Brought to you by Inanna Rare Books.

It’s a sad thing indeed when a piece of history is lost forever.

But in a West Cork town, a bookshop with a reputation for preserving special publications has carefully reproduced a scarce book bursting with magical detail on local historic homes and the families who lived in them.

Inanna Rare Books in Skibbereen has become a destination for readers, researchers, writers, and the plain curious, who make the trip to the market town to potter among the shelves in their two atmospheric locations, a collection of modern art and rare vinyl at The Mill on Distillery Lane, and a jaw-dropping swathe of important publications, works of art, manuscripts, and maps at The Masonic Hall on Mardyke Street.

Holger Smyth, who runs Inanna with his business partner Andoni Aboitiz, became intrigued by a fascinating tome originally published by Reverend Richard J. Hodges and W.T. Pike in 1911.

The book, Cork and County Cork in the Twentieth Century, is a strange and charming blend of images and information about big houses and estates all over the county.

As well as being an interesting read, the book is also an invaluable resource for anyone researching family history and connections in Cork or seeking information on the original layouts of a period home.

Having unearthed a rare original copy, Smyth decided it was worth making it available to a wider audience once again.

A limited edition reprint was arranged and 500 new copies were created, of which 350 copies are half-leather (€450) and 150 copies are in full leather (€550). To say they are not cheap is an understatement of course, but an original, if you managed to lay your hands on one, could run up to €2,500, depending on the condition.

A book guaranteed to thrill a history buff, Inanna’s high-quality reprint, hand-bound and hand-numbered, this large publication includes hundreds of photographs of grand countryside houses from South Cork to North Cork, from East Cork to West Cork. The stories of the houses are not only accompanied by photographs of now mostly vanished or derelict homes, but the images also show the original state of buildings which have since been restructured for various reasons over the years.

The second part of the publication offers an abundance of historical biographies of local Irish nobility (among those mentioned are the Meade, O’Callaghan, Browne, and Kelly families), gentry, clergy, and general owners of country houses.

“There is rarely a person who opens the book in our shops who does not know someone in the book, or who is related to one of the families,” said Smyth.

“Everyone is amazed to, all of a sudden, see a photograph of an ancestor.”

If you would like to own a copy of Reverend Richard J. Hodges and W.T. Pike’s Cork and County Cork in the Twentieth Century, you can purchase one from the limited run here.