, A lawyer and financier, he made his fortune buying and selling land lost by the old Gaelic families exiled after the Battle of the Boyne. He was appointed Commissioner of the Revenue in 1709. A residence in close proximity to Dublin was essential, so he bought land near Celbridge beside the Liffey and in 1722 began construction of the first and grandest Palladian house in the country. Architect Alessandro Galilei (1691-1737) designed the house of classical proportions, a sliver-grey block flanked by wings of golden-brown Ardbraccan stone linked by curved colonnades. dsp