Mystery couple buy historic mansion
Mystery surrounded the identity of the new owner of one of Ireland’s most historic stately homes today.
An unnamed Irish couple bought Lissadell House following months of speculation that the Government might step in and strike a deal.
Previous owner Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth was keeping quiet about the buyer of the 19th century childhood home of the Countess Markievicz after announcing its sale today on radio.
He said a confidentiality clause prevented him revealing their identity – but he said that the new owner was not U2 frontman Bono.
He said: “They are an Irish couple. They are interested in living here as their family home and the house will continue to remain open to the public under terms that they will agree in due course.”
He confirmed that Bono had visited the house with members of his family but added: “I can say that it (the buyer) was not Bono.”
He said the price agreed was higher than the original asking price but “a great deal less” than the figure mentioned by the Government.
It was reported that a wealthy buyer based in Sligo had agreed to buy the property.
The Co Sligo mansion had a price tag of €3.75m when it went on the market earlier this summer and there was intense speculation that a Government purchase was on the cards.
Ministers claimed redevelopment could swell the final cost to more than €30m and said that because of financial pressures they would require a private partner if they were to buy it.
Lissadell House is one of Ireland’s most historically well-connected stately homes.
It featured in a poem by W B Yeats and its previous owners were caught up in the fight for independence in the early years of the last century. The Gore-Booths have lived in the house since it was built around 170 years ago.
The house was the childhood home of Constance Gore-Booth, who in later years, as Countess Markiewicz, was closely connected with the leaders of the struggle for independence and became the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons.
She fought during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and was condemned to death by the British authorities.
Her sentence was later quashed and she was imprisoned instead. After refusing to take her seat as the first woman MP at Westminster, she later sat as a member of the first Dáil.
The grey limestone mansion of Lissadell House is set in 400 acres of parkland on the northern shore of Sligo Bay.
