Possible scrum for rugby star’s house

IRELAND has had a great rugby year, but Bertie O’Hanlon remembers a better one: 1948.

And he knows just how good it was because he was there, togged out, and he has the t-shirt and the ball to prove it.

The fit 80-year-old played on the Irish rugby team that pipped the Welsh team back in 1948, winning both the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam a feat never before or since matched by any Irish team.

Mr O'Hanlon played on the right wing in that match, where the Welsh went down 6-3 in Belfast.

"They were powerful men, all miners or steel workers, not like today's white-collar players," he says with a smile. After all, he himself worked in insurance for Standard Life.

One of the two leather rugby balls used in that historic match resurfaced from its dusty past just a few days ago when Mr O'Hanlon was clearing under the stairs at his family home, Barna, on Cork's Model Farm Road.

He and his wife Phil are selling up this large 2,000 sq ft detached home, on a covetable two-thirds of an acre site (another house was built behind to lop off a portion of the original acre.)

Barna has been their home since May 1960, and the property includes an old stone cottage at the entrance.

Continuing with the rugby theme, there'll be a scrum of viewers to see Barna, booking in appointments with Brendan Quinlan of Hamilton Osborne King who guides it at €900,000-plus the sort of sum recently achieved by Lisneys for another detached home Líos Bán, at the city end of the Model Farm Road.

However, it is well under the reported massive €1.3 million a newish home, Dunorlan, on Laburnum Park is currently making in offers with Casey and Kingston, which hit the market with a guide price of €750,000 plus.

Barna is opposite Mount Mercy school and the Department of Agriculture lands being freed up shortly for affordable housing, and is totally private from the road a spreading Cedar of Lebanon tree is the front garden's crowning glory and privacy provider.

The house was built in 1946 by O'Sheas for the Barrett family coincidentally related to Ireland's current rugby captain and Triple Crown victor Brian O'Driscoll.

Ballinphellic brick was used extensively by the builders, and the same brick was used in Dublin's Rotunda hospital, according to Mr O'Hanlon.

The house has all the evidence of immaculate maintenance and care polished brasses and working sash windows, some with leaded panes, and a sturdy oak front door sets the tone of quality materials to be found throughout the interior.

It has four first floor bedrooms, one very large (21' by 13', with a wall of built-ins,) with a private access corridor and ensuite bathroom. The other three bedrooms have hand basins, and there's a ground floor optional fifth bedroom or study. Previous owner, Dr Ned Barrett, used it as a surgery.

Reception rooms include a dual aspect drawing room, an adjoining dining room with French doors to the south-facing patio, a family room, kitchen and very large utility room which new owners will probably switch to a kitchen/dining room. There are two hallways a guest WC and mature grounds.