in 1932 her parents mr and mrs bourn and their son-in-law arthur vincent decided to present muckross house and its 11,000 acre estate to the irish nation. being called the ″bourn-vincent memorial park″, it thus became the first national park in the republic of ireland and formed the basis of present-day killarney national park. in later years the park was substantially expanded by the acquisition of land from the former earl of kenmare's estate.