`Disintegrating slowly, its ghostly spectre haunts the countryside and our interest . . . Surely some accountability is in order?" The words of one of a group of US citizens on the dramatic ruin which is Tyrone House in Kilcolgan, Co Galway.
In fact, so concerned is the group, including Tom O'Gorman, a Chicago-based journalist, and Mr Gordon St George Mark, a descendant of the St George family which formerly owned the 18th century building, that the issue will be raised with members of Galway's local authority on a forthcoming visit to the US.
Galway is twin city with Chicago, and the Galway committee of Chicago Sister Cities International intends to use this link to press its case. It believes that the State should intervene to take over the derelict house, which was torched during the War of Independence in 1920 and has been subject to continued looting ever since.
Designed by John Roberts, the 18th-century Co Waterford architect who was also responsible for Co Mayo's Moorehall, Tyrone House's significance overlooking the famous oyster beds of Kilcolgan is widely regarded as more historical than architectural.
It inspired Somerville and Ross's The Big House of Inver, and has been used as illustrative material, most recently in Yeats's Images of Ireland by Alain Le Garner and Bernard McCabe.
Though horses and hunting would have been their passion, the former residents had their indirect literary links. The St George family mausoleum was immortalised in the late Sir John Betjeman's poem, Ireland with Emily. George Henry Moore referred to the residence in An Irish Gentleman, when he described how members of his own family had "given up all else" in the mid-19th century for racing and riding.
"Their favourite hunting grounds were in Tipperary with Lord Waterford, in Galway with Mr St George of Tyrone House, and at Melton."
Now that there are tentative plans to restore Moore's own family home in Co Mayo, the Galway committee of Chicago Sister Cities International believes that Tyrone House should also be afforded such recognition by its county authority.
As reported in this column late last year, Coillte has been in contact with Mayo County Council with a view to handing over Moorehall, provided that plans for restoration by a local community group are well structured and funded.
To date, the handover has not been completed and the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, is holding off on further support until detailed costings are available.
Tyrone House is a listed building but the difficulty for the State is the question of ownership. In private hands for many years, it was to have been purchased by Gordon Mark and the Irish Georgian Society with a view to conservation, but there was a hitch en route.
Mr O'Gorman, contributing editor to the World of Hibernia magazine, believes that the former owners effectively "abdicated any responsibility for safeguarding this important piece of Irish history" and that the State must step in.
Over the years, arches, fireplaces, balustrades and cut stones have been removed; some of the cut stones were sold for use in buildings in the Galway and Clare area.
"The new Local Government Planning Development Bill of 1998 would appear to be one opportunity for a solution to this dilemma," said Mr O'Gorman. "However, this legislation has not been enforced by local authorities. Should not the State uphold the legacy of this splendid remnant of lost Ireland? Certainly this should be the response of a thoughtfully civilised society."
Prof Etienne Rynne, recently retired professor of archaeology at NUI Galway, believes that even if Tyrone House was taken into official care, the serious damage done to the remaining limestone structure would make restoration impossible.
"It is a very dramatic ruin as it is, and probably should be left like that."
Mr Jim Higgins, Galway City Council's newly appointed heritage officer, says there is a strong case for State care as it is one of the only buildings of its period in the area.
He believes that not enough efforts have been made to protect architectural heritage dating after 1700. The new architectural heritage Bill aims to afford greater protection to monuments dating after 1700. In Tyrone House's case, the building could be "stabilised, conserved and made safe" for future generations.