 A new book that takes us on a tour around the country looking at follies that are dotted all over the place that we, in many cases, are not aware of because they're hidden away and others are there in full view and we might have passed them and gone, what's that? What's that all about? It's a beautiful photographic tour because the imagery is absolutely stunning and the follies themselves, well, they're eccentric by nature I suppose and usually beautiful, sometimes bizarre and usually eye-catching. The man behind the book now joins me on the line and we're streaming as well so that means that you can view this back or listen back on our socials or on our YouTube channel. George Monday, good afternoon. Good afternoon. First of all George, it's a beautiful looking book and I suppose the first question is how did it come about? Why did you decide to put a book together about follies? Okay, I did some assignment photography, photography was the moment and it was entirely based on gardens and when I was walking and driving and looking around the gardens I found quite a few follies but they didn't really kind of resonate at that point and then I moved from County Meade where I lived down to County Waterford and I visited Lismore Castle one day and saw a signpost for Bally Sagittmore Gates and I thought wonder what that place is, where to look? So I went down and I found this amazing place with kind of gothic gate house, nobody living there, not quite ruined but not too good a condition and then I carried on down the track and I found a bridge basically which was like a huge gothic castle and I thought this is amazing. So I then went back to my house and did a bit of research and found in fact that the house had been built just after the Napoleonic Wars by a guy named, what was his name now? It'll come to me. Anyway, this guy had inherited some lands from his father and then found that in fact his brother was building a house and his wife was a kind of jealous kind of person I gathered and she said, oh, we'll have to build a house. So he then started work on the house but before he started the house he built the driveway with these two buildings I've just mentioned and then shortly after that the great Irish famine occurred. He didn't get any rent coming in from his tenants. He kicked them all out, the family is the whole lot and the story then goes a little bit dark because having kicked out all these tenants, a lot of the locals got upset. Somebody sat there with a gun on the driveway and tried to assassinate him as he came home one day. They never found the person who did it but in fact they sent seven, I think it was seven people to transportation to Tasmania. So the story had all these things happening, I thought, wow, that's amazing. So then I started looking at the bodies I'd also photographed for Tourism Island and found equally intriguing stories. Yeah, I'm looking at a picture. That's how it all happened. Well, I'm looking at a picture of Bali, Sagartmoor Towers that you chat about there and it's amazing and it doesn't look like it's lived in right and off. The man's name I think is Arthur Kiley. That's right. But it's spectacular and there's a lot of equally spectacular buildings and there's all sorts. There's obliques and castles and towers and walls and the great thing, I mean they're beautifully photographed but the great thing is there's a story behind them all. Yes, yes. And the story is very immensely. I mean there's, I don't think it's any of the places there. No, no, but in Northern Ireland there's a place called, near Hollywood called Helen's Tower and that one like many of the other follies was built during the famine because the richer families had money to spare but they didn't like giving it away. Right. And people will eat the people is a bad idea. So we'll get them to build something no matter how useless and then we'll pay them for the labors. Yeah. So that was one aspect. And then there's of course the envy side like Bali, Sagartmoor Towers and then there's just people who are kind of slightly eccentric and think, oh, wouldn't it be nice to have a nice view at the end of my garden. Yeah, yeah. And there was different reasons as well. Wasn't there somebody who built a wall to block a brother's view? Oh, yeah. The jealous wall. Yeah. The jealous wall. That's an equally intriguing story. That's not too different from the Bali Sagartmoor Towers. It's envy. It was, sorry, getting older, can't remember things. But the guy who built this, his brother, he lets his wife have an affair with a near neighbor, possibly his brother. Then another brother builds another house after he built his nice mansion. And he strongly objected. So he had this kind of folly Abbey wall built, which you can see in the picture obviously to block his view. Yeah, well, I'd say it was successful and that was so big. But you obviously came to Donegal. And there's a few places that are pictured in Donegal, including one down in my home parish in Brookless. And it's a church tower. And I wasn't wondering about the church tower because it doesn't really fit in with the chapel there. And I'm thinking, what's that about? And it says here, built around 1860 and in the form of an early medieval round tower. Yeah, that's right. I was actually on my way to Carrigan Head. I was driving over in the evening and I saw it and I thought, well, that looks amazing. That looks like it might be a folly. Didn't look, didn't kind of look ancient and old as the usual round towers built in the 10th century-ish. So I just stopped the car and I got out and took that picture, you can see. Yeah, well, it stood the test of time well. Well, it's weathered the time and conditions well. And then you went on down, as you said, to Carrigan Head. And something else that's caught my eye and that you feature in here. And it's the lookout. Well, it's the lookout to towers kind of square in form. But built to keep an eye on Napoleon's troops. That's right. Possible invasion from sea. And there was a number of lookout posts dotted around the coast. Oh, absolutely. They stretched from, I think they stretched from certainly up on the North Donegal coast, all the way down the west coast around the corner and continue as far as Waterford. And most of them were incited at each other. So if one saw something happening, they could light the beacon. And people would then know that there's enemies afoot in the army. There's no texting back in the m days. And you also visited Oakfield Park and picture a couple of beautiful sites there, which is great. Castle Folly and how's that pronounced? I don't know. I was hoping you might know. Yeah, something like that. It looks beautiful. And all the photographs look beautiful. I mean, some of these are old and they're just ruined. Others are still lived in. And some of them are, like you mentioned earlier, obelisks and bridges and so on. Yeah. But for the most part, they're... Well, Follies, someone described Follies as monuments to a mood. Yeah. And I don't know if that's true in all the cases, but there's definitely elements of that, women's ease and moods. That's right. And I saw that comment. It was by Arthur Clark, who was an art historian. And he did a long program on BBC one about art years ago. And it was him who came out with that comment. And so I took it at a literal value, really. And I thought to myself, well, there's a lot of places around where they can fulfill all the functions of a folly. They don't have any functions. They're just pretty. They look good. And they're kind of whimsical. And there were some buildings that had been left and no longer used. I was just trying to have a... I think a good one would be the one at the beginning of the book, which is the copper mines at Alaiz. They no longer fill a function, but they're kept because people love them. They add beautifully to the landscape. That's the black and white picture you can see. Yeah. They add beautifully to the landscape. And so I thought I would just add a few of those, not too many. Yeah. Because they don't build follies... They don't build many follies, I should say, in the 21st century. So I thought it would be a nice addition to the book. And expand this a little. I think you might have mentioned it there. In many cases, these were built by people who had a lot of money, people who had too much money and too much time in their hands. But the interesting thing is, if you look at the map at the back, the general map of the island of Ireland, you can see that they all kind of move over to the east coast, not beyond the west coast. And as I said in one of the stories, one of Thomas generals said nobody would go a different conduct, basically. And I think that was the attitude of the Anglo-Irish stay away from the west coast. And it was really kind of barren as well. That might explain the concentration over towards the east and the southeast. Yeah. Well, George, it's a beautiful book. It's out now by O'Brien Press. It's called Irish Follies. Just to look up there for those who will be watching to have a look at Irish Follies and Whimsical Architecture, all beautifully photographed. George, congratulations on the book. Thank you so much. Lovely to talk to you.