The new South African ambassador, Melanie Verwoerd, her husband Wilhelm and their two children have moved into the old Victorian Gothic mansion, in Killiney, Co Dublin, which was once the home of Archbishop McQuaid. The mansion has been on the rental market for about a year. "Ashurst", on Military Road, is set in four acres, has about 9,000 sq feet of space and is notable for its belfry tower, where the late archbishop of Dublin had a powerful telescope for viewing the grounds and the bay.
Built for the MP, William Dobbs, in the 1860s, Ashurst has changed much since McQuaid lived there from the 1950s until his death in 1973. Preferring Killiney to the Archbishop's Palace in Drumcondra, he renamed it "Notre Dame des Bois" and had a statue to Our Lady installed in the garden. After his death it was bought by a developer, who built houses in the grounds, and was then sold to another developer for £1 million in 1996. It had been vandalised and was in bad condition, but extensive work saw 13 bedrooms reduced to eight, a gym installed in the oratory and a bar replacing three rooms downstairs.
Wilhelm Verwoerd is a grandson of former South African premier Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, who in 1961 founded the Republic of South Africa and was assassinated in the parliamentary chamber in 1966. The lecturer in political philosophy at Stellenbosch University and his wife joined the ANC in 1993, causing a rift with his family. Melanie Verwoerd was elected an MP at the age of 27 in 1994. She presented her credentials less than two months ago, and on Friday of last week the new ambassador to Ireland hosted the annual Freedom Day reception.