Island estate going private again

THE news that a luxury hotel has opened at Fota in Cork harbour has stirred recollections of that beautifully wooded island estate and what has come to pass there.

In the mid 1970s, a Mrs Bell (nee Smith-Barry), who owned the island, essentially gave the 780-acre Fota estate to the people of Cork.

While she sold it to UCC for a nominal sum, I believe it is more correct to say she gave it to Cork’s foremost public institution and that her intention in doing so was to ensure that her lovely estate would become a public resource in perpetuity.