Vandalised €2m Galway home a monument to boom and bust

A luxury Galway home – which was worth €2 million at the height of the boom – today lies vandalised and abandoned, an eyesore caught in a legal limbo.

And neighbours in Cregmore, Claregalway, backed by Galway West TD Noel Grealish, are demanding that action be taken to make the property secure and safe before there is a tragedy involving groups of young people who gather there.

The once beautifully appointed five-bedroom ‘mansion’, complete with a large conservatory to the rear and wonderfully attended gardens, has lain empty and become progressively wrecked for about five years.

It was owned by a property developer whose business failed and it is now caught up in legal wrangles as a number of banks are believed by locals to have liens on the property – essentially the house was used as security against loans taken out – to the tune of more than €9 million.

Today, the roadside property, next door to the community pitch at Cregmore, stands open for anyone to enter, its doors smashed or removed, every window broken, and every room inside turned upside down.

Worryingly, for its neighbours, groups of young people regularly gather inside the house for drinking parties . . . and start fires inside to provide heat.

“The big worry is that, with evidence of fires being started in three or four different locations inside, we will have fatalities. It’s as simple as that,” said Liam Higgins of the Cregmore Residents’ Association.

Local people say that Galway County Council told them there were legal difficulties in boarding up what is private property.

They would happily board it up themselves but fear being sued for trespass or being held liable in the event of any accident involving, say, an inquisitive child trying to get into the site.

Independent TD Noel Grealish said the biggest difficulty in having action taken was that several banks had a lien on the property. He has written to all of the main banks asking which of them has an interest in the property in a bid to sort out the mess.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.