Lismount House,

Co. Cork.

Documenting our Heritage

The Reali family of Lismount descend from Joseph Reali who had moved to Ireland from Italy. Joseph was a tutor who first obtained employment in Paris. Later he met an Irish gentleman who invited him to his home in Co. Limerick. Joseph went on to become land agent to Mr Oliver of Castle Oliver. Later, he married Harriet Graham and they lived at Hoar Abbey, Cashel. Their son, also called Joseph built Lismount house around 1850. This Joseph Reali was a land agent for the Barry family of Ballyclaugh.

Lismount House is two-stories high over a basement, three bays at the front and four bays at the side. It was built in the Georgian style with some Victorian features. The fanlit doorway is accessed by limestone steps, forming a bridge over the narrow moat which adjoins the front of the house. Joseph was said to have built the new house for his wife who had long been an acute sufferer of asthma. She was advised to live on high, dry ground, so the site of the house was carefully chosen.

Joseph Reali died on the 9th July 1885. He is buried at St Mary the Virgin's, Gloucestershire. His son, Redmond, who had been born at Lismount on the 20th January 1859 became one of the principle land owners in Fermoy. Redmond inherited his father’s estate and renamed the house Lismount after a large fairy fort which lay to the south-west of the house. Redmond is recorded at the house in the 1901 census: Redmond Reali, age 40, farmer. His wife Evelyn Maud, who was born in Bray, Co. Wicklow and whom Redmond had married on the 16th April 1895 at St. Stephen's, Dublin is also recorded at the house, along with their servant Marg Ryan.

Redmond's daughter Vivian inherited the Lismount estate. She immigrated to Scotland where she married Mr Paisley, a flour miller. Vivian sold the house to John Hosford in 1921 for £5550. The Hosfords were the last to live in the house, they left in about 1953.

This article is the copyright of Tarquin Blake, Abandoned Ireland, and may not be reproduced in any form without permission.