Ireland

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Com­puls­ory pur­chase order of house could make it finest in north Dub­lin

A GEORGIAN man­sion in Dub­lin that inspired Bram Stoker’s Drac­ula and is men­tioned in James Joyce’s Ulysses is to be assessed for derel­ic­tion, after lying vacant for almost 30 years.

It comes as local rep­res­ent­at­ives make renewed calls for the com­puls­ory pur­chase order (CPO) of the house, to bring it back into State own­er­ship and make it the ‘jewel in the crown in the north­side’.

RISE AND FALL: Ald­bor­ough House, top, and in its hey­day, below, was built by Edward Strat­ford, above

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Ald­bor­ough House, the second-largest private city town­house in Dub­lin after Lein­ster House, has stood on Port­land Row in the north inner city since the end of the 18th cen­tury.

Across 200 years it served as a res­id­ence, a school, an army bar­racks, and the offices of vari­ous State bod­ies.

But the house has lain vacant since 1999, with only min­imal res­tor­a­tion work car­ried out since it was bought by developers in 2014 – des­pite the own­ers receiv­ing tens of thou­sands in State grants.

Coun­cil­lor Nial Ring asked Dub­lin City Coun­cil (DCC) last month for a com­pre­hens­ive update on the prop­erty, and reques­ted that it be inspec­ted with a view to pla­cing it on the Derel­ict Sites Register. This would sub­ject own­ers to a levy of 7 per cent of the prop­erty’s mar­ket value, with interest of 1.25 per cent per month on unpaid levies, and would allow DCC to take steps to CPO the prop­erty.

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DCC told Cllr Ring that its Derel­ict Sites Office ‘will arrange for an inspec­tion of the prop­erty to be car­ried out and determ­ine [the] next steps under the stat­utory pro­cesses’.

He also asked how much the cur­rent developers – Reli­ance Invest­ments Ltd, an Isle of Man-registered com­pany linked to Pat O’Don­nell – have received in grants to restore the prop­erty, and whether there is any mech­an­ism for claw­ing back grants if a private owner ‘accepts State funds to sta­bil­ise a pro­tec­ted struc­ture but con­tin­ues to leave it vacant and decay­ing’.

DCC did not respond to this aspect, but doc­u­ments seen by the

Irish Mail on Sunday show the developer has received well over €100,000 in fund­ing from both the Depart­ment of Her­it­age and DCC since 2014. The cur­rent own­ers had been gran­ted plan­ning per­mis­sion to develop the premises as offices, but that expired in 2023.

Cllr Ring told the MoS: ‘It’s an iconic build­ing and could be a fab­ulous build­ing, and without being paro­chial, if this were on the south side, something would have been done with it by now.’

The former lord mayor of Dub­lin con­tin­ued: ‘There were sug­ges­tions a few years ago the HSE were going to take it over as a nurs­ing home. There was a sug­ges­tion that the gardaí might use it for a headquar­ters. There were all sorts of sug­ges­tions going around, all of which the loc­als were delighted to hear that something would be done. But unfor­tu­nately noth­ing’s been done.’

Dub­lin Cent­ral TD Marie Sher­lock said the man­sion ‘should be the jewel in the crown in the north side’.

The Labour TD told the MoS: ‘It is one of the most splen­did Geor­gian man­sions in the city, and yet it is this big, hulk­ing, derel­ict pres­ence on Port­land Row. We can’t demol­ish it because it’s a pro­tec­ted struc­ture – nor should any­body want to – so we should be doing something with it.’

‘We can’t let it crumble because of its his­tory and what it could become.’

Archi­tect Rob Cross, who com­pre­hens­ively tracks derel­ic­tion in Ire­land on his web­site, derel­ict­sites.com, vis­ited the site recently.

He told the MoS: ‘This is what hap­pens when the State gives away to the private sec­tor. The State should jump in and CPO it and you could have some cul­ture there, because it is a fine build­ing’.

Singer found fame after starring in The Commitments and with his band The Frames

Glen Hansard won an Oscar in 2008 for the song Falling Slowly. Photograph: Mikolaj Rotkowski

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Oscar winner Glen Hansard, who found fame after starring in The Commitments and with his band The Frames, has been killed in a motorcycle crash in Co Dublin.

Hansard (56) died following a single-vehicle crash at the Strawberry Beds, Lucan, just before 4.30am.

According to a brief Garda statement, which did not name Hansard, the incident took place on a stretch of Lower Road, between Tinkers Hill and Rugged Lane.

“The motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, was treated at the scene but was pronounced deceased a short time later,” the Garda said.

“The scene has been preserved for examination by Garda forensic collision investigators. Local traffic diversions are currently in place.”

Gardaí at the scene of the crash at Lower Road, Strawberry Beds, Lucan, Co Dublin. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Photos

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Hansard’s management issued a statement on Wednesday confirming his death.

“With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard who passed away, in the early hours of this morning, following a road traffic accident in Dublin.

“Glen’s family is deeply shocked and heartbroken by this tragic loss and respectfully requests privacy at this extremely difficult time,” the statement said.

“The family is grateful for the support they have received and wishes to thank the emergency services who attended the scene.

“As this matter remains the subject of an active Garda investigation, no further comment will be made at this time.”

The musician and actor, a married father of one, split his time between his home in Kildare and Helsinki, where his wife, poet Maire Saaritsa, is from. The couple have a son.

Hansard played Outspan Foster in The Commitments, the 1991 Alan Parker film based on Roddy Doyle’s first novel, while pursuing a career in music, at first with The Frames, then as part of the duo Swell Season, and also as a solo artist.

He won an Oscar in 2008 for the song Falling Slowly, which he wrote with Markéta Irglová, his Swell Season partner. It featured in the movie Once.

Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard of Swell Season perform during the 2025 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. Photograph: Douglas Mason/Getty Images

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Hansard was from Ballymun, north Dublin and began performing with The Frames in his teenage years in the 1980s.

“Well, I grew up in Ballymun,” he told The Irish Times in an interview earlier this year. “I don’t make a big song and dance about it, but I grew up witnessing hardship among friends, family.

“Ballymun gets a bad rap, but it was an incredible community. There was a great sense of meitheal. My mother didn’t have any money, but she had a great sense of community.”

"Our revenge will be the laughter of our children." - Bobby Sands

The Irish factory Aughinish Alumina has been shipping the bulk of its product to Russia, despite claims from Dublin that the plant primarily serves the European Union, the Irish Times reported on May 30.

The new data undermines Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin's arguments against sanctioning the plant, Ireland's only producer of alumina, in the EU's next package of sanctions against Russia. Previously, Martin said restrictions on Aughinish Alumina would cause more harm to the EU than to Russia.

But in the first quarter of 2026, 83% of Ireland's alumina exports went to Russia, according to figures obtained by the Irish Times. This amounts to 200,619 tons, the largest exports since the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022.