Public Space, Private Life

This autobiography recounts the life of a young man who returns to Ireland to take over Slane castle, his family's dramatic ancestral seat by the banks of the river Boyne. He chronicles the influence of the estate on his family and the struggle of maintaining a stately home in contemporary Ireland, in parallel with the difficulties of having an Anglo-Irish background in the present-day Republic. The story ranges from the very public excitement of the internationally renowned rock concerts featuring U2, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Queen to the more established and agricultural aspects of the estate.