The new King knighted and sent William Domvile to Ireland as his Attorney General. Sir William built a modern house on the Loughlinstown property and settled down to breed horses and black cattle. He died in 1689 leaving Loughlinstown House to his eldest son, also Sir William, who witnessed the flight of James 2nd after the Battle of the Boyne when the King and his army were encamped in Lehaunestown (Laughanstown). According to Domvile family lore, it was said that the King planted a tree on the avenue, which was still there in the early part of this century.
The second Sir William Domvile died in 1698 and was succeeded by his son, William. Descendants of the Domviles continued to live in Loughlinstown House until 1796, and the prescent facade of the house dates from the 1770s when the house was rebuilt and the gardens laid out.
In 1796 Loughlinstown House was let to Mr Justice Robert Day of Tralee who lived there till his death in 1841. A life-long friend of Henry Grattan, Day had helped him achieve his aim of a free Parliament for Ireland. Following Justice Day's death, the Domvile family were once more to take possession of the house until 1963 when the house was sold to Mr John Galvin, an American multi-millionaire of Irish extraction. In the early 1970s the house came into the possession of the Irish Government, which subsequently leased it to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).
Note: This short history of Loughlinstown House is based on information that was very kindly submitted by MK Turner from Shankill, on 9 January 1977. Eurofound would welcome any other information on the historical background of the property.
