Bright future for this desirable site

City stable block has a colourful past link to horse betting scam, writes Tommy Barker.

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.

A flamboyant house-builder, not adverse to putting shovels and cement in the back of his gold Rolls Royce, Tony Murphy built a number of Cork suburban housing estates, including Greenhills, on the South Douglas Road, on the former site and grounds of a period home long disappeared. Murphy also had built an eight-bedroomed home beside these gates for his family, complete with swimming pool, but that too has disappeared. Only the stables now remain, dating to the 1880s, and the later-added gate pillars which have preservation orders on them.

Now, the lot is up for sale with Patricia Stokes of Lisney, a half acre with huge scope — and a gay future.

The stable block has an 1,200 sq ft two-bed mews/coachhouse conversion at its southern end, and scope for several more mews along the full 11-bay length, under a slate roof. It’s likely further planning will most easily be granted for one more new-build, on the site of the late Mr Murphy’s own home (he died aged just 52) and, overall, there’s an appeal here for those with a bit of building spirit in them.

VERDICT: Not too many stables — or house sites — in Douglas, a rare beast.