Hotelier Rose O’Loughlin is selling her historic home on The Curragh

Asking price: €1.2m

Agent: Jordan Auctioneers (045) 433550

Irish love stories used to begin in a nightclub. But it’s rare for a lady to encounter her much-loved home of long standing through said sort of venue. In the case of hotelier Rose O’Loughlin, she was hooked up to Ardeen, her handsome Edwardian at Ballysax, via her once famous nightclub, the legendary Nijinsky’s. The latter located in the middle of nowhere, on the open plains of The Curragh.

And if Ardeen at Ballysax doesn’t look like the sort of house you’d find in a rural locale, it’s because the big part-red brick Edwardian was built in 1905 by the British army to house some of its top brass. They built Ardeen and a handful of other grand homes in a Tudor Revival style of the Arts and Crafts era more typically found in the leafy lanes of Dublin 4 or Greystones.

These larger abodes were commissioned to house important military men attached to the nearby Curragh Camp, a centre for British army training during days of Empire.

But Ardeen was a twinkle in the eye of Galway-born Rose from when she and her late husbband Joe founded the Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge, along with his brother Eddie and wife Teresa, back in 1981. She’d pass it by on her way to work.

“I’d always be peeping at it between the trees and I always thought, ‘what a beautiful house, I’d love to live there’,” says Rose.

Ironically the house, which “exudes peace and calm”, came into the family’s ownership thanks to one of Kildare’s best-loved and noisiest nightclubs, and perhaps the only one in Ireland to have played a death metal set in its nightly repertoire.

“After we established the Keadeen, we bought the Jockey Hall restaurant in 1981 with the idea of opening it as a nightclub. We called it Nijinsksy’s after the Russian ballet dancer and the winning racehorse.” The club became a firm favourite of locals for miles around and beyond and soon packed them in four nights a week. Later it became a venue for alternative music promoted by DJ Feargy Pearson and it is still fondly remembered by veterans of the Lilywhite social scene of a certain age.

The multitudes came from Prosperous and Naas, from Newbridge and Tallaght and even from Wicklow. They were spirited there on a vast cavalcade of private mini buses. The distracted who missed their chariot at night’s end faced a (very) long walk home.

“We invested a lot in it. It was a proper modern club,” says Rose. “I can remember the guys who came over from the UK to install the cutting-edge lighting system and they were looking out the window at the sheep, wondering whether these people could be mad. One of our first DJs was Ray Darcy.

“For opening night, we decided it would be a good idea to invite the neighbours, so it was my job to go around to them. When I came to Ardeen, the then-owner Tom O’Connell came out and thanked me for the invite but said he couldn’t go because his wife wasn’t well. For whatever reason, I just sort of blurted out ‘I really love your house by the way’.

“He thanked me and told me that they’d likely be moving soon. I said if he was selling it, to let us know. Then a few months later, in April 1982, he got in touch. I went to Joe to tell him we should buy it and he said, ‘We’ve invested a fortune in the club and the hotel, we haven’t got the money’. I said, ‘well, couldn’t we ask the bank? Maybe?’ And that’s how we bought it.”

Later Rose and Newbridge-born Joe (they met at Shannon Catering College) would divest themselves of their interest in Nijinsky’s to Eddie and Teresa to concentrate on the hotel.

Ardeen was in good condition when the O’Loughlins took it over. And it looks out on Braveheart Hill, so named because famous scenes from the Mel Gibson film were shot here, including the wide angle showing William Wallace and his vast army of rebel Scots (1,600 extras including the Irish Army Reserves) first arrayed for battle against the perfidious Albion. It was where Gibson delivered the immortal line: “Before we let you leave, your commander must cross that field, present himself before this army, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own arse.”

The couple began to invest in Ardeen to improve it further. “The original roof slates had had their day so we had to have them all replaced,” says Rose. “Our builder looked around and found new ones to match the originals. The kitchen was really small, I remember, so we moved it and turned the old one into a den. We extended and added to the room that became the kitchen and we installed a Poggenpohl kitchen, which still looks good.”

Also installed was a bright, modern conservatory. “We had many a card game sat around the window alcove and with all the fires lit, it’s a beautiful house to have for Christmas.”

Sadly Joe, who she describes as “an entrepreneurial engine”, passed on 30 years ago. Rose, who is 82 next month, still involves herself with the Keadeen, which is mostly run by her daughter Anna. “If you love your work then why stop?” she says. But now Rose finds the house a bit big for her needs and is planning to move closer to one of her daughters. Having raised three children at Ardeen. Now she is selling up.

Accommodation of 4,500 sq ft includes an entrance hall with some fine panelling and stairs joinery, a timber floor and a fireplace. There’s a drawing room and a formal dining room, both with timber floors and fireplaces. Also on the ground floor is a TV room and a large, bright conservatory with its own fireplace with French doors to the garden.

Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 7th 2024

The Poggenpohl kitchen/breakfast room with Gaggenau fittings has cream units, marble worktops and a big oil-fired Aga at its centrepiece. There’s also a sun room, a utility, laundry and a home office with doors to patio and garden. There are five bedrooms, three of which include an ensuite and the master chamber also has a walk-in dressing room.

The house has 1.3 acres of very private gardens and patio plus two pony boxes and two detached garages — €1.2m will get you in to this exclusive venue, through agent Paddy Jordan.