No bids for ISPCA €200k bequest home
The home in the north Clare spa town of Lisdoonvarna was bequeathed to the ISPCA by late Clare GP and dog lover, Dr Maura Lernihan who passed away in August 2007.
The property has been on the market for over a year. initially at a price of €350,000.
On instruction from the ISPCA, Clare auctioneer John Casey put the property up for public auction yesterday with a reserve of €200,000.
However, only three people turned up at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon for the auction, with Mr Casey remarking at the outset “we have a very small crowd here”.
Mr Casey said that Dr Lernihan’s old surgery and home “is a lovely property on a nice site with enormous potential”.
However, his glowing review of the property didn’t stir the three men present.
The auctioneer started the bidding at the reserve of €200,000 and quickly went down €5,000 at a time before reaching €170,000.
Withdrawing the property, Mr Casey said: “I tell you now, I am not going lower than €170,000.” Mr Casey said the property would be available to sell for one week by private treaty before being put up for raffle by the ISPCA.
Chief executive of the ISPCA Noel Griffin said last night: “Not selling the property is not a huge surprise. We have a strong moral obligation to Dr Lernihan not to sell it cheaply. I really feel strongly about that.”
He said that as long there are no legal obstacles to raffling off the home, “I am 100% in favour of going down that route”.
Mr Griffin said that staging a raffle “will help spread the ISPCA message and in a bizarre, subliminal way, this is what the doctor would have wanted. Maybe this is the way it is meant to be, so I am not too disappointed about not selling the home.”
Highlighting the pressures on the ISPCA, Mr Griffin said: “The number of animal cruelty calls has gone up from 6,600 in 2008 to 15,000 last year, with the number of calls relating to horses going up five-fold.”
Mr Griffin revealed that the ISPCA took in Dr Lernihan’s dogs, Katie and Sally, on her death and said: “The two have been homed at a great home in Co Mayo.”
Mr Casey described the late Dr Lernihan as a “wonderful woman. She loved animals and rescued a number of dogs,” he said.
