Desmond FitzGerald is the 29th Knight of Glin Castle, a 250-year-old enchanted fortress located outside of Limerick, Ireland. Drayton Hall, a National Historic Landmark in Charleston, S.C., is a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private, non-profit organization.

Begun in 1738, Drayton Hall is the oldest preserved plantation house in America that is open to the public, one of just a handful of pre-Revolutionary houses in close to original condition in the United States, and a landmark in American colonial architecture. Just as Drayton Hall's unique state of preservation illustrates over 250 years of American history, Glin Castle serves as "an example of what a big house of its period was like." FitzGerald's passion is the preservation of the estate and its contents.

Aside from writing books on Irish paintings and furniture, the Knight of Glin is a president of the Irish Georgian Society of Ireland; a director of the Irish Architectural Archive, the Irish Landmark Trust, and the Castletown Foundation; and a consultant to Christies Fine Arts Auctioneers in Ireland. He studied fine arts at Harvard University, and in a recent article in the summer 2004 issue of "Art & Antiques," he was accredited by preservationists with helping "create the enthusiasm for things Irish that is one of the greatest changes of the past 40 years."

The Knight of Glin was recently awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters at Trinity College, Dublin. He has published numerous books and articles on Irish architecture, and his most recent book is "Ireland's Painters: 1600-1940," (Yale University Press, 2002). At the moment he is working with James Piell on a book on the history of Irish furniture and carving in the 18th century.

The Knight of Glin's lecture at Drayton Hall, which focuses on Irish furniture and carving of the Georgian age, will place Drayton Hall within a greater architectural and historical context. Guests to this intimate event will leave with a greater understanding for the development of Georgian architecture on both sides of the Atlantic.