Tall semi is high-class

Maryborough, Cork, €385,000

The popular Maryborough Woods development above Douglas may well prove to be the swansong of house builders, O’Brien and O’Flynn. Having built 4,000 houses across the greater Cork area since 1976, the firm, which “put a lot of decent people into decent houses”, as one commentator observed, was placed in provisional liquidation just last week.

Many now may ponder just who will be in a position to build 50, 100 or even 500 of the thousands of new houses that will be needed around the city in the next several years.