What a wonderful boost when out of the ashes of the coronavirus pandemic arose a brilliant new concept for Lissadell.
The owners of Lissadell decided to make their home the concert capital of Ireland at a time when families and businesses all over the country are struggling to deal with the worst crisis of their lives.
Eddie Walsh, wife Constance Cassidy and their seven children must have been devastated when coronavirus overnight in March wrecked the tourist season, a vital source of income to keep Lissadell open.
Somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 visitors this year to the former home of 1916 hero Constance Markievicz were written off.
That was a huge blow to the fortune needed to pay the Lissadell bills.
It was a massive setback that would have ruined many families’ plans for their future of their home.
Instead, the Walsh/Cassidys – as they had done before when battling to save their home – gritted their teeth and once more set about working for the survival of Lissadell.
Phoenix-like, out of the ashes of Covid-19, has emerged a plan to hold 12 concerts a year at Lissadell for the next five years.
Two of Ireland’s greatest show organisers, Harry Crosbie and Peter Aiken, were recruited. They plan a series of one-off concerts in a sloping out-door area with no crowd seating, but with a permanent stage which, I imagine, will be located somewhere near where Leonard Cohen and Westlife performed during a memorable weekend in 2010.
I was at one of the Cohen concerts in Lissadell.
I’ve attended shows in Croke Park and the 3Arena when it was The Point, the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park in London, extraordinary events in Wembley, New York, San Francisco and Florida.
All were magnificent but none, and I must emphasise this, none was as memorable as Cohen at Lissadell.
It wasn’t just Cohen’s own magnificent performance, or his love of the fact that he was singing where WB Yeats loved to visit. Lissadell was brilliant because of its situation in front of Sligo Bay and beneath the distinctive mountains of Benbulben on one side and Knocknarea on the other.
There is no better outdoor venue in Ireland, and I sincerely hope Sligo County Council will keep its word reported last week that it is delighted at the prospect of issuing licences for the concerts.
What is not wanted in any circumstances is the ill-informed idiocy at the council which prompted a long-running rights-of-way battle which the Lissadell owners eventually won at a cost to the taxpayer of round €7 million.
That nearly put an end to the Lissadell project with Eddie Walsh, despite his court victory, so disenchanted that he was prepared to give up his Co. Sligo home and his plans for it.
Fortunately he was persuaded to stay and continue his development because his children love the place so much.
One of them, young Constance Walsh who is called Baby by the rest of her family, was recently appointed the estate and events coordinator.
Her big plans include the renting of a lovely seafront house on the estate that was renovated by the children, but also the management of the tours of Lissadell and the shop and cafe.
Baby was obviously already thinking of running concerts at Lissadell even before coronavirus, because last November she revealed plans for what she called geodesic bubble domes – a kind of open-space luxurious accommodation – which she would love to have for concerts.
It may be coincidence that the young woman who may be in charge of the concerts has the same Christian name as the 1916 hero who Sligo poet WB Yeats visited as a teenager at Lissadell.
Wouldn’t it be nice if one of the first bands to perform under Lissadell’s proposed new scheme would be Fontaines D.C, whose lead singer Grian Chatten writes poetry, was inspired by Yeats, and whose grandfather is from Sligo.
