Former parochial house with links to the Olympics on the market for €595,000
Old Parochial House, Conna
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Conna, Co Cork |
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€595,000 |
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Size |
308 sq m (3315 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
4 |
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Bathrooms |
4 |
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BER |
C2 |
CAREFUL now. While you may be tempted to associate any mention of a parochial house with sweary priests, manic tea ladies, dodgy wallpaper, pawn shop furniture and electric storage heaters, you’ll find nothing of the sort in this former priest’s home in Conna.
What you will find is a house restored and kitted out by someone who knew exactly what they were doing and understood the look that they were going for - and it wasn’t Craggy Island-inspired. Instead of a dark dungeon for exiled clerics as per the hit TV sitcom Fr Ted, the Old Parochial House in Conna is bright, elegant and comfortable. Its owners made it fit for modern living, without comprising fine period features like high ceilings and original fireplaces.
In fact the only thing this Conna home has in common with the Crilly household would be an ecumenical matter. It was, in the past, home to a Canon Ryan, a priest who would have celebrated Mass in nearby St Catherine’s Roman Catholic Church, which architectural database Buildings of Ireland dates to the 1830s. The same database suggests that the former parochial house is also close to 200 years old, although not as ancient as the Church itself.
You won’t find any slaves to the tea-tray or builders of sandwich pyramids at this particular former parochial home though, albeit the woman of the house admits to an urge to put the kettle on the first time she walked through its front door.
“It was a wreck when we first looked at it, but I knew as soon as I walked in here that it was where I wanted to live. I had this feeling of wanting to put the kettle on,” she says.
Not that her day job, as commercial director of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, leaves Catherine Tiernan with a whole lot of time for endless cups of tea. Right now, she’s running at full tilt, as the countdown to Paris Olympics 2024 continues. It’s the reason she’s selling up actually, as she needs to be closer to Dublin during this frenetic lead-in period.
“We’ve had a beautiful life here, it’s such a lovely place to rear a family, but as we gear up for Paris, I need to be closer to Dublin,” she says.
Catherine, who has a long track record in commercial sponsorship/strategic planning/national and international contract negotiations (worked with O2, the GAA, the FAI, the European Tour, IRFU and Chill Insurance) bought the Old Parochial House more than two decades ago with her husband, Mitchelstown-based solicitor Ken Molan.
“We gutted it,” she says, adding that further done the line, they extended slightly at the rear too, enlarging an existing two-storey section to create a beautiful garden room, with French doors to a patio and back garden.
They held on to original features as much as possible. They put new, heavy-duty Brazilian slates on the house when they bought it and used the old slates to re-tile the roof of the double garage. In the main house, they retained as many of the original features as possible, like the extra deep, centuries old window sills, window shutters and original French doors in the drawing room, and in an extra-long (30'x10') bedroom in an annexe linked to the main house.
The bedroom doors open onto a balcony, and steps lead down to the rear garden.
There are lots of garden and patio spots to choose from around the Old Parochial House. Patios were laid by Tommy Molan, Ken’s cousin. One directly off the garden room is in an enclosed courtyard, surrounded by high old stone walls.
Paving is nicely varied and there’s a choice of sitting out areas. It’s not all hard landscaping though – a couple of raised beds have a mix of trees and shrubs.
As the house comes with an acre, there’s more to it than home and courtyard. There are a couple of separate garden areas, including a long lawn that runs along the driveway. Beyond that lawn is some more hard landscaping and another sitting-out area.
"When we bought the house, that garden out front was part of a field and we converted it into a garden," Ken says.
At a higher level, to the rear, is an orchard, with apple and pear trees and a second patio and BBQ area, where a gazebo has been permanently installed.
Ken says this was the garden that originally went with the parochial house. "It was the priest's garden," he says.
Catherine says having two patios is ideal when entertaining.
"The young crowd tend to gravitate towards the upper patio, while the adults are in the courtyard,” she says. She adds that there’s a sort of “secret garden” too, with a swing, where younger kids love to play.
“It’s full of nooks and crannies,” she says.
Indoors in this 308 sq ft home has some nooks and crannies too, of the character-enhancing kind that are not found in modern builds.
In saying that, there’s a fresh, contemporary feel to parts of the house, particularly in the kitchen, with its feature island unit and free-standing American-style fridge freezer. An oil-fired Range (with its own separate oil tank) and a Belfast sink keep things sufficiently retro. Ken says when the Range is on, it heats the water. "We never have to turn the immersion on if the Range is on," he says. There's a separate oil tank for the central heating.
The house has a very good C2 rating for such an old home. A couple of things contributed to this. First off, the couple dry-lined the whole house when they bought it 18 years ago (they also rewired it). Then, around 2016/2017, they installed triple-glazed windows throughout, with the exception of the new garden room and extended ensuite, as they had been recently renovated.
The garden room, through double doors from the kitchen, is a bright, attractive, airy space. An archway off it leads to a door to the annexe, which can also be accessed externally through a door off the courtyard. It houses a storage room and laundry room and beyond these, a contemporary-looking den area, with a built-in work-station/home office.
Selling agent Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Properties says this annexe, (with the long bedroom on the mezzanine overhead and own door to outside) could be turned into a granny flat (den area could become a small kitchen?) or used as guest quarters.
As well as the kitchen, with its island for casual dining, there's a formal dining room, with original timber flooring and antique-style open fireplace.
Its a graceful room, outdone by an even more elegant parlour, which is definitely not the sort of room that would ever harbour the likes of liquor-loving Fr Jack Hackett ('Drink, Feck, Girls').
Original flooring and window shutters and another antique-style fireplace are key features.
Buildings of Ireland describes the house as a “substantial former parochial house... typical in style and form of such structures in Ireland”.
It says its classical façade “is enlivened by the porch and the bay window, which are later additions”. The porch leads into the black-and-white tiled main hallway, with drawing room and dining room on either side of it. Beyond the staircase is the bright and modern kitchen and garden room. Double doors between these two rooms can be folded right back, as they are at this time of year, but with the option of closing off the two rooms to keep things cosy during the winter.
A back hallway off the kitchen houses a guest toilet, useful for whoever is staying in the annexe.
Bedroom accommodation in the main house consists of some fine sized rooms, particularly the main bedroom on the first return, where an open fireplace is in working order.
A large dressing room has a door to the ensuite, which, as well as that free-standing bath, has a separate, extra-large power shower. On the second return, you will find two more bedrooms and a shower room.
Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Properties is selling the Old Parochial House - the guide price if €595,000 - and she says it’s “an enchanting residence... a seamless blend of timeless elegance with modern convenience”. It’s all that for sure and the bucolic setting is charming too “a serene retreat from city living”, as Ms Hegarty says.
Having raised their family there, Catherine and Ken will be sorry to see it go, but work dictates that they move. They say it has been "a very lucky home" for them and they would love to see another family settle into it.
Ms Hegarty expects interest from families upscaling, but is also seeing some interest from retiring couples and older downsizers, as well as potential buyers looking for intergenerational accommodation.
She points out that the village shop is just a couple of minutes walk and the local national school is half a mile away. The towns of Fermoy and Midleton are about 10 and 20 minutes respectively by car, and lovely Lismore in Co Waterford is about the same. Dublin is two hours via the motorway, Cork City is about a half hour drive and Cork Airport is 35/40.
: A charmingly restored, historic home in a delightful setting. Go on, Go on, Go on. You know you want to.
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