Former heart surgeon's beloved €1.25m seaside home will get pulses racing

Baltimore's Coney Island is a place apart, and the stunningly sited waterside home called Clooney is one of the best sited, right on the water

Sat, 22 Apr, 2023 - 17:15

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

Baltimore, West Cork
€1.25m
Size	138 sq m (1,500 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	2
BER	G

THE setting of this Coney Island, West Cork, home called Clooney is more than enough to set the heart aflutter. And, that’s appropriate, because it was the much loved seaside home of the late, acclaimed Irish heart surgeon, Dr Maurice Hickey, with a relative also getting the chance to build right alongside.

Clooney is for sale with joint agents Liam Hodnett and Maeve McCarthy

Both houses have remained in their respective family hands since, until now, when Clooney comes to market.

Dr Hickey was the first surgeon to be made a Freeman of his native Cork city, in 1992, some 20 years after he was awarded the West Cork Man of the Year award in 1972. He was recognised for then-pioneering surgical achievements, and action to tackle the scourge of TB with support from Dr Noel Browne, who once had offered him a chauffeur driven car as he operated at one stage in three hospitals in Cork, Dublin and Castlereagh in Roscommon.

Born in 1915 and a first class student at UCC, he later trained in the UK and returned to Ireland in 1948 as the country’s first cardio thoracic surgeon, also developing an expertise in repairing the hearts of tiny infant and so-called ‘blue babies’.

He married another doctor, Cork-born Dr Mary Burke, and the couple had two sons and two daughters. After a long career, he retired to Limerick but his family’s own heart was in this holiday home in Baltimore near Skibbereen, where he fished, golfed and sailed.

He passed away in 2005, and the Hickey family are now selling the detached, 1970s-built property, with its commanding and full views of many of the glories of Carbery’s 100 Isles, the Sound, Hackett’s Creek, past Baltimore port, and down to Church Strand.

Then there are the regularly passing ferries to Sherkin Island and Cape Clear, and every other imaginable craft, from ocean-crossing yachts, fleets of dinghies, and stand-up paddle boards and kayaks. There are seals and dolphins too.

There’s only a handful of homes on Baltimore’s Coney Island, and a number are in the hands of the same families for generations, several in compound-like clusters, while there’s a locally-recommended 3km walk out towards the end of Coney Island from Baltimore pier, with variations up the hill behind to the iconic white Beacon, Baltimore’s emblem.

With its €1.25m guide price, the 1,500 sq ft Clooney has joint selling agents, Liam Hodnett of Hodnett Forde, and Maeve McCarthy of Charles P McCarthy who note that houses here, several with water frontage, rarely come on the market, with the sale of Clooney being “a once-in-a-lifetime buying opportunity for anyone who is familiar with the local area” …. and for blow-ins.

Ground floor guest bedroom in the split level home

The site — likely to be one of Coney Island’s best — is 0.6 of an acre, with sheltered sections and semi-tropical plants such as Windmill Palms, Embothrium, and the Flame Tree thrive. The split level house has a south-westerly aspect, with most of its accommodation on the first floor and with a guest bedroom and bathroom at the lower ground.

Family members recall that at the time of its construction, initial plans to excavate and blast the rocky site with dynamite had to be shelved because of the troubles in Northern Ireland at the time, as it would have needed a daily garda escort from secure storage in Ballincollig.

“Due to this, the house is now uniquely situated at an elevated vantage point, with the feeling of being within a large boat that is floating upon the sea,” say family members, adding that “the unique location of Clooney delighted Dr Hickey who loved to be so close to the sea which he adored. The sea recharged his batteries along with his wife Dr Mary Bourke, and their grandchildren after them.”

New York/Brooklyn's Coney Island is just across the Atlantic

The last recorded sale on Coney Island was five years ago, at €800,000 for a 2,200 sq ft home without water frontage.

VERDICT: By George, Clooney is only gorgeous, and the address, Coney Island, has a lyrical ring to it, evidenced by the Van Morrison lyric: “Wouldn’t it be great if it was like this all the time?”