Emo Court

Emo Court, located near the village of Emo in County Laois, Ireland, is a large neo-classical mansion, formal and symmetrical in its design. Architectural features of the building include sash-style windows, pavilions, a balustrade, a hipped roof, and large dome. It was designed by the architect James Gandon in 1790 for John Dawson, the first Earl of Portarlington. It is one of the few houses to have been designed by Gandon, another including Roslyn Park, Sandymount.

Other buildings by him include the Custom House and Kings Inns, both in Dublin. Gandon was so busy with his work in Dublin that he found little time to work on Emo Court. This may be one of the reasons that it took so many years for Emo Court to be made habitable, let alone finished. The house and gardens were taken into ownership by the Irish state in the 1990s, and now managed by the Office of Public Works. The estate is open to visitors.

When the 1st Earl (John Dawson, 1st Earl of Portarlington; 1744–1798) died, his new house was under construction – but far from finished. The 2nd Earl (John Dawson, 2nd Earl of Portarlington; 1781–1845) employed new architects to continue the work. The building became habitable during his lifetime.

However, when he died 47 years later, it was still unfinished and in the aftermath of the Great Famine (1845–1852), came near to being sold. By the 1860s, the 3rd Earl (Henry John Reuben Dawson-Damer, 3rd Earl of Portarlington; 1822–1889) succeeded in bringing Emo Court to a state closely resembling that which welcomes visitors today. Some elements of the basic structure are faithful to the original plans of James Gandon. However, while Gandon was involved in the first twenty years of its building, given how long the building was in development, little more than his name can be connected with the house which finally came into being.

Emo Court was in its heyday in the final forty years of the 19th century. However, after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and, two years later, the Easter Rising and subsequent War of Independence, the Earls of Portarlington, like many Protestants and most of the Anglo-Irish nobility and gentry, left what would become the Irish Free State permanently, and the house was shut up. In 1920, the estate, which extended over nearly 20 square miles (52 km²), was sold to the Irish Land Commission. The house remained unoccupied, while most of the land was distributed to local farmers.

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