Professor Kevin B. Nowlan, who served as chairman of the Castletown Foundation with great distinction until his death aged 91 in 2013.
The Castletown Foundation has eleven members, made up of a chairperson, vice-chairperson, and nine directors. The Foundation has always strived to include a broad range of interests and expertise amongst its directors, spanning the academic, conservation, heritage, planning and tourism spheres. Through its members the Foundation also maintains close ties with the local community in Celbridge, and further afield in County Kildare.
The current directors are:
Chairperson: David Sheehan is a leading conservation architect, and is a partner in Sheehan & Barry Architects. His architectural knowledge, practical experience and aesthetic sensibilities have been and continue to be of great benefit to the Foundation. Together with Jeanne Meldon he succeeded Christopher Moore as Joint Chair of the foundation in 2018.
Frances Bailey is the National Trust’s curator in Northern Ireland, and is currently working at Mount Stewart, one of the Trust’s most important properties in Northern Ireland. She brings her practical experience and the knowledge gained through her work with the National Trust to the Foundation. Together with other directors she is leading the development of the Foundation’s acquisitions policy and, in partnership with the OPW, the conservation management plan.
Professor Christine Casey is Professor of Architectural History at Trinity College Dublin, where her research interests focus on architecture and ornament in eighteenth-century Britain and Ireland. She has published extensively on eighteenth-century Irish plasterwork, and on Dublin’s architecture. Her most recent book is the prize-winning
Roddy Feely is one of the longest-serving members of the Castletown Foundation. As company secretary he has special responsibility for managing the Foundation’s finances and accounts.
Dr Alison Fitzgerald Dr Alison FitzGerald is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Maynooth University where she specialises in the history of Irish design and material culture. Her publications include Silver in Georgian Dublin: Making, Selling, Consuming (Routledge 2016).
Dr Conor Lucey is Associate Professor in architectural history in the School of Art History and Cultural Policy at UCD and a Board Member of the Irish Georgian Society. His book, Building Reputations: Architecture and the Artisan, 1750-1830 (Manchester University Press, 2018) received the prestigious Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion, awarded by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain for a book that “provides an outstanding contribution to the study or knowledge of architectural history”.
Adrian Masterson brings his background in finance to bear on the Foundation’s activities. He is also a trustee of the Alfred Beit Foundation.
Pat Murray is a collector and a Board Member of the Irish Georgian Society. He has played a key role in augmenting the Foundation’s collections.
June Stuart, is a resident of Celbridge, where she lives in Kildrought House built in 1725 by Speaker Conolly’s close associate Robert Baillie. She has played and continues to play a significant role in protecting the town’s eighteenth-century heritage, and acts as an invaluable link between the Foundation and local interest groups including the Celbridge Action Alliance and the Celbridge Historical Society.
Dr Patrick Walsh is Assistant Professor of Eighteenth-Century Irish History and a Fellowat Trinity College Dublin. He is the author of The Making of the Irish Protestant Ascendancy: The Life of William Conolly, 1662-1729 (Woodbridge, 2010) and (with Anthony Malcomson) The Conolly Archive (Dublin 2010). In 2007 he wrote the current guide book to Castletown.
Patrons
Patrick Conolly-Carew, 7th Baron Carewgrew up at Castletown, an experience detailed in the book Children of Castletown which he wrote with his siblings Diana and Sally in 2012, and his presence on the Foundation emphasises the close links that the Conolly-Carew family have maintained with Castletown long after their sale of the house and its collections in the 1960s.
Matt McNulty is a former Director General of Bord Failte,the Irish tourist board, and brings his considerable experience in the tourism sector to the Foundation. He is also a director of the Irish Heritage Trust. He retired as a director of the Foundation after many years service in June 2018
Christopher Moore succeeded the late Professor Kevin B. Nowlan as chairman of the Foundation in 2013. Christopher has had a long association with Castletown going back to his student days, and served as curator of the house during the 1980s. A passionate advocate for the house and its collections work with the Office of Public Works has helped ensure that the house and its collections are conserved and presented to the highest possible standards. Christopher retired as a director of the Foundation in June 2018 but will remain on board as a Patron.
The Castletown Foundation 