcome in Birr.
"After all, she is more Irish than Gerry Adams because she is a direct descendant of Brian Boru," he continued.
He also revealed that while the gardens and the family had survived all the major changes in Irish history, the family's peacocks had not.
"I was told that the Free State army ate the peacocks in 1922," he said.
Earlier, when Lord Rosse was praising the main sponsors of the restoration, Gallaher (Dublin), the tobacco manufacturers, he said his only link with the company was that his family had owned Myrtle Grove in Kinsale where tobacco was first smoked in Ireland in the 17th century.
It was that kind of day in Birr last Tuesday, when over 500 guests were allowed see for the first time the fully restored gardens which had been carried out under the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Programme.
This project, part of the operational programme for tourism under the guidance of Bord Failte, was assisted by a £100,000 grant from the Dublin tobacco company.
In all, the project took two years to complete and cost just over half-a-million pounds. It was well worth every penny because it is beautiful.
In total, there are 50 hectares of formal gardens and under the care of head gardener Peter Hynes and his team of FAS employees, a wonderful landscape has been created.
The project won the support of the National Millennium Committee, which allowed the Rosse family to name the gardens, "The Millennium Gardens".
The gardens are quite unique because they date back to the 17th century but most of the layout re-created by the last two years' work was based on the design of the Sixth Earl of Rosse and his wife Anne, in 1935.
For garden lovers, the delphinium border, a wonderful herbaceous border which was in full blossom on Tuesday, shines out in shades of blue, cream, yellow and white.
Designed on three levels, the gardens contain hundreds of plants which reveal their beauty over the entire year and is a location for some of the oldest rose trees in the State.
The lower level of the garden features old Scotch roses, planted near towering giant redwoods and a box-wood walk which, it is claimed, is the tallest box in the world.
The structure of the Millennium Gardens is formed by the arrangement of box-wood hedging and hornbeam. An elaborate pattern of intertwining box-plants trace the initials "R" of the Rosse family in the gravel base.
It is expected that the gardens, which were laid by Peter Hynes and his team to plans devised by landscape architect Angela Jupe, will boost tourism numbers to the castle to 80,000 annually.
It is hoped that this will inject upwards of £1 million per annum into the local economy.
Anyone wishing to visit the castle and its restored gardens and telescope can call 0509-20336.