Muckross House in Killarney National Park celebrates its Golden Jubilee.
President Patrick Hillery officiates at today's ceremony at Muckross House, which include a guard of honor drawn from the Southern Command.
Fifty years ago Senator Arthur Rose Vincent gifted this Victorian mansion to the state in memory of his wife Maud Bowers Bourn Vincent. The park and gardens were opened to the public but the house remained closed until 1964.
The Muckross estate formed the basis of Ireland’s first national park.
Over the past number of years the Office of Public Works (OPW) has acquired land in the immediate vicinity to enlarge the park, as well as undertaking restoration work on Muckross House. Today Killarney National Park covers an area of 22,000 acres.
Ireland currently lags behind the rest of Europe in terms of national parks, but the OPW is working to correct the balance with the opening of Glenveagh National Park in County Donegal and have started to acquire land to create a new national park in the Burren, County Clare.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 16 June 1983. The reporter is Michael Walsh.
