Soul agency offer at Kinsale's historic salvation Fisherman's Hall

19th century hall was centre for religious fervour and temperance: now it's a quirky heritage home

Sat, 20 Jul, 2024 - 07:00

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports Pics: Ryan Lynch

Kinsale, South Cork
€1.15m
Size	239 sq m (2,560 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4 + 1
Bathrooms	3 + 1
BER	Exempt

THE best way to get to know a new place is to live in the very centre of it.

That’s the thinking of Joanne Murphy, a Cork city woman who found her way to the coastal town and tourist hot-spot of Kinsale via the likes of spells living in Peru, Japan and London — where she had lived close to Mick Jagger.

Fine catch: Fisherman's Hall is at the foot of Higher O'Connell Street Kinsale.

Oh, and the woman who fell for Kinsale is now living near Nimes in France with her three-year old son Hugo, running several of her businesses such as the Speak Agency (recruitment) and The Kinsale Experience from France where, handily enough, she speaks the native language too.

Having worked in the corporate sector (LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Speak, Populo etc) the now self-employed Joanne’s a force for promotion across many platforms and fields.

Her ‘Kinsale Experience’ brand puts together events and, yes, ‘experience’ packages, tying in many strands of the best of what Kinsale has to offer, for visitors, weddings, adventurists, hen and stag groups, the works, via dense contacts and networking book.

And, the nature of the connected world being what it is, she can do the Kinsale experience remotely, with her philosophy ‘you have to make life happen’.

Making life happen isn’t just a fridge magnet sentiment; it’s a life driver for this woman who says when she first came across the historic Fisherman’s Hall in Kinsale, sort of at the market’s nadir in 2012, it had just gone ‘sale agreed’: sort of the one that got away.

But, it hadn’t, and the place with its religious service past as a temperance hall and striving for the salvation of fishermen’s souls (including up to 2,000 Cornish and Manx men of the sea fishing out of Kinsale ) had her on the hook.

A line she read at the time about the reverse religious conversion of the once ‘holy’ hall’s future next being “in the lap of the gods” stuck with her.

After that agreed sale fell through, she heard it was available once more and gut instinct struck. She flew straight over from Greece, and with her then partner pounced: Fishermen’s Hall fell into their laps.

One of the harbour town’s more photographed buildings with its ornate gothic style gable windows, and exposed stone under a slate roof, it had been converted to residential use in the early 1990s by a young Irish couple (overseen by local Kinsale architect Richard Rainey), utilising lots of salvage material, including a staircase from an old shop, Aeneas Lane’s, in Cobh.

That family included several extremely talented musicians (the acoustics in the c. 500 sq ft and high-ceilinged main living room might have helped foster talent? And, when they decided to sell in 2004, they and the hall featured these Property & Home pages, on page 1.

In its glory scripture days, this hall’s walls would have trembled with the might of raised voices, and evangelical instruments pounding a proverbial pathway to Heaven.

Heck, even the Royal Munster Fusiliers band played here in the 19th century for the salvation of souls of men from Kinsale’s barrack.

Irish dramatist Lennox Robinson wrote about its fervent meetings in his memoir Three Homes, of the days when hundreds of fishing smacks filled the harbour’s waters before the herring and mackerel deserted the waters.

After the Irish couple’s conversion of the hall to family home, it was next bought by a couple from Britain, and a previous owner had been an artist, sculptor David Gillespie, who planned to turn it into a gallery/studio.

In previous times, it was also eyed up for commercial/hospitality/seafood uses (the address once had been Fisher Street).

But, today Fisherman’s Hall is resolutely residential, divided up now by energetic force-field vendor Joanne Murphy into a main four-bed home, obviously full of character up front and present, with a self-contained one-bed to the rear, making it highly adaptable for a range of owners.

It’s ability to earn guest/Airbnb income is important, and others may use it for a nanny, or a granny?

Selling agent for this engaging slice of Kinsale life is Eileen Neville of Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, and she guides the adaptable 2,560 sq ft lofted/mezzanine property tucked into hewn rock under The Ramparts at €1.15m.

Ms Neville’s early calls are primarily from overseas, naturally enough given Kinsale’s cache, but locals/Irish have also called to book viewings which have started this week.

Apart from its physical embrace, the hall carries some traces of its long history, most notably a hand-painted plaque recalling the Fisherman’s Hall origins as “Erected by the Rev John Duncan Craig DD, Vicar of the Parish from 1864 to 1872 ‘to the Glory of God, and in furtherance of his work amongst the fishing fleet,’” and carried the hope that “They go down to the sea in ships, They do business in great waters: These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.”

Writer Frank Keohane in his exemplary 2020 Yale Press Building of Ireland: Cork City and County, attributes its design to William H Hill and origins in 1871. That year, 1871, the then-Cork Examiner reported its role to be “where the Kinsale fishermen sons of Huguenots and the fisher lads will have a sound scriptural and secular education given them.” Later again it was associated with the St Multose church community, en route to pass on to new safe and secular hands today.

Lisney’s Ms Neville describes it as a versatile and distinguished building with true authenticity, main double height space and many original materials, beams, arched and mullioned windows amongst others features, with a small ‘secret garden’, all in the very heart of the town of Kinsale, adding: “The conversion work carried out over three decades ago was executed with great respect for the property’s heritage.”

Vendor Joanne Murphy adapted the layout to move her main kitchen up to the front, to the ‘great room’, and adapted the rear to become a self-contained space; she put in sliding glass doors and took other measures to get as much light as possible entering and passing through.

There the main show-stopper, a 500 sq ft front room, study area, kitchen/diner, and four bedrooms, one of them en suite, and two other bathrooms, sparate to the self-contained rear apartment.

And, as key to the attraction as the building and its history say Lisney, is the setting: ”The location of Fisherman’s Hall is truly enviable, in the heart of Kinsale, a short walk from the bustling harbour and vibrant maritime atmosphere.”

Within a minute or two walk is the likes of Fishy Fishy, the Black Pig, Brunos and numerous bars and cafés as the self-celebrated seaside ‘gourmet town’ continues its crest of a wave surge of popularity and strong property demand, with consequent top prices for homes of character and, where possible, water views or access.

VERDICT: Fisherman’s Hall might not be on the water’s edge, but its history is certainly steeped in the sea.