Journalist Mike Milotte, who won an award for his documentary on the property crash, is selling his Rathmines home. EDEL MORGANvisits it and an Edwardian five-bed nearby
OVER THE past week, broadcaster and journalist Mike Milotte and his ceramicist wife Rachel will have been busy telling neighbours and friends that they’ve decided to sell their Rathmines home after 18 happy years there.
“We don’t want them to find out about it by opening the newspaper,” says Mike, who says selling up seems the practical thing to do now that all three of their daughters have left home.
Lisney is asking €995,000 for 34 Windsor Road, a 228sq m (2,463sq ft) four-bedroom house with a stairs that seems to go on forever past two returns and a main landing up to attic rooms. “We’ve loved having the space but now it’s too much, it’s a waste, so many of the rooms are now empty,” he says.
When Mike won an IFTA last year for his RTÉ documentary Freefall: The Night the Banks Failed, which examined the origins of the property crash of 2008, both globally and in Ireland, he should have perhaps thanked his house for its strong supporting role as it has been used as the backdrop for many RTÉ interviews, pieces to camera and documentaries during his 17-year stint on Prime Time.
"The camera crews love bright colour and light and the study in particular was used in a lot of RTÉ programmes including Thou Shalt not Kill, presented by Cathal O'Shannon. We also did a Prime Timereport on uncooked meat and food poisoning which featured our kids and their friends having a barbecue in the garden. On another programme about the acne drug Roaccutane the girls were filmed preparing for a night out."
When they bought the house in 1994, it was set in flats which meant taking on a major refurbishment project. They’ve pretty much stuck to the same bold colour scheme throughout the years, and you can see Rachel’s artistic influence everywhere from the blue mosaic in the downstairs toilet to the ceramic face on the garden wall.
The main receptions rooms are big enough to take the vivid yellow-orange colour scheme – interconnecting rooms with matching grey-flecked marble fireplaces, high ceilings and ornate plasterwork, the vibe is part elegant and part-boho chic with giant paper lampshades. At the end of the hall there are steps down to a guest toilet, utility room and a cloakroom and a lime-green extended kitchen with a country cottage feel and nice views of the garden.
Upstairs on the first floor return is the famous book-lined study/library where a lot of filming took place. This is the room where Mike wrote his 1997 book Banished Babies(about foreign adoptions of Irish children); a recently updated version is due to be published in March. This room leads through to a bright sunroom overlooking the garden where Rachel paints her glazed ceramic urns.
Off the main landing there are three good-sized double bedrooms and a recently revamped bathroom. Up steps to the next return is the main bedroom which is en suite, and at the next level there’s an attic guest bedroom and a study cum storage room.
The rear garden is designed to turn a blaze of blue, purples and whites at certain times with rambling roses, lavender, wisteria, artichokes, Irises and blackcurrants.
As well as pond frequented by frogs, there’s a prolific apple tree and winding gravel path to Rachel’s pottery studio which has a kiln and is wired for electricity and heating.
Rachel is also a keen gardener and is sad leaving her labour of love behind, “but the garden is a lot of work and when you are getting on you have to think of that”.
“We will play it by ear, maybe we’ll travel, we have daughters in different parts of the world and we’ll be able to see them. There’s a sadness about leaving, we’ve been very happy, we’ve made great friends here that we’re really going to miss, but you have to be practical.”
Banished Babies The Secret Story of Ireland's Baby Export Business(an updated edition) will be published in March by New Island, €14.99
PALMERSTON GARDENS €1.1M
LIKE WINDSOR Road, nearby Palmerston Gardens in Rathmines is another one of those leafy, quiet streets off Dublin 6’s trophy-home artery. On a road of solid redbricks near Palmerston Park, 26 Palmerston Gardens is a substantial five-bed Edwardian semi asking €1.1 million through Beirne Wise.
An executor sale, the interior is like stepping into the 1980s – it’s very retro – although there are still a few original Edwardian features intact including the square bay windows, the painted wooden porch, the attractive carved arts and crafts style bannisters on the stairs and the stained glass front door and picture window.
As was typical of the period, the hall is fairly wide, off which there are two main interconnecting reception rooms – a drawing room with a square bay window and ceiling rose, and a family room to the rear. The stone-clad fireplaces and mahogany overmantels add to the dated feel of these rooms. The family room leads to a lean to-style conservatory via an aluminium sliding door.
On the right hand side of the family room, an alcove brings you through to the kitchen/diner. Part of the kitchen area is dated while the other part has been recently fitted with modern Shaker-style fitted units and a marble countertop.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms, four of which are very good-sized doubles, a family bathroom with a turquoise suite and a separate toilet.
As well as a railed front garden with off-street parking there’s a very pleasant 100ft back garden mainly in lawn with mature border shrubbery and specimen planting with a number of outhouses and tool sheds along the right hand side.
26 Palmerston Gardens, Rathmines, Dublin 8
Five-bed Edwardian semi-detached with a mix of period featured and modern additions, off-street parking; 100ft mature back garden
Agent: Beirne & Wise
