O'Reilly buys period home on Dublin square

MR Tony O'Reilly has paid almost £1 million for a Georgian townhouse in Dublin's Fitzwilliam Square.

The house, the former offices of Anderson & Company solicitors at 2 Fitzwilliam Square will be his main Dublin home. His private office will also be based there.

Dr O'Reilly and his wife, Ms Chryss Goulandris, have another Irish home at Castlemartin, Co Kildare, together with residences in Pittsburgh, Normandy, Lyford Cay in the Bahamas and a holiday home in Glandore, west Cork.

The mid terrace, four storey over basement house has been fully refurbished by its previous owners. It also contains a courtyard and coach house which has a separate entrance and living accommodation.

The period house was at one time owned by Mr William Dargan, the founder of the National Gallery and Irish Railways.

The chairman of H.J. Heinz, Independent Newspapers, Waterford Wedgwood and Fitzwilton is understood to have finalised the purchase before Christmas and has been staying there this week.

Dr O'Reilly is said to have been keen to find a Dublin base for his mid week trips to Ireland, which would be more convenient than travelling daily to and from Castlemartin.

While most of the houses on Fitzwilliam Square are currently used as offices, many have been converted back to residential townhouses in recent years. Residents have exclusive access to the square's park and tennis courts.

Senator Edward Haughey, chairman of Norbrook Laboratories, is another new resident, maintaining a home and office in the city centre area, and a number of other wealthy individuals have recently bought Georgian houses in the area.

As chairman of the Heinz group, Dr O'Reilly spends about a third of his time in Pittsburgh, where he lived in a nine bedroomed home in the exclusive Fox Chapple area of the city.

He has indicated that he is likely to stay on in his role in Heinz for a least another two years. He is due ft address investment analysts in Ned York on the Heinz group next week and left for the US yesterday.

Dr O'Reilly suffered ill health shortly before Christmas and was admitted to a Dublin hospital. This led to a flurry of speculation before it emerged that he had suffered from an inner ear infection and an attack of flu.

A spokesman said yesterday that he was now fully recovered and would lead the annual Heinz presentation in New York next week before the St Patrick's Day celebrations.