Catherine O'Brien 'was top class', says businessman who had narrow escape from fraudster

Owner of Knocklofty House and Marlfield House in Co Tipperary Denis English was targeted by Catherine O'Brien, who promised him a way out of his financial difficulties

Ann Murphy of the Irish Examiner speaking to Denis English about his encounter with Catherine O'Brien at the Marlfield House Apartments, Clonmel, Co Tipperary. Picture: Dan Linehan

If the walls of Knocklofty House near Clonmel could talk, the Tipperary mansion would have some tales to tell.

Thrust into the national spotlight in the 1970s when an IRA gang kidnapped the house’s inhabitants in 1974, it is now in a state of disrepair and has been the subject of concerns raised locally and also in the Dáil chamber about its condition.