Yesterday’s “Sunday Times” (London) published the first details about Dolores and Don Burton’s new home in Howth, Co Dublin, Ireland. The article says that the relatively new 5-bedroom home is far from the lavishness of Riversfeild Stud — no recording studio, pool, or even a garage.
Thanks to Nigel Bernstein for sending it in. Read the full article below:
Changing her tune
Why has Dolores O’Riordan bought an unprepossesing house in the Dublin suburbs, wonders Colin Coyle
Dolores O’Riordan has bought a new home in Howth, Co Dublin, and it’s . . . . well, not very rock ’n’ roll. The house, on the edge of the unassuming Thormanby Woods development in the upmarket suburb, doesn’t have a swimming pool, gym, recording studio or even a garage. The only suggestion of exclusivity is its sale price: the Cranberries’ lead singer is believed to have paid about €2m for the five-bedroom, 5,800-sq-ft property.
O’Riordan’s no-frills new home is in stark contrast to her last Irish base, Riversfield Stud in Kilmallock, Co Limerick, which she sold earlier this year.
The 150-acre estate, which fetched close to €4.5m, included all the rock- star trappings and then some: a swimming pool, gym, tennis court, bar, wine cellar, sauna, stables, enough garaging for a fleet of cars and a mini- pizzeria. A stained-glass window in the reception hall was even engraved with the lyrics to Zombie, the Cranberries’ biggest-selling hit.
The switch to Howth is largely down to its proximity to Dublin airport. O’Riordan and her husband Don Burton, who was born in Toronto, are frequent visitors to Canada and own a log cabin on Big Bald Lake in eastern Ontario.
It’s not clear whether the couple and their two children will use the Howth property as their main residence or whether they’re planning to spend more time in Burton’s native Canada. The house’s selling agent, HOK Residential, refused to comment on the sale or the couple’s plans, although the neighbourhood is already abuzz with talk of the new arrivals.
Built in the past five years, the couple’s new home is just off Thormanby Road, on the edge of a development of roomy but restrained executive-style family homes. The last house to sell in the 1980s-built scheme, a four- bedroom dormer bungalow, went for close to €1m at auction late last year.
The diminutive superstar is the latest in a growing list of celebrities to favour Howth over its mirror image on the south side, the twin peaks of Dalkey and Killiney.
O’Riordan joins Moya Doherty and John McColgan, the Riverdance duo, Larry Mullen of U2, Gay Byrne, the television presenter, and Feargal Quinn, the supermarket mogul, in the pretty fishing village.
David O’Leary, the Aston Villa manager, also recently invested in an apartment in the Howth Lodge development, while Michael O’Leary of Ryanair is building a mansion on Howth Head.
O’Riordan’s decision to swap a gated estate for a house where passers-by can sneak a peek in the window is all the more surprising given that she sold her first Irish home to escape prying eyes. Following the initial success of the Cranberries, the feisty rock star built a hill-top mansion, with a slated round tower at its centre, in Dun Chaoin in west Kerry.
Set on 16 acres and with four bedrooms, a bar, wine cellar, gallery, office, recording studio and guest apartment, it seemed the perfect retreat for O’Riordan and Burton. Dubbed Dolly’s Folly by locals, the multi-millionairess decided to sell the property in 1997, complaining that she was “plagued” by sightseers. Apparently, tour buses headed for the Ring of Kerry would stop for a photo opportunity outside the contemporary cut-stone construction.
While O’Riordan hasn’t lingered longer than a few years in any of her homes, all her property investments have yielded a profit. While it’s not clear how much she paid for the 16-acre site and the construction of her Kerry mansion, she is likely to have made a profit from its €1.3m sale in 1997. She is likely to have made even more on the sale of her Co Limerick stud farm. Bought for €2.5m, it recently sold for close to its €4.5m asking price.
No stranger to moving house, the 33-year-old’s childhood home in Patrickswell in Limerick burnt to the ground when she was seven. By the time she was 14, she had lived in three different houses in Limerick.
The Cranberries have been on a two-year break since the release of a best- of compilation in 2002.
The singer spent the early part of this year locked in a bitter legal battle with her former nanny, Joy Fahy. In April, the High Court dismissed Fahy’s claims that she and her husband had falsely imprisoned her and broken the terms of her contract.
Her latest home, unsurprisingly, has no separate accommodation for a nanny.
Source: Sunday Times
