The first phase of the £5 million restoration of historic Fota House near Cork has been completed at a cost of £3 million and by next March, the house will be open to the public.
The painstaking restoration, involving highly specialised craftsmen, has been overseen by the Office of Public Works (OPW).
Over the coming weeks, the UK firm, Robin Wade Design Partners, will begin furnishing the ground floor and installing multi-media units which will interpret its long and colourful history for visitors.
The completion of phase one opens up enormous possibilities for the house, one of the finest grand houses in the State, and paves the way for the second phase which will see the £2 million refurbishment of the two upper floors.
The entire project should be completed by 2005.
Fota House was originally a small hunting lodge, built in the 18th century by John Barry, fourth son of the fourth Earl of Barrymore, who married Dorothy Smith, a wealthy heiress.
They founded the Smith Barry line, a name that has been connected down the generations with Fota. Their descendant, John Smith Barry, had aspirations on a grander scale and commissioned the architects William and Richard Morrison to convert the hunting lodge into the imposing pile which greets visitors to Fota Island today.
But not too many years ago, the very fabric of Fota House was in danger. Water was seeping in through the roof and walls, timbers were rotting, the chimney stacks were in danger of collapse and the roof looked as if it would cave in.
Some of the inner walls were crumbling and with them, the delicate plaster work that distinguished the interior of the house. It had come to the point where insurers were refusing to cover public liability on the house.
As a matter of priority, the house had to be made safe and dry before a thorough assessment could be made of its condition and of how it might be saved.
But slowly and painstakingly, artisans have lovingly restored the cornicing, ceilings and walls of the ground floor. As the house was taking shape under the guidance of the Morrisons, Smith Barry also began work on the parkland as well as the demesne and sea walls.
He entertained lavishly at the house and was known in the locality as "John the magnificent".
The refurbishment of the house began under the Fota Trust in 1998. Key members of the body are Cork County Council and Cork Corporation, the OPW and D·chas as well as Prof Tom Raftery who, as head of the department of agriculture at UCC, persuaded the college to purchase the 780-acre Fota Island estate in 1975.
That move, undoubtedly, saved the amenity that Fota Island is from being broken up into private development lots and preserved as an oasis of beauty and calm on the outskirts of Cork .
It has been said that Fota is to Cork what the Phoenix Park is to Dublin. The analogy is not overstated. The estate now boasts the highly successful Fota Wildlife Park and the Fota Island Golf Club, home this year to the most successful Irish Open ever. The event was beamed to millions of viewers and established Fota as a major golfing venue.
Fota will also host next year's Murphy's Irish Open. The Wildlife Park continues to go from strength to strength and despite being closed for nine weeks this year due to the foot-and-mouth scare, visitor numbers for the year will top last year's record of 240,000.
The restoration of the ground floor of the house under the OPW, and the gardens adjoining it, under D·chas, the Heritage Service, has completed the picture. D·chas has overseen the restoration of the Fota Orangery, and a sunken garden, which has been rediscovered, should also be open to the public by next March.
As well as many specimen trees collected from all over the world, the gardens contain 163 varieties of Irish-grown daffodils, the only collection of its kind open to the public.
According to Mr Alan McEnery, manager of Fota House and gardens, Robin Wade Design Partners have already worked with the Jameson Distillery in Dublin, the Hunt Museum in Limerick as well as the Cobh Heritage centre and the Midleton Distillery in Cork.
Specialists in fitting out period houses, they will be on site at Fota within two weeks to begin bringing the restored ground floor alive.
This floor includes the drawing room, library, main entrance, dining room, gallery, billiard room, flower room, ante room, kitchens and old servants' quarters.
From March 15th next, this part of the house will be open all year round, except for the Christmas period, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday.
As welcome as groups and individuals will be, it is in the evening, when the house is closed to visitors, that it will really begin to earn its keep.
The plan is to offer Fota House as a venue for corporate entertainment. The newly installed kitchens will be able to cater for groups of up to 70 on an exclusive basis at a cost of about £60 per person.
The house will also offer a marquee service in the gardens and one of the great advantages of Fota Island is that it has its own railway station on the main Cork/Cobh line.
There are plans too to liaise with the National Museum and to use the Fota House setting as a venue for touring art exhibitions.
And while these developments are taking shape, the next phase of the fund-raising campaign will also be getting underway.