Son of lottery winner Dolores to save 40 jobs
HOPES are high that about 40 jobs will be saved at a hotel after it was reportedly purchased by the son of a EuroMillions winner. Limerick woman Dolores McNamara hit the headlines back in August 2005 when she arrived at Lotto headquarters to collect a €115million cheque for the biggest lottery jackpot in European history.
According to a well-placed source, her son Gary McNamara, who owns Tinerana House in Ballycuggeran, Killaloe, Co. Clare, and is farming in the locality, has purchased the Killaloe Hotel, which had recently closed.
The source stated that the hotel has been purchased as a going concern, and that all bookings will be honoured when it reopens later this month – with existing jobs retained.
The purchase price has not been disclosed. The hotel includes 32 en-suite bedrooms, as well as a function room with 150-seat capacity, a bar, a restaurant and two kitchens.
The former Kincora Hall Hotel relaunched as the Killaloe Hotel under new owners following an extensive refurbishment in April 2016.
According to a statement from the management team at that time, it would be creating anywhere between 30 and 40 jobs for the Clare region and its environs, with a very strong emphasis on local produce and local talent.
There was a padlock on the entrance gate and a notice confirming the hotel was shut when the Irish Daily Mail visited the complex on the Scariff Road yesterday.
The notice stated: ‘The hotel is closed until further notice, sorry for any inconvenience caused – hotel management.’
However, it is now expected that the boutique hotel will reopen for business next Monday, January 21.
Clare County Councillor Tony O’Brien had expressed his disappointment that some people who had booked events in the hotel were greatly inconvenienced as a result of the venue’s closure.
But welcoming the news that it has been taken over by new management and will be back up and running soon, Councillor O’Brien said he looked forward to seeing the facility reopen as quickly as possible.
He also said he hoped that all previous bookings that were scheduled to take place after January 21 will now be honoured in full.
The hunting group, East Clare Harriers, was informed on January 2 that its annual Hunt Ball would not be taking place in the Killaloe Hotel.
This has now been moved to Treacy’s West County Hotel in Ennis, Co. Clare, on January 19.
In a social media post, a spokesman for East Clare Harriers said that this ball was cancelled at short notice and that to say it was disappointed and frustrated ‘is an understatement’.
More than €128,000 worth of damage was caused to Gary McNamara’s home, Tinerana House in Killaloe on a date unknown between August 17, 2013 and September 14, 2013, following a burglary that left the mansion gutted.
It emerged that although €10,000 worth of antique light fittings and fixtures were stolen from the property, these were sold on for the nominal sum of €1,355 to a scrap metal depot.
Tinerana House is situated on 200 acres of land. It was formerly owned by Pascal Carmody, who ran it as a health farm before selling it on to a consortium that was planning to develop it.
However, when the recession struck, it was sold again and is now in the ownership of Gary McNamara, who currently runs it primarily as a working farm.
It will reopen on January 21