Blackall burial marks end of Blackrock property row

The burial yesterday of 94-year-old Eileen Blackall marks the final chapter in a lengthy dispute over a £3 million family home at Marino Park, Blackrock.

Ms Blackall, who with her sister Rose fought a 10-year legal battle to remain in the Georgian mansion, had lived in difficult circumstances since being ejected by court order in 2000.

"When she lost Marino, she lost her will to live," her nephew William Blackall said yesterday. Blind and deaf, she suffered several bouts of pneumonia, to which she finally succumbed last Wednesday. Ms Blackall was buried in Dean's Grange cemetery.

She received just £23,000 as her share of the legal settlement under which the house was conveyed to a developer, Chessington Ltd, for £400,000, a fraction of its market value. She got a further £20,000 from the will of her sister Rose, who died aged 82 only days after the court order was made.

After Ms Blackall moved to live with relatives, vandals laid waste to the mansion, stripping it of marble mantelpieces, granite steps and chimney pots.

The property has since been redeveloped as an upmarket, gated estate known as Marino Park at The Elms. Some 13 houses were developed for a total value of €13 million.

The developers sought to demolish the house but permission was refused by Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council and it was later refurbished.

The two women owned the house with their sister-in-law, Iris Blackall, the widow and administrator of their brother Gerald's estate. Marino Park had been owned by the Blackall family since 1917 when it was purchased by the sisters' father, the nationalist MP Tomas Blackall.

In 1991, amid a dispute over wills, the Dublin Circuit Civil Court ordered the sale of the house. It was bought by Chessington, owned by John McDonald of Blackrock, for £400,000.

The case went many times to the High Court, and once to the Supreme Court. At one point, the Circuit Court nullified the contract of sale, but the High Court later decided that while the conditions of sale had been breached, the contract was still valid. In 1998, the sisters were evicted.

Creditors claimed most of the Chessington money. Ulster Bank claimed £174,000, including £123,000 interest on a £50,000 loan taken out in 1998. Legal fees exceeded £100,000 while architects and estate agents claimed a further £10,000.