Bright future for this desirable site
THERE’S more than first appears to the eye behind the ornamental gates by this South Douglas Road stable block — there’s a past link to a grand old house, (now demolished,) but a greater claim to fame is its ties to builder Tony Murphy and the famous Gay Future affair — a betting scam still recalled with local relish nearly 40 years after the event.
Owner of this unusual property mix, now essentially a row of stables, old stone outbuildings, cast iron gate piers with nationalistic shamrock motif, and a cleared house site, was the legendary Tony Murphy, a wealthy Cork housebuilder in the 1970s and the man behind an attempted race stunt involving switching horse doubles that was on track to net the group behind it a small fortune. The tale was made into a 1979 movie Murphy’s Stroke, staring Pierce Brosnan and Niall Toibin.
