Cranberries singer’s former Clare home comes to market
At the height of her fame, The Cranberries lead singer found peace by the stove fire in a Co Clare coach house, writes
IT’s just over a year since Dolores O’Riordan, lead singer of The Cranberries, was found dead in a bath at the Hilton Hotel in London. The coroner verdict would later blame accidental drowning as a result of sedation through alcohol intoxication. Dolores’ death brought a tragic end to an interstellar music career but also to a bumpy few years for the diminutive chanteuse with the big voice. She had divorced a few years earlier from her long-time husband, been caught up in an unseemly row on an Aer Lingus flight which had made world headlines and had also been dealing with bipolar disorder.
But in 1996 as The Cranberries striking front woman, Dolores was at the high point of her career. That April the band released To the Faithful Departed, the album which followed 1994’s massive No Need To Argue.
She was two years married to Duran Duran road manager Don Burton and the couple were living the rural idyll at The Coach House, a medieval style residence beside Ballyhannon Castle at Quin in Co Clare.
The artist with the mezzo soprano range was preparing for a huge world tour and she and Burton were also well underway with the construction work on what they believed would be their “forever’ home — a modern mansion at Dun Chaoin in Dingle, later labelled ‘Dolly’s Folly’ by wags.
As fame layered pressure on the music icon, she found respite with Burton inside the thick masonry walls at The Coach House with its huge sofas, luxury Persian rugs and warming stove fires.
It has changed little since their time here and indeed the plush mock medieval interiors style would later be echoed at Kilmallock Stud, their later home from 1998 on.
The couple lived at the Coach House for a year while they planned their big Dingle home. Although it would turn out they didn’t stay at Dingle for long. Dolores still leaves memories among locals of her time spent here in the mid nineties as she and Burton planned to start a family.
Almost a decade later, fellow Shannonsiders Liam and Margaret Moore bought the Coach House along with the adjoining 15th Century Castle.
For almost 15 years they ran a tourism rental business, living here for a time but eventually letting out both buildings. Last year they sold the castle and now they’re putting the coach house on the market given that they spend most of their time these days based in the capital.
Local agent Dermot McMahon of Sherry FitzGerald McMahon is seeking €595,000 on behalf of the Moores for the property.
Guests at The Coach have over the years included the actor Richard E Grant, the astronaut Scott Kelly (famous for living in space for 520 days) and Keith Barry (The Mentalist) rented it for his 40th birthday party where the invited guests included Woody Harrelson, Keith Duffy and Jack L.
At one point the entire cast of Vikings booked into the Coach House for a weekend to conduct a ‘team building’ exercise.
It has hosted politicians including, notably, the controversial Republican Governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin and over the years has been used for filming in a number of productions.
The Coach House itself is a bit of a mystery. While the nearby Ballyhannon Castle dates from the late 15th Century, the pedigree of its coach house is not so clear. At its youngest it is late Victorian. It may have been an older building altered in the 1890s, or constructed in the Victorian era atop the stumps and foundation of an older building.
In 1970 the castle and adjoining buildings had been acquired and restored by the Phillips Petroleum heiress Elizabeth Phillips who spent the equivalent of millions getting it right (she called it Ballyhannon after its ancient name).
Phillips later ended up making history by becoming the first woman in the USA to be obliged to pay out alimony when she divorced her husband, Oklahoma Republican party elector Henry Irwin.
Today the coach house is a four to fivebedroom family home with striking exposed stone walls inside and out and is situated on a three quarter acre site right next to the castle. It was formerly the stables and carriage house for the 15th century castle which has been occupied for most of its life, initially by the MacNamara clan under the O’Briens.
Under expert architectural supervision in 1995 the Coach House was converted retaining the wooden beamed ceilings upstairs and internal stone walls.
The site also includes an outbuilding converted into the property’s own pub.
At 2,282 sq ft, accommodation includes a living and dining room with a cast iron solid fuel stove, a conservatory facing west to take advantage of the afternoon sun and this leads into the main living room.
The kitchen has a wood pellet stove and there is a downstairs ensuite bedroom and living room which could be another reception.
Upstairs has the master bedroom ensuite plus three more double bedrooms. The Coach House is located within own territorial stone-walled perimeter overlooks the Shannon Estuary.