Concerns for 1916 leader’s house in repossession case
A HOUSE at the centre of a High Court battle between a lender and a Dublin landlord was the home of 1916 leader Thomas Clarke and his wife, Kathleen.
Locals now fear that 31 Richmond Avenue in Fairview, Co. Dublin, could be demolished like the home of fellow 1916 leader, The O’Rahilly, which was bulldozed in Ballsbridge last year.
That the house had belonged to Clarke, a signatory of the 1916 Proclamation, was not mentioned in the High Court this week.
However, Pádraig de Burca from Fairview Residents Association, confirmed to the Irish Mail on Sunday that 31 Richmond Avenue was Thomas and Kathleen Clarke’s home at the time of the 1916 Rising, adding: ‘Tom stayed there with other rebels the night before the Rising.’
Kathleen Clarke, a founder of Cumann na mBan, was one of only two women sworn into the IRB. She went on to become Dublin’s first female lord mayor as well as serving as both a TD and a seanadóir.
Mr De Burca has called for the house to be completely refurbished, restored, listed and protected.
He added: ‘The state of this historic house is disgraceful.’
Locals said the house is in ‘shocking condition’.
‘Quite literally I wouldn’t put a dog in it,’ one woman told the MoS. ‘I pity the poor people who have to live in there.’
Controversy erupted last year over the demolition of The O’Rahilly’s house to make way for apartments. The revolutionary leader’s grandson, Proinsias Ó Rathaille, had campaigned for the preservation of the house. However,
the building was demolished last October, even after city councillors voted to add the building to the record of protected structures.
Now there are concerns that a similar fate awaits the home of Tom and Kathleen Clarke. The
house was owned by Jerry Beades, a former Fianna Fáil member who lost possession of the house in 2008 when a High Court order was granted to IIB Bank over non-payment of mortgage.
That loan was sold, respectively, to KBC Bank, Beltany Property Finance and, subsequently, last August to Pepper.
While some occupants claim to have paid rent over the years to Mr Beades, there is no evidence, since the possession orders were made, that the landlord has paid rent to anyone, including Pepper, the court heard.
Lawyers acting of behalf of the occupants told the court this week that a ‘greedy’ fund’s court application could see 20 people being evicted in the middle of a pandemic. Another former property of Mr Beades at Mary Street is also the subject of a repossession order.
The possession orders arose from loan default and the sum owed by Mr Beades, plus interest, now amounts to €2.3m.
When contacted by the MoS, Mr Beades said he would ‘sue any newspaper who wrote anything’ about him.
‘Clarke stayed there the night before the Rising’