€1m order over failure to buy house

A property developer and auctioneer must pay nearly €1m over his failure nearly five years ago to complete a contract to buy a historic house in Co Wexford.

Judgment for €969,000 was entered in the High Court yesterday against Gort, Co Galway-based auctioneer Ian Cahill, over his failure proceed with the purchase of Loftus Hall, Hook Head, in what a judge described as a another “great personal tragedy” of the Celtic Tiger.

The three-storey 22-bedroom mansion was built in 1870 was put up for sale five years ago, along with 63 acres, by Kathleen Devereux, a member of the family which had owned it for many years and operated it as a hotel in the 1980s.