Ten years on, university’s residence is finally sold...
...but €790k for Killaloe property has now been spent on ANOTHER house
THE UNIVERSITY of Limerick has finally sold its presidential home that lay vacant for almost a decade – but have plunged the funds into a new property.
The lavish Killaloe home, which overlooks Lough Derg, was recently sold for €790,000 – just shy of its €850,000 estimated value.
UL had come under increasing pressure to sell the property after they built a second president’s residence for €2.2million in 2010. It was funded by the US philanthropist Chuck Feeney at a time when the university was €3million in debt.
Now, the money made from the sale has been used to fund a third property, Larkin House.
Larkin House is on 1.1 acres of land and leads onto a further five acres of land previously acquired by UL.
Despite a number of queries by the Irish Daily Mail, the cost of this property and the land has not been disclosed by UL.
A spokesman for the university insisted the purchase was necessary for ‘future development’.
‘University of Limerick sold the former president’s house in Killaloe late in 2019,’ said the spokesman.
‘Around the same time, UL purchased Larkin House, located on the left side of the west entrance to the university from Plassey Road.
‘The land and house were purchased to ensure that UL had control of the entrance and to provide the university with opportunities for future development.
‘The cost of Larkin House was met by the sale of the Killaloe house. UL will always look to acquire property on the periphery of the campus that provides future opportunities.’
The Killaloe house – known as ‘the Downs’ – was the university’s first, traditional presidential home.
It was built in the style made famous by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and boasts panoramic views of Lough Derg.
EuroMillions winner Dolores McNamara lived just a stone’s throw away in her €1.5million lakeshore residence.
The property came to national attention in 2010 – in a time of severe economic austerity – when UL decided to build a second house funded by Mr Feeney of Atlantic Philanthropies.
The second residence sits on campus and is home to current UL president Dr Des Fitzgerald – who once likened it to living in a ‘fish bowl’.
It features four bedrooms, a large reception room, a dining room with a terrace, a large living room and an expansive kitchen.
The purchase was described as ‘lavish’ by then-minister for education Batt O’Keeffe. But UL defended themselves by promising to put the first home on the market.
In August last, nearly a decade after the purchase of the second home, it was revealed the first had still yet to be sold.
The four-storey home had not been used since UL’s second president Dr Roger Downer stepped down early due to illhealth in August 2008. Since then, it had been leased on only one occasion, in May 2009 for 18 months at a cost of €1,500 per month, accruing €27,000 in rent.
Afterwards it continued to lay vacant.
A Freedom of Information act submitted by the Limerick Leader found the maintenance of both properties had cost an eye-watering €109,654.55.
Fianna Fáil deputy Willie O’Dea called on the university to sell or at least rent the vacant property to ‘get the best possible value out of it and ease the burden on the taxpayer’.
The property was finally sold in late 2019, according to a listing on the Property Price Register, and was described as highly sought-after by auctioneers.