‘Shed of turf’ the sleeper lot at Roscommon antiques auction

It may be off the beaten track but the village of Glenamaddy in northeast Co Galway – once famed for its Esker Ballroom – drew more than 3,000 people to view an auction of house contents last weekend.

The sale at Kedagh Park House, the former residence of the late Fr Brian Hanley, a well-known collector, was organised by Oldcastle, Co Meath-based Matthews Auction Rooms and P Burke Sherry Fitzgerald, Roscommon.

The top lot was the portico of a former Roscommon “Big House”, Mote Park (right), which sold for €12,000 (€7,000 - €12,000). The entrance portico was rescued by Fr Hanley when Mote Park, the former home of the Crofton family, was demolished in the 1960s.

Auctioneer Damien Matthews said 676 lots went under the hammer and 672 were sold. It was, he said “very nearly a white-glove sale” – the industry term for an auction in which nearly every lot sells. A pair of Irish Regency fold-over card tables made €4,400 (€4,000- €7,000); a set of eight Mack, Williams & Gibton dining chairs, €1,900 (€1,600-€2,400). The sleeper turned out to be, aptly, given the cold snap, a “shed of turf” which made €1,100, over six times its top estimate of €180.