When the Covid pandemic hit, much of Irish psychologist Dr Mary Clare Race’s work as an executive coach went online – so she decided to move home to Ireland from New York. Originally from Northern Ireland, she fell in love with a Georgian house in Fethard, Co Tipperary: it had already been extensively refurbished and modernised so she made only some cosmetic changes, focusing instead on building equestrian facilities on the 14 acres surrounding the house.
Promoted to chief executive of UK- and US-based coaching consultancy Talking Talent, she is now commuting more frequently to London, so is selling Brookhill, Fethard, Co Tipperary, the home she bought in 2022. “My travel has really picked up, that’s why I’m relocating, probably to the UK. I wish I could just pick up my home here and bring it with me.”
Brookhill, a 378sq m (4,072sq ft) Ber-exempt five-bedroom Georgian house on 14 acres is now for sale through Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes, seeking €1.35 million. It’s in the heart of Tipperary’s horse country – Fethard is the home of champion racehorse-breeding Coolmore Stud – and Race loved “having my horses at home”. She rides dressage and has competed at the Dublin Horse Show in the RDS. Since moving in, she has installed an equestrian arena and facilities and has regularised the boundary.
Brookhill, a protected structure, combines formal Georgian elegance with modern style. The previous owners had converted an adjacent coach house into an open-plan kitchen/dining/livingroom linked to the main house by a gallery-corridor, designed by architect James Montgomery. A fifth en suite bedroom was added downstairs.
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The drawingroom and diningroom are on either side of a traditionally tiled entrance hall: both are formal reception rooms with coving, decorative plasterwork and large sash windows – with typically Georgian six-over-six grid panes – and working shutters.
A long glazed gallery-corridor opens off the hall and the drawingroom, leading to the converted coach house; it overlooks a courtyard and a patio. The kitchen/dining/livingroom has a beige tiled floor, timber-topped island, a cream Aga at one end and a wood-burning stove in a chimney breast opposite, at the sittingroom end. There’s underfloor heating in the gallery-corridor and the kitchen/living area. This space has a double-height ceiling and stairs leading up to a mezzanine fitted with bookshelves. The whole space is one of Race’s favourite features of Brookhill, a great place for entertaining.
There’s a utility room at the rear of the house, and the self-contained en suite bedroom, which has French doors opening on to a private lawned garden.
Upstairs are four double bedrooms, two of which are en suite, and a family bathroom. The main bedroom is dual aspect, looking over the gardens and paddocks of Brookhill; it has an en suite bathroom and a dressingroom.
Outside, the 14 acres are laid out in gardens, lawns, patios and paddocks. A stone archway leads to an enclosed lawn and a vegetable garden with raised beds and a polytunnel. There are four stables and a 25m by 45m riding arena. A brook runs along the boundary of Brookhill.
It’s an idyllic setting, says Race, but not rural isolation either: she has fibre broadband, a choice of five Pilates studios nearby, and when she was looking for her home, she told agents she’d have to be able to get a flat white coffee nearby. She likes to hike as well, and it’s in good hiking country, with the Knockmealdown, Comeragh and Galtee Mountains nearby.
