GAA hotel nets €650k after short-lived contest

After almost a year and a half in play, it took just minutes for the sale of Hayes Hotel to clear the bar when the historic hostelry came to auction.

The Co Tipperary premises, where the GAA was founded 130 years ago, went for €650,000 — comfortably above the €450,000 to €500,000 reserve.

Several bidders got involved in the action and interest among spectators was high, but in the end it was a solicitor acting for an unnamed buyer who brought the contest to a close.

The old billiards room in Hayes Hotel was where Michael Cusack and his GAA co-founders met in November 1884 to form the new organisation, and the hotel has become a second home for GAA fans, particular on match days at nearby Semple Stadium.

Its new owner’s plans for the 30-bed building, which also houses two nightclubs and the famous Cusack’s Bar, have yet to be revealed, but the hope in Thurles and further afield is that it will be restored to full operation.

Receivers took over the hotel in April last year and it was initially placed for sale with a guide price of €750,000, but while there was speculation of a joint purchase by former GAA stars, the idea never materialised.

It was among 260 lots included in the latest Allsop auction of distressed property yesterday and it sold just before lunchtime.

Another unique lot to come under the hammer at the auction was one of the country’s most remote addresses — Duvillaun Beg island off the North Mayo coast.

The windswept, 56-acre retreat is home only to seabirds, as its last known human inhabitants left in the 1800s.

The new owner will have to cross a mile of Atlantic ocean to reach the mainland. Bidding was slow and it eventually went for €105,000 — just over the €100,000 reserve.

Other properties sold for far more than expected, however, including a garage on a compact site of just 0.14 acres on Dublin’s Bolton St that had a reserve of €165,000 to €185,000 but went for more than three times that, reaching €650,000.

A bank building let to the Permanent TSB had a reserve of €640,000 to €680,000 but fetched €1.13m, and a housing development with 37 homes in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, with a €1m reserve, made almost double that at €1.9m.

Other lots that exceeded expectations included a collection of 42 office and warehouse units at a business park in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, which had a reserve of €739,000 to €790,000 but made €1.61m, and a development site in Cobh, Co Cork, with planning permission for 65 homes which had a reserve of €200,000 to €250,000 but went for €655,000.

While the vast majority of properties sold in what was Allsop’s biggest auction to date, some that failed to attract sufficient interest were two bank buildings let to AIB on leases running to 2029.

The AIB premises in Thurles, Co Tipperary, which yields €215,000 in rent annually, had a reserve of €2.3m and one in Kilrush, Co Clare, which yields €77,500 in rent annually, was hoping to go for €775,000 to €825,000.