Conservation efforts at The Laurels, the Glenties home of playwright Brian Friel’s mother, are projected to be largely finished by October.
This project is being undertaken as part of the Heritage Council’s Historic Towns Initiative, secured after Donegal County Council’s successful application for €300,000 in funding. The application was a collaborative effort between the council’s Conservation Office, Heritage Office, the Brian Friel Trust, and Dedalus Architecture. The award will be supplemented by €75,000 from Donegal County Council and additional funds from the Brian Friel Trust.
The goal is to have the majority of the work at The Laurels completed by early October of this year, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of Friel’s passing.
Glenties served as the inspiration for Friel’s fictional “Ballybeg,” and The Laurels cottage directly inspired his renowned play, “Dancing at Lughnasa.”
“Brian Friel was the most renowned Irish playwright of his generation and a gifted short-story writer with a deep affection for County Donegal,” explained Joseph Gallagher, County Donegal Heritage Officer.
“The Historic Towns Initiative will fund conservation work on the interior of The Laurels, a late-nineteenth-century building, provide services at the site, and implement the landscape management plan.”
Friel spent summers at The Laurels as a child, where his grandfather worked as the stationmaster in Glenties. His play “Dancing at Lughnasa” (1990) is dedicated to his mother, Christina McLoone, and his aunts, who spent their formative years at The Laurels and are immortalized as the Mundy sisters in the play. His uncle, Barney McLoone, inspired the character of the missionary priest who returns home in the play. The last McLoone sister, Maggie, resided at The Laurels until her death in the late 1950s, after which a local family purchased the house.
Upon the release of the film adaptation of “Dancing at Lughnasa” in 1998, Brian Friel, along with actresses Meryl Streep and Sophie Thompson, unveiled a commemorative plaque at the house.
Brian Friel passed away on October 2, 2015, and is buried in Glenties, a place he deeply loved.
“The Brian Friel Trust acquired the property in January 2016 and has been implementing a phased approach to its conservation and the establishment of the Brian Friel Centre in Glenties Courthouse,” said Seamus Neely, Chairperson of The Brian Friel Trust.
“The conservation and re-use of The Laurels is integral to our plans for establishing a Brian Friel Centre in Glenties. We are pleased to collaborate with Duncan McLaren, a Grade 1 conservation architect, garden designer Diarmuid Gavin, and building contractor Micheál Gallagher. The Brian Friel Trust’s long-term goal is to celebrate Brian Friel’s significant cultural legacy and his connection with Glenties. The conservation work planned under this year’s Historic Towns Initiative will restore The Laurels for use as an artist’s/caretaker’s residence and will provide a small outdoor performance area for Brian Friel’s works. We hope to have the majority of the work at The Laurels site completed by early October this year, in time for the commemoration of Brian’s tenth anniversary.”
Collette Beattie, Architectural Conservation Officer with Donegal County Council, stated that the Historic Towns Initiative will result in a total investment of over €460,000 at The Laurels site this year.
“This year’s work will build upon the conservation efforts undertaken last year to secure and improve the external building fabric of The Laurels and of Glenties Courthouse, which will house the proposed Brian Friel Centre,” she added.
Each year, every local authority can submit one application for conservation works and one application for a conservation management plan to the Historic Towns Initiative. The proposed works must be informed by a conservation plan-led approach and demonstrate significant community engagement. If you believe that your town meets, or is working towards meeting, the criteria for the Historic Towns Initiative, please contact the County Donegal Heritage Office at (074) 917 2576 or by e-mail at heritage@donegalcoco.ie
Conservation works at ‘The Laurels’ to be mostly complete by autumn was last modified: July 21st, 2025 by
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