By Patricia Keegan

Like hidden gold at the end of the rainbow, standing nobly in the hushed corners of Ireland’s countryside, these are the magnificent family estates aptly known as Irish Country Homes. Splendid, gracious and welcoming, they have the power to raise us above the clackety clak of a noisy world, to land on a cushion of refined ambience so surreal it’s like wandering through the pages of a Jane Austin novel.