Covid gave sad coda to wonderful West Cork historic farm home

Elderly bachelor farmer kept faith with history of Rathbarry House, now up for its first-ever sale, writes Tommy Barker

Sun, 15 May, 2022 - 11:00

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

Rosscarbery/Rathbarry, West Cork
€425,000
Size	218 sq m (2,350 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	2
BER	Exempt

FOR more than century, generations of a West Cork family who have a 19th-century British MP in their lineage , have been an intrinsic part of this sturdy and sound home near Rosscarbery and Rathbarry.

Land, and buildings, at Rathbarry's Newmills, just by the N71 between Rosscarbery and Lisavaird

But, the Barry family link here came to a quiet end early last year, after its single, gentleman farmer inhabitant, Gerald Barry, passed away with Covid-19 symptoms.

The 78-year-old retired farmer, who had traveled the world solo after he retired from his dairy farm and leased out his land, fell ill over Christmas 2020, and died in Bantry hospital on January 5, 2021.

Because of Covid-19 restrictions then in place, his funeral could not be held at his local Rathbarry Church. Instead, the hearse came out from Clonakilty, and stopped, to pay a final farewell to his farm, and home at the gates where the house name “Rathbarry” is carved on stone pillars. It then went past neighbours along the rest of the narrow country backroads to Rathbarry cemetery and Mr Barry’s final resting place, where he was interred alongside his brother the Rev Edward Barry, who predeceased him in 2015.

Quality interior, even if a bit dated, with pitch pine stairs, doors and other joinery

The sad account of the muted end of a quiet and hard-working life on 107 acres was recalled for the Irish Examiner last weekend, by a third cousin (who had the late Mr Barry at her home for his last Christmas dinner with her), as the “For Sale” sign went up on the Barry home and farm, set for auction on June 17.

Back 130 years ago, it was the home of anti-Parnellite MP Edward Barry, who joined the Irish Parliamentary Party in the early 1900s and who sat in London’s House of Commons until the 1910 election.

The next generation included Capt John Edward Barry (1896-1959) who was in the Connaught Ranger Tank Corps in the Great War: as the house comes for sale, he’s seen in his 4th Battalion uniform in a photograph along with some military and family memorabilia (pic, far right).

Set at Newmills just off the N71 between Lisavaird and Rosscarbery, it’s a remarkably well-kept five-bay home of some stature, built in three sections from 1850, and flanked by older stone outbuildings, a coach house, and a large, lofted stone barn, both older and dated to the 1820s.

One of the two impressive reception rooms. Windows in front are double glazed sashes, with working shutters

The family, and property’s lineage, is summarised today by the late Gerald Barry’s estate executor and third cousin, who also speaks of numerous visits here, down many decades to the Barry home. She notes on just about every visit, if not farming, he was to be found doing some job to his home, tackling flooring (several rooms have recently fitted oak floors), adding wash-hand basins to several of the five bedrooms, maintaining, and minding all the while.

Old outbuildings flank the main house. Note the flagpole....

The mindful, long-time resident also logged his home’s expenditure, in neat writing in a school jotter. With a simple diagram of rooms layout, it notes this Rathbarry House being built in three sections – in 1850, 1898, and 1905.

In 1951, electricity was connected, a telephone line followed in 1956. One of the three chimneys was capped in 1963, and in 1972 central heating was installed. The barn roofs were replaced in the 1970s, and the house itself also got a new roof.

It was rewired in 2004, when a burglar alarm was installed and windows were replaced over various decades, some in pvc, but the most important, the ones across the five-bay tall facade were done in hardwood sashes, and double glazed.

The late Gerald Barry evidently did his Rathbarry home (and, by extension, its next owners) many favours. His pride in it was evident by the fact he held a party to celebrate a centenary, in 2005, when he put a flagpole in the front lawn, flew the tricolour, and invited family, friends, neighbours, and local TD Jim O’Keeffe to mark the occasion, with a mass and a meal.

The flagpole’s ready to hoist some new flag, post-change of ownership, and the guide price prior to the June 17 is a very low-seeming €425,000 AMV quoted by agents John Hodnett and Mark Kelly of Hodnett Forde.

Mr Kelly says despite being in excellent shape, it needs some upgrades – but the basics are all there: just see the list above.

It doesn’t have that all-important driver of prices, nor a sea view, and its boundary to the north is the busy N71, so it’s not 100% tranquil soundwise. But, visually it’s a joy.

The house actually turns its back to the boundary, which in any case has mature tree screening and, most wonderfully, a fast-flowing stream along its length well beneath the house, the Owenahincha River, which flows to the sea about a mile way at Little Island/Owenahincha, about a mile or two to the south as the gull flies.

The house itself has 2,350 sq ft, with spacious reception rooms, lots of period trim – including original fireplaces, pitch pine joinery and window shutters, pitch pine stairs with unusual curved landing rails, and high ceilings (even more so upstairs) – five bedrooms, two bathrooms, sunny porch entrance, and a very basic kitchen.

The coach house has a dated, converted section with a number of rooms, over two levels with two staircases, one precipitously steep. If planning’s approved, it could have guest/rental potential, and was previously a servants’ quarters, according to the last occupant’s dutiful, handwritten note. Like the even larger, c 1820s facing old lofted stone outbuilding with ocular gable windows, it has some top-quality stonework.

Lofted outbuilding has ocular gable window

The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage says they “complement the setting of Rathbarry House. Their rubble stone construction adds texture and contrasts against the rendered house, while ocular windows with red brick surrounds add variety and character to these otherwise utilitarian buildings.”

Tanks for the memories: Memorial headstone at base of chestnut tree for Capt John Edward Barry of the Connaught Tank Regiment

Hodnett Forde auctioneer Mark Kelly describes the mix as stately, and is selling on 3.7 acres, with lawns flanking a central (currently unused) main drive, with “Rathbarry” engraved on a pillar. Years back, another mason carved a memorial stone for the late Capt John Edward Barry of the Connaught Tank Regiment, now lichen-covered, under a Spanish Chestnut tree to the right, as mature as the property itself.

VERDICT: Whoever buys here will have a duty of care to this property’s previous owners.

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