KATE O’BRIEN’S ancestral Mulgrave Street home has been sold for a price in the region of €78,000.
The sale, which does not include the substantial landbank to the rear of the property, came within days of the annual Kate O’Brien weekend in the city.
Mayor Jim Long, who has actively lobbied City Hall to purchase the famed author’s house, with a view to converting it to a writer’s museum, told the Limerick Post that city council was not involved in negotiations.
“The house has been purchased by a private individual for his/her own use – that is what I’ve been told by a city auctioneer.
“Neither the city council or any other agency is involved.
Contracts are awaiting to be signed, and the identity of the purchaser has not yet been revealed”.
Tom Quinlan, the Limerick conservation architect, and cousin of the owners of the property, hinted that complications could arise from the land not being sold with the house.
“When you have a protected structure and a proportion is sold, the remainder of the property still stays within the “protected” status, which means that there isn’t carte blanche to do whatever any new owner of the land might want”.
Meanwhile, the launch of the 28th Kate O’Brien Weekend was held this week, and is scheduled for the Belltable Arts Centre from February 14 to 26 inclusive.
The focus will be “a celebration of Irish writing in honour of the Limerick- born internationally recognised author, and among the line-up of speakers will be the Nobel Prize Winner in Literature: Seamus Heaney, Dr Loic Guyon, Katharine Towers, John Boyne, Frank McNally, Dr Niamh Hourigan, Susie Boyt, Sarah Ellen Murphy, John Horgan, Colette Davis, Vivienne McKechnie and Knute Skinner.
