Locals feature in 'The Big House'

A new TV3 series 'The Big House' which begins on Monday night at 9pm features local man PJ Massey from Hill of Down who takes on the role of butler.

The four-part series made by Big Mountain Productions for TV3 follows 13 people as they live and work as servants in Strokestown House, Co Roscommon and was filmed over five days in February.

Following on from the successful 'The Tenements’, on TV3, presenter Bryan Murray is on a journey to discover the controversial history of The Big House in Ireland and to tell the story of the servants, without whom these houses could not have functioned.

For 100 years, life has stood still at Strokestown House, with every fixture and fitting remaining as it was. But this big house is set to come alive as they bring back the ancestors of men and women who lived and worked there.

By digging through the Strokestown Park archives and the census online, the programme-makers have traced the descendants of The Big House, and it is these 13 people who return to Strokestown House in Roscommon to live and work exactly as their ancestors did.

The group includes PJ Massey (50) whose uncle Tommy (Tossie) Massey was the butler at Strokestown House for 40 years. PJ’s niece, Jade Massey (17), also from Hill of Down, plays the role of a maid in the programme while his nephew, Dylan Massey (19) from Ballivor, took on the part of first footman.

Mr Massey has always been intrigued about the scale of the house and the estate which, at one time, included 35,000 acres. This went up to 60,000 acres when a daughter from the house married a landlord.

Mr Massey said it was “really great” to do the programme but said they were long days and they worked as they would have at the time from 5am to 10pm.