Sisters of Mercy house in Longford back on the market with 35% price cut

CO LONGFORD: €3.25M:ARDAGH HOUSE and Demesne – a 19th century house on 227 acres in Ardagh, Co Longford – is back on the market with a 35 per cent price cut to €3.25 million. The property, owned by the Sisters of Mercy, was sold at auction in autumn 2007 for €5.25 million but the sale fell through. It was relaunched last September with a guide of €5 million.

The house, in the centre of the cut-stone estate village – believed to be the setting for Oliver Goldsmith’s play She Stoops to Conquer – was bought by the order in 1927 and run as a home economics college until last year, when the nuns moved to Ballinasloe.

The 1,161sq m (12,500sq ft) building, a protected structure in an architectural conservation area, is suitable for institutional use, but would need a lot of refurbishment according to selling agent Paddy Jordan.

Accommodation in the two-storey over basement house includes four main reception rooms, 16 bedrooms and in a later addition, a gym and 16 more bedrooms. There are a number of limestone outbuildings. The 227-acre farm is likely to be of interest as agricultural rather than development land, although part of it is zoned residential. The dairy farm comes with a 75,749 gallon milk quota.

Asked whether the proceeds of the sale would now go to the Government for child abuse victims, a spokesman for the Sisters of Mercy said that the issue of further contributions is still being discussed. It is believed that no specific properties are up for negotiation.