House of the week: Ballintemple, Cork €495,000

Marble Hill House is, quite simply, steeped in sport, says Tommy Barker.

Ballintemple, Cork €495,000

Sq m 191 (2,050 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 2

BER: G

Best feature: Sporting buy

Marble Hill House is, quite simply, steeped in sport. Not only it is near several key Cork city and suburban sports grounds, but the family now selling up here can claim strong blood ties to the likes of rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll, as well as to legend-building rugby international Donncha O’Callaghan.

Marble Hill House was built in 1950 as a private family home by the hard-driven Niall Barrett, himself a former rugby interprovincial and Irish trialist with his wife Noel, and he and Noel had four daughters, all influenced by sports.

One Barrett daughter, Geraldine, married Dubliner Frank O’Driscoll, and they’re parents to one Brian O’Driscoll, the most-capped rugby union player of all time, the acclaimed former Ireland and Lions captain.

Brian O’Driscoll’s cousin (and fellow Leinster player) is Cillian Willis — whose mother Evelyn was also a Barrett, from Cork’s Marble House.

Sense a theme? Yet another Barrett sister similarly has good cause to follow the progress of Ireland’s provincial and national rugby teams: Gillian Harte, nee Barrett, has a daughter Jennifer who’s now married to Munster and Irish cap Donncha O’Callaghan, since 2009.

They and their daughters now live just down Cork’s Boreenmanna Road from granny Noel’s home — just newly up for sale.

Even without such proud family sporting pedigree, this will be a sporting trophy to pursue. It’s 200 yards away from Cork Con’s clubhouse and playing pitches, and is directly across the road from Páirc Uí Rinn, now picking up capacity crowds for the GAA as work gets under way on the upgrading of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, a kilometre way to the north.

Not into rugby or GAA? Well, Páirc Uí Rinn was of course the celebrated Flower Lodge of Cork soccer lore back when the four Barrett girls were growing up, able to follow the football from the comfort of their own bedrooms and balcony, while their front lawn was flat enough for tennis, or croquet....though it was rarely graced or grazed by a mallet.

The Barrett girls were into competitive hockey, and once or twice tried rugby too, admits Geraldine Harte

There are tennis courts nearby, at Ballinlough, pitch and putt at Beaumont quarry plus a public park, as well as a pitch for Avondale United soccer club, while rowing on the Marina, is within a good walk’s distance.

Now though, with the march of time, the Barretts are selling the house built by Noel and Niall, who had a plant hire business close to where they built Marble Hill House 65 years ago, to a design by a Polish architect.

It’s still a good, well-constructed detached house of 2,050 sq ft, on an even better site of over one-third of an acre, and is fresh on the market this month with estate agent Jeremy Murphy, who guides at €495,000: that’s a price which reflects the fact it now needs to be worked upon once more. Bones and basics are all good, though, and he’s already out of the blocks with viewings.

It’s set back from the road, towards the back of its walled-in and quite private grounds, with a detached garage, sheds, glass house, and the remnants of a veg garden too.

There’s even a secure pedestrian gate at the back boundary wall, leading into the quiet residential enclave of Avondale Park, giving another optional pedestrian route to Ballintemple village.

South-facing, it has a patio in front of its couple of main ground-floor reception rooms, with the two best interlinked, with sliding solid timber doors between the main living and dining room, each with extra-high ceilings.

It’s got a curvaceous stairs hand rail, original oak floors visible downstairs in the arched hall, several of the bedrooms have hand basins, and there’s a good pantry/utility, off behind the simply fitted kitchen.

Thanks to the site size, and sunny orientation, it will easily respond to extension and upgraded dreams and an architect’s input.

VERDICT: Going to be quite a line out for this one. A match made in sporting nirvana.