From Holy Faith convent to Bible belt

A RUNDOWN former national school, St Brigid’s in the Coombe in Dublin 8, may well become part of the Bible belt now that it is for sale at a much reduced price of €650,000.

Originally put on the market last year at €1.5 million, the large Victorian building on over a third of an acre is apparently attracting a lot of attention from foreign churches, notably Nigerian and Romanian congregations, which are to keen to have a religious meeting house close to the city centre.

Up to now many of these groups have had to settle for redundant industrial buildings on the outskirts of towns, so this would be a considerable improvement. The 1,386sq m (14,920sq ft) building was in use as a primary school up to earlier this year, when the Holy Faith sisters replaced it with a modern building. They also built a new convent on the opposite side of the street.

Savills reports that they have already have a firm offer but they’ll be holding out for the modest asking price which equates to €43 per sq ft, surely the cheapest real estate in the city and a long way from the much quoted €1,000 per sq ft paid for some property at the height of the boom. The agents have also had interest from companies providing student accommodation, though obviously it would need a good deal of refurbishment.