A US couple swopped the 'Broken Dreams' of Trump's America for a tasty townhouse in Cork City 

FANS of the thesis that a happy worker is a productive worker were busy  building homes in Cork City around the time this Victorian redbrick on St Finbarr‘s Street was built. Calling themselves the Cork Improved Dwellings Company (CIDC), they were styled on a group of British philanthropic industrialists who believed that keeping an employee happy was a good way of ensuring they got the job done.  As an aid to helping workers attain happiness, they built them a home. The good philanthropic gentlemen of CIDC subscribed to the same ideal and built Prosperity Square, off Barrack Street, a scheme of 55 small homes, for poorer members of the Cork City’s working class. Buildings of Ireland describes the houses as “examples of late 19th century artisan dwellings which are typical of this part of Cork and define the character of the area”.

Typical of the area too and also with an artisan look are homes on St Finbarr’s Street, two opposing rows of Victorian redbricks in an area of the city with a wealth of ancient ecclesiastical linkages.

Chief among them is St Finbarr, the city’s patron saint, who located his first church and school at the site where you will now find St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, a stone’s throw from St Finbarr’s Street and visible from it.

St Finbarr’s Street has the great advantage of centrality, which is what drew its current owners to it, when they fled the legacy of Trump’s America early in 2021.

“We bought No 16 St Finbarr’s Street two-and-a-half years ago, during the pandemic. We wanted to escape the US and the Trump era and we wanted a new start.

“We looked at a couple of areas and decided, after exploring it, that we loved Cork City. And so we just jumped right in,” says Daniel Scholl, a musician with Irish citizenship, thanks to a Co Mayo grandmother.

No 16 was habitable when Daniel and his partner bought it, but it was not to their taste. Carpets and beige tiles were whipped up and replaced with warm timber flooring in most rooms. The two exceptions are the hallway, where eye-catching Portuguese tiles make for a welcoming entrance, and the bathroom, where Stracciatella terrazzo-style flooring and a modern, wall-hung navy vanity unit give a stylish finish to the recently remodelled lavatory.

A good deal of work was carried out downstairs too. The kitchen area was gutted and new, kelly-green units add a brilliant pop of colour.

 An unusual and attractive feature is the stained glass window over the kitchen sink, hauled all the way from Philadelphia, USA. Based on a design by the renowned late architect Frank Lloyd Wright, it includes a tulip-like centrepiece as a nod to the Dutch heritage of the owner’s partner. It was originally commissioned as a fanlight for a house in Philly, but will now remain Leeside, along with the majority of the contents of this property, as its owners plan a return stateside.

The kitchen sink window isn’t the only light funnel in this part of the house– two skylights add to the brightness in this open plan space which includes a dining area and a cosy living room, replete with sofas and a decorative fireplace with gas fire, and a couple of guitars hanging on the walls. 

The instruments belong to Daniel, whose most recent album, Sham, Drudgery and Broken Dreams, sounds like it might have been inspired by Trump’s America.

It's not.

“It’s a line from Desiderata (Poem for a Way of Life by Max Ehrmann) and the next line is that ‘it is still a beautiful world’, so it’s not depressing,” Daniel laughs.

Along with all the decorative changes/painting, the couple also upgraded the gas boiler in 2021. The energy rating is D2. Kitchen appliances are all new.

Upstairs there's two bedrooms and even though No 16 is a compact house – 70 sq m – both are doubles. High ceilings add to the sense of comfort and space. 

The owners say they turned a third bedroom, which was downstairs, into a home office.

No 16 is on-street, so parking is by permit and there isn’t a lawn. There is a small outdoor area off the kitchen, where decking was laid.

Áine McLoughlin of AML Property Services is selling the house and she says it’s going down a bomb with first time buyers because of its €295,000 guide price, and because it’s the finished product.

“First time buyers love the fact that all they have to do is move in. Everything is done and a lot of the contents are staying,” Ms McLoughlin says.

As well as first time buyer owner-occupier types, Ms McLouglin is seeing keen interest from parents of university-going kids because the house, just off Barrack Street, is ideally located for walking to UCC. Anyone taking a bus to MTU from the city centre will reach a bus stop in minutes.

Interest doesn’t end there. Investors are in the mix also as the house was owner occupier and so is not subject to a rent cap.

Centrality is a key selling point, just as it was when the current owners bought the house in 2021 for €270,000.

“You’re into town in five minutes and there are so many amenities on your doorstep,” Ms McLoughlin says.

Equally attractive, she adds, is the house itself.

“It’s quite contemporary, despite its age. The owners did an an amazing job in a relatively short space of time.” 

VERDICT: Compact, central, affordable. Stylish house in a super location. Expect stiff competition.