Around this time, the impact of the Land War and the various Acts of Parliament that followed was taking effect. With tenants now enabled to buy their land holdings, and the Anglo-Irish landlords increasingly finding that their estates were no longer profitable, major changes in land ownership were underway. For reasons we can only guess at, by 1910 Terence took the opportunity to buy an extensive estate and manor house at Kilshrewly (Kilshruley), Ballinalee, not far from his birthplace in County Longford.

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Kilshrewly

Kilshrewly Manor and its 550 acres was one of several houses of the Edgeworth family, who had been major landowners in Longford since the 16th century and included Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744 – 1817)  politician, writer and inventor (married four times, with at least 22 children), his daughter Maria, one of the earliest, and still admired, women novelists, and Abbè Henri Edgeworth, from a Catholic branch of the family, who  was a chaplain to the French royal family and  accompanied Louis XVI to the guillotine.

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The house has been demolished and no images of it survive, but the map of 1837 gives an indication of the extent and layout of the demesne. In the 1901 census, it is described as having 16 windows to the front, and 20 rooms occupied by the family. 

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Though it is not known why Thomas Newcomen Edgeworth decided to sell his estate, there is some evidence of disputes with his tenants in the years before the sale, and he may have realised that change was in the air. Or perhaps Terence Brady, in his desire to establish himself as a man of substance in his own territory,  made him an offer he couldn't refuse. They may have known each other, as Terence's elder brother Rev. John had served as a priest in the area, and a story in the Schools Folklore Collection relates how he and Edgeworth were on friendly terms with each other. 

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Whatever the reason, it was reported in August 1910 in the Butte Independent (which picked up stories from Irish newspapers to relay to its readers) that "Mr. Terence Brady, member of the Liverpool Select Vestry has purchased for the sum of £6,000 the historical estate of Kilshrewly, County Longford. The vendor was Mr. T. N. Edgeworth, a member of the celebrated family....".

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Whether Terence retained his Liverpool businesses,  lived only at Kilshrewly, or Liverpool, or commuted between the two isn't known, but at Census time in 1911 he is at Kilshrewly with Josephine, his three children from his previous marriage, and two servants, one of whom was English-born so possibly someone who had come with him from Liverpool.  However, he didn't dispose of his Liverpool  house at Oakhill Park, to which he would return in the 1920s.

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Throughout the 1910s he took an active part in Longford life. He acted as a Justice of the Peace (JP), a local lay magistrate dealing with less serious criminal matters and conducting preliminary hearings for the assizes at petty sessions. As such, he would be seen as a pillar of the establishment and a supporter of the status quo. Even though nationalists were increasingly taking up such roles, it did bring them into close contact with the remnants of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy class.

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Socially, they were mixing with what would have been thought of as the county elite, and are frequently mentioned in lists of important attendees at local events.   A garden fete in aid of the Red Cross towards the end of the Great War was hosted by the Earl and countess of Granard

"who spared no pains to make the function the success which it undoubtedly was, every care being taken in the matter of the arrangements and the ensuring of a pleasurable afternoon for patrons amidst the picturesque surroundings of the Castle." (Roscommon Herald 17.08.1918)

The attendance list included members of the local gentry and landowning families – the Forbes, More-O’Ferralls, Bonds, King-Harmans etc.,  senior army officers, legal and professional people.  Also present were “Mr Terence E. Brady JP, Kilshrewly Manor, and Mrs. Brady” along with many local middle-class Catholics, reflecting their growth in power and influence over the preceding decades. Nearly all of these would have been constitutional nationalists, supporters of the Irish Parliamentary Party which had broken the hold of the Ascendancy on the land and campaigned for Home Rule..

Also attending the fete was their neighbour, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson KC Chief of the Imperial General Staff of the British Army. His birthplace at Currygrane was near to Kilshrewly, and he returned there frequently. Though a rigid and uncompromising Unionist, he was apparently affable enough at a personal level and as a neighbour. Some four years later, he was assassinated on his London doorstep by dissident Irish Republicans.

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As prominent residents, the Bradys were called upon to support local charities and initiatives. In January 1916, "the Watch competition in aid of funds to build a new church in Ballinalee will be held in Mr. Terence E. Brady's Hall at Kilshrewley...and will be followed by a concert and entertainment of an enjoyable character".(Longford Leader 11.12.1915}