Local buyers secure Killarney’s historic International Hotel in major Kerry deal

Historic 98-bedroom International Hotel sold for more than €20m as O’Donoghue Ring family deepens its Killarney presence.

International Hotel Killarney bought by O'Donoghue Ring family for excess €20 million via agents CBRE

KILLARNEY’S town centre International Hotel, a four-star 98-bed historic hotel, has found a very local buyer – the O’Donoghue Ring clan, bringing to five the number of Kerry hotels now owned by the powerful Munster business family, with four now alone in Killarney.

Despite getting national and international inquiries – including local rumours of Trump Hotel International hovering for a second Irish hotel swoop - the Killarney prize wasn’t going to be allowed leave local ownership.

The top Irish tourist town’s International is now set to join hoteliers’ the O’Donoghue Ring Collection, which already includes the Killarney Plaza Hotel & Spa, the Killarney Avenue Hotel, the Killarney Towers Hotel and the River Island Hotel in Castleisland.

Apart from the ‘fistful’ of five strong hotel brands, and associated restaurants, bars and function facilities, the O’Donoghue Ring family also own Munster Joinery at Ballydesmond on the Kerry-Cork border, founded in 1973, and one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of windows and doors, employing c1,800.

Their new hotel purchase, the International Hotel’s site has hospitality roots going back to the Victorian mid-1800s heyday of Killarney tourism, with the current building dating to 1906 and with its bedrooms tally brought to 98 by the addition of a Celtic Tiger times’ rear wing with 21 more bedrooms.

It had been owned since the 1970s by the local Coyne family, in second-generation ownership since being acquired by local auctioneer the late Sean Coyne in 1976, and has been controlled by a number of siblings in recent years.

It went to the open market in September 2025 and a sale has now concluded within a swift four months, via agents John Hughes and Paul Collins of CBRE Hotels who had launched it with a €18m -€20m price guide.

It’s understood to have made over the guide, just in excess of €20m, but when contacted, agent CBRE agent John Huhes declined to confirm details.

When putting it up for sale, the International Hotel’s then-MD Tracy Coyne, said: “For 50 years, we have considered ourselves caretakers of this magnificent hotel. Our curatorship is now coming to a close, and the time has come to pass the mantle to new owners who will continue to protect its heritage while driving its success into the future.” Key to the strong sale was the central Killarney setting, and local pedigree which now continues, in different Kerry clan hands.

It’s the strongest hotel sale locally for some time, with CBRE noting back in September it was almost a decade since a substantial Killarney hotel came up for public sale: that was the Nama-promoted sale in 2014 of the far bigger 172-bed Malton Hotel (formerly the Great Southern) to the Scally family, owners of Cork’s Hayfield Manor, for €15m.

The International Hotel’s new owners, the O’Donoghue Ring family, had plans in the early 2000s for a Cork city centre hotel on Cornmarket Street (the Guy & Co building) but switched to delivering 80 apartments and retail, including a Lidl, after the hotel was refused planning due to local objections.