Enhance your diplomatic credentials in Ballsbridge
If you want to brush up on your diplomatic skills — or put them to the test — an address at Shrewsbury Park in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, would be a good place to start.
The neighbourhood is surrounded by embassies, with the British, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Indian and Pakistan embassies all within Ferrero Rocher-throwing distance.
Although its decor could use a little rejuvenation now, No8 Shrewsbury Park is a house classy enough to host any stray ambassadors you might meet rambling down your street hoping to be invited for tea.
It’s also got enough reception rooms that you could entertain diplomats from two unfriendly nations without either finding out the other was in the house.
Right of the entrance hall as you go in, there’s quite a grand drawing room with a tiled fireplace, and from here, glass double doors lead into the dining room, where there are folding double doors to the garden.
Left of the hall, there’s a secluded living room, this time with a marble fireplace. The kitchen is further on down the hall and is open-plan to a dining area with more French doors to the garden.
Off the dining room is a sunroom, also with patio doors.
The back garden here is nicely done, with a low-hedged lawn flanking a patio and flowerbeds, and thanks to a high hedge at the end, it’s quite private.
There’s an attached garage, which hasn’t been converted, while on the first floor, there are four bedrooms, one with an ensuite shower and one with a shower and sink in the room. That brings the overall floor area to 2,260 sq ft.
No8 is for sale for €1.595m with Lisney Leeson Street (01) 662 4511.