Devonshire Day Thank You

A big thank you to all of you who came to the Devonshire Day fundraiser for the Immrama Festival on March 14th, 2010.



Once again the weather was great although on the cool side, this was the 7th Devonshire Day and we yet have to get a really bad day weatherwise. St. Carthage is indeed looking after us well.



The cold winter leading up to the 14th of March resulted in very few flowers in the gardens, however the history alone of the castle and the garden is facinating and once again Chris Tull, Head gardener, had a very busy day as a guide.



The tea and cream was served in the Pugin room by the Duke's butlers, Michael, Leonard, Patrick, Simon and David who did a tremendous job of having everything ready on time for every group. They were ably assisted in the kitchen by Theresa and Esther.



Immrama committee members tried to guide all to the relevant parking spaces (difficult as parking spaces run out),ticket gate and Pugin room, while the Immrama Chairman, Bernard Leddy and Immrama President, Peter Dowd provided some historical information on the area and the 6th Duke during the tea and cream. Catherine provided a silent presence with her medic kit, just in case. She was not called upon.



The staff of the Heritage Centre were very helpful in the days leading up to the Devonshire Day assisting with the booking of tickets and were kept very busy on the day with the showing of the awardwinning audio-visual presentation on the History of Lismore, while Mealla made sure all who went through the gates had a ticket. Thank you all very much.



We had just over 300 visitors on the day and unfortunately, as in other years, we had to disapoint many people in the afternoon as the 3.00 pm and 4.10 pm tours had totally sold out.