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Irish Examiner
13-06-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Join the Western Alliance at Cork's Western Road 'American houses'
IRISH homes of a century and more ago had many parallels to those of our nearest and once colonialist neighbour Britain, impacting on the designs of little and large, in countryside estates, Georgian and Victorian piles, city pads, terraces, and suburban spreads and sprawls. Six of the best But, as the State found its feet, other nationalities from Germany, France, and international movements got a look in too, in industrial, commercial and residential construction: witness the affection still held nearly a century on for Cork City's 'American houses,' of which there's only half a dozen at Annaville, near UCC on the city's Western Road. One of Cork city's much loved 'American houses' will test the Western (Road) Alliance American architecture got more than occasional look-ins in Cork, witness the likes of Neil Hegarty's Dundanion Court in Blackrock; Christ the King Church at Turners Cross; the Ford factory on the Marina, or the industrial output of the likes of local city architect Frank Murphy at the North Mall. Then, even closer to UCC and the Mardyke, at Annaville, as American as Mom and apple pie. Stateside meets Leeside Dating to the interwar period, these colonial revival, red-brick, over semi-basement houses, with white pillared porches, dormer attics with quarter lune windows, side sun rooms (and trellised balconies above accessed off the principal bedroom,) are credited to Boston architect Harry Morton Ramsay, and to wealthy Cork emigrant Cornelius Buckley who developed furniture stores on the US east coast. Buckley later returned to Cork to build a Lee valley summer house, Valley View along with these six, speculative and wholly 'modern' detacheds, with varied design changes in three sets of two, across facing rows in a gated cul de sac, with an ornate gated entrance to the Western Road, and with pedestrian gates to the Mardyke facing Fitzgerald Park. Entrance to the six 'American houses' is on Cork's Western Road Built in the late 1920s, with construction overseen by local architect Chillingworth and Levie, they had much of their build materials shipped over from the United States, including oak flooring, lighting and electrical fixtures; glass, brass and bronze door furniture, hinges, and Bakelite kitchen trims, coloured bathroom suites, the lot, all before the time of shipping containers. Pure Cork, tho' Timing, however, was rotten: started after 1926, they completed just after the Wall Street Crash and sales were slow. Buckley allowed various family members to live in them until sales picked up: they went on to garner increasing success, and recognition up to the present date, with only a few changing hands over the last 25 years. The last appears to be No 6, making €450,000 in 2019: now it's the turn of No 3 Annaville, a property prize if ever there was one for reasons from location to rarity, quality, charm and, yes, bragging rights, albeit on a sub-Trumpian scale. Main bedroom at 3 Annaville has balcony/terrace access No 3 has been the family home of the O'Leary clan since 1963, says Gerald O'Leary, who was aged three when his parents, Denis and Doreen O'Leary had the chops and chutzpah to buy it for a family of four, later to swell to six children during their long tenure here. As American as Mom and apple pie That's only now about to come to an end after the passing of Doreen in November last, a number of years after her husband Denis O'Leary, known to generations as a city pharmacist on Cork's Grand Parade. Denis had come from the Cork countryside, Doreen came from the Ballinlough Road and they all loved it here, says Gerald, all appreciating it for work, city, shops, schools and college convenience, whilst Fitzgerald Park was literally a stone's throw, or a ball hop, away across the leafy Mardyke. Even today, the vastly upgraded children's play area in the city's beloved public riverside park is a superb amenity, within child-chatter and laughter earshot from the rooms on the left hand side of No 3. Three-storey and six bedroomed, with c 2,200 sq ft on c 0.1 of an acre within the overall gated 0.75 acre Annaville niche enclave, it's been a very well kept family home, albeit largely unchanged over many decades, with the main alteration having been opening up three small back kitchen/service/pantry rooms into one where there's now a lurid yellow kitchen: the family also added a ground floor upgraded bathroom where previously Annaville homes had a ground floor WCs for a maid. Maids? Domestic staff (even in almost 'normal' size family homes) were still a feature up to the mid 1900s in middle class Cork. On the button? A maid could be summoned via a floor button under the dining table No 3 has a great reminder of those days, with a brass plate in the dining room under the good table, left over from a floor bell button, when the hostess of the house could summon 'the help' from the kitchen to serve the next course(s), and remove the dirty dishes, at the tap of a toe, without even an audible click of a finger, or a shift in the hostess's seat (nope, didn't work in O'Leary family times, we're told of this tiny museum/other era domestic timepiece.) Fine fireplace in main living room Selling to 21st century buyers and guiding at €895,000 is Michael O'Donovan of Savills who reckons home hunters (with or without staff) 'will be struck by the sense of exclusivity and the architectural distinction of this unique collection of homes: it's a remarkable property, with a rare opportunity to acquire a piece of Cork's residential heritage.' Parking and garage too He highlights the integrity, the 'rich period charm and a showcase of imported American craftsmanship,' including American oak, pine and mahogany staircase, and a layout that today will still suit 'modern' family life, with a dining room off the kitchen, a large double aspect living room and optional dual access points to a bright southern gable sunroom. Above are four bedrooms, one with shower en suite and walk-in robe — a sort of provision not commonplace in most 'new' Irish homes until the 1980s or '90s — as well as a door to the terrace above the sun room, with perimeter low railings for those who'd find themselves having a sit-out use here. All bedrooms have built-in robes (again, novel at the time, almost a century ago), plus main bathroom. A second, almost-concealed staircase behind a door on the landing leads to two attic level bedrooms, with peculiar centre store area with dormer window (yet hard to access,) eaves storage and lovely side hinged gable windows. No 3 is set to the rear of Annaville and so has its own pedestrian gate straight to the Mardyke where Fitzgerald Park, UCC sports arena, Sunday's Well Tennis Club and Cork Cricket Club all line out for sporting attention: the enclave has a more communal gate too, secure, with overhead lamp on an ornate, green-painted trellis, a smaller version of the more imposing gates on Western Road which used to face the long-departed Western Star and with the Bon Secours on the southern horizon. VERDICT: There's been quite the rash of €1m+plus new and older home sales in the past year or two in Cork western suburbs, largely driven by a robust economy and mid and high level medical hospital/consultant post appointments. A handful of high-profile Leeside arrivals are due in the €1.5m/€2m price bracket in coming weeks too, to test the market's upper end mettle. A number of the recent sales make the €895k 3 Annaville look like a good buy. Time to Make Annaville Great Again?
Irish Times
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Writers' shelfies: a book that holds permanent residency
This year the Belfast Book Festival is asking the public to 'take a shelfie', sharing a photo of beloved books that have greatly influenced their life, way of thinking or that bring them joy with each re-read. In support of this, six authors from the Belfast Book Festival's 2025 programme share one book that holds permanent residency on their bookshelf. Neil Hegarty The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively - chosen by Neil Hegarty On a shelf in my study sits a Sellotaped-together copy of Penelope Lively's classic children's novel The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1973. I often look at it, and each time I'm reminded of its lasting impact on me. The book deals with memory, and with the influence of the past upon the present – with themes that register in my own writing today, and which I can trace back directly to this formative reading experience. Children's books can do this: they can set you up for life – they can, in other words, change your life. READ MORE Neil Hegarty, is a writer from Derry, Northern Ireland. Hegarty's novels include The Jewel; and Inch Levels, which was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award. Babita Sharma Beloved by Toni Morrison - chosen by Babita Sharma This book holds a permanent place on my bookshelf because of its haunting power and poetic complexity. The novel explores the traumatic legacy of slavery through Sethe, a mother haunted by the ghost of her lost child. Morrison's language is both beautiful and unsettling, weaving a fragmented narrative that immerses you in the characters' pain and resilience. The story's honesty about the horrors of slavery and its psychological scars left me deeply moved. Beloved is unforgettable and timeless. Everyone should experience its profound impact, at least once. Babita Sharma is a journalist, broadcaster and author of The Corner Shop and the Priya Mistry series. Eimear McBride in 2024. Photograph: Kat Green Vivien Leigh by Hugo Vickers - chosen by Eimear McBride Conservative estimates suggest at least 3,000 permanent residents but a survivor from my early teens is Hugo Vicker's biography of Vivien Leigh. Famed for Oscar-winning roles in Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire, as well as her tumultuous marriage to Laurence Olivier, Leigh was a fascinating woman. Vickers' exquisite exploration of her life and career, as well as the tragedy of her manic depression in an era of poor understanding and treatment, has led to a lifelong interest in the gap between private and public selves in the lives of creative people . Eimear McBride is the author of four novels: A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, The Lesser Bohemians, Strange Hotel and The City Changes Its Face. She held the inaugural Creative Fellowship at the Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading and is the recipient of the Women's Prize for Fiction, Goldsmiths Prize, Kerry Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Oliver Jeffers Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - chosen by Oliver Jeffers My dad recommended Joseph Heller's commentary on the absurdity of war, Catch-22, when I was about 16. I started it, but couldn't make any sense of it. That was entirely the point, at least to begin with, and I gave up about a dozen pages in. About 10 years later, as we discussed another looming crisis, he urged me to try again. I did. And it is, to this day, one of the only books that has ever given me a physical reaction, as what began as a swirling, discordant cacophony of writing found its harmony in a beautiful and sudden crescendo. An absurd book I return to time and again to make sense of humanity's recurring conflicts. Oliver Jeffers is an Australian-born Northern Irish artist, illustrator and writer. His award-winning and bestselling picture books include The Day the Crayons Quit, How to Catch a Star, What We'll Build Wendy Erskine. Photograph: Khara Pringle I Like This Poem: A Collection of Best-Loved Poems Chosen by Children for Other Children - chosen by Wendy Erskine I Like This Poem is a 1979 poetry anthology, edited by Kaye Webb, and published in the International Year of the Child. Each poem included was actually chosen by a child and accompanied by an explanation as to why they picked it. It's a pretty brilliant, unusual selection: Langston Hughes, William Blake and Stevie Smith are there. And the kids' justifications were so singular and engaging! The grubbiest pages denote my favourites – a poem about ageing boxers and another about a dead bird. The 10-year-old me felt like I could be welcomed into the poetry club by these kid selectors, if I knew them. It was the gateway book for me, I suppose you might say. Wendy Erskine is the author of two short story collections, Sweet Home and Dance Move. Her debut novel, The Benefactors, is published next month. Paul McVeigh. Photograph: Chad Alexander Henry and June by Anaïs Nin - chosen by Paul McVeigh I have a copy of Henry and June by Anaïs Nin that was gifted to me by a friend while I was at university 35 years ago. I'd never read anything like it before. I remember as a young man reading it on a tube in London and getting off at a station and I couldn't meet anyone's eye, I felt so affected by it. Her fearlessness in exploring art, life and particularly her sexuality was a watershed moment for me in pursuit of my own truth. It is on a shelf in my living room; it's the only book I know exactly where it sits and my eyes go there from time to time and rest on it. The Belfast Book Festival will take place from June 5th-12th all under the one roof at The Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast. The 15th edition of the festival promises a packed programme of poetry, fiction, crimewriting, journalism, screenwriting, a memorable exhibition plus developmental opportunities via expert-led discussions and workshops. Tickets on sale at:
