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Charlie Haughey outside the mansion in 1995 Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Going, going... gone. Charles Haughey's former home sells for €5.5 million

Abbeville, the Georgian mansion belonging to the former Taoiseach, had been on the market for 18 months after the company that owned it went into receivership.

THE HOME OF former Taoiseach Charles Haughey has sold for more than €5 million.

The Georgian mansion, located near Kinsealy in north county Dublin, had been put on the market for €7.5 million a year and a half ago.

Abbeville is located on 247 acres of park and woodland, has 14 bedrooms, four floors, and a ballroom.

RTÉ News reports that it sold for around €5.5 million. The new owner is reported to be a businessman from Japan.

Abbeville, which dates back to the mid-1700s and was designed by James Gandon, was bought by Charles Haughey in 1969 when he was the Minister of Finance. It was sold in 2003 to Manor Park Homes for more than €45 million in 2003, three years before his death.

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The company had intended to develop the grounds into a hotel and golf course but went into receivership before it could start any development.

Savills apologised last year after it wrongly said that deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had been hosted at the mansion in its promotional brochure advertising the property.

image

(Images: Savills)

In picture: Haughey’s former mansion at Abbeville on sale for €7.5 million >

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47 Comments
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    Mute Dublinguy2013
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:44 AM

    Amazing that he was just Minister of Finance yet he was able to buy such a big house and grounds and nobody batted an eyelid.

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    Mute Dermot Lane
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:55 AM

    People did bat an eyelid and the people continued to elect him. Just like they continued to elect Bertie ‘I won it on a horse’ Ahearn, even after it was obvious he was a chancer. (To put it mildly)
    We get the politicians we deserve.

    335
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    Mute Fintan O HEifernain
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:18 AM

    Thats what being in the pocket of every second businessman in Ireland will buy you.

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    Mute Gerry Ryan deG
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:46 AM

    It’s not the citizens fault that corrupt people make it onto the ballot paper.
    If they are corrupt then the force of law should prevent that.
    Why does that not happen is the real question.

    64
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    Mute John Gleeson
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    Nov 12th 2013, 9:24 AM

    Isn’t the point of a democracy to allow you to avoid the corrupt politicians and vote in the honest ones???

    46
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    Mute Fintan O HEifernain
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    Nov 12th 2013, 9:44 AM

    I agree with John, we get what we deserve. It is the public who voted in gombeens like Haughy, Ahern, Lowry, etc. and continues to vote for them. Bertie is still popular in Dromcondra, as is Cowen in the Tullamore area despite being the most incompetent Taoiseach in history and Michael Lowry is still a TD for North Tipperary despite the Moriarty Tribunal. That sleveen has such a brass neck that he’s taking his fight to avoid paying the cost of said tribunal to Europe in spite of clear cut evidence showing that he was corrupt and in Denis O Brien’s pocket; and they STILL voted him in. It’s the public that’s to blame. We admire cute hoors for some reason even though all they do is shaft us.

    93
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    Mute Paul Doyle
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    Nov 12th 2013, 10:04 AM

    And they continue to elect Lowry.
    We deserve the crap we get when we are thick enough to vote crooked politicians in to positions of power

    50
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    Mute John Gleeson
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    Nov 12th 2013, 10:55 AM

    Why are my comments being constantly removed from the journal??

    7
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    Mute Martin_Murphy
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:17 PM

    Crime pays. Everyone from FF members to drug importers to developers were kicking up payments to him.

    24
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    Mute Paul Somers
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:58 PM

    This video says it all, still cracks me up :) http://youtu.be/koY6kXhQDQo

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    Mute Shaun the Sheep
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:39 AM

    No we know – the Haughys have €45mil of bank loan cash. Where is the rest of it? Someone has the cash the banks loaned to people who have now defaulted. There are some very very rich people created during the property boom. The cash the banks created has not vanished.

    165
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    Mute Shaun the Sheep
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:44 AM

    *now *

    16
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    Mute SMcB
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:19 AM

    You’d be surprised …

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    Mute PåddÿGooner.
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:23 AM

    Obviously it has not vanished but the sellers of land and property are and were not the problem, we can’t blame them, it’s the ones who loaned hundreds of millions of euro only secured by massively inflated land prices that caused the problem.

    The sad thing is though that as if importing shirts from Italy during the last major recession wasn’t insult enough to the Irish people, the bank bailout ensured that even after death Charlie and the haugheys continue to rob the Irish people!

    44
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    Mute Owen Brady
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:28 AM

    SHAME..the state did not buy this house, it is part of our history. Daniel O Connells, Pearse, and Parnell…all had their properties and past preserved for future generations.

    23
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    Mute Tony Clifton
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    Nov 12th 2013, 9:30 AM

    Be some crack if Bertie bought it and around the grounds in a fur coat and a huge crown.

    41
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    Mute Dermot O Dwyer
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:47 AM

    The government should buy it and turn it into an open prison in memory of its former gangster resident …

    131
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    Mute James Darby
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:03 AM

    Dermot in most other countries the state wouldn’t have to buy it, they would have confiscated it years ago as the proceeds of crime.

    166
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    Mute Reg
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    Nov 12th 2013, 10:52 AM

    100% James. It should have been confiscated by the state.

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    Mute Martin_Murphy
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:26 PM

    Or a museum to FF corruption and criminality. There will be always be new exhibits coming. Several of the newer members are already making waves.

    FF will never change because most of its members see it as a get out of jail card and a way to get tax payers funds. Few old fashioned fools are in it because of family traditions and an interest in politics. They’ll never have a critical mass to stop the corruption.

    17
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    Mute Fintan O HEifernain
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:51 AM

    Odious man who set a precedent for the corruption and gombeenism that followed him. Mind you, we let him get away with stroke after stroke which set our own precedent for tolerating corrupt politicians so its down to the public really.

    121
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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:45 AM

    He must have been on a great salary way back then to be able to afford to buy that mansion. ;-) ;-)

    92
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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:49 AM

    The current Minister for Finance is not doing too bad either or should I state is not going cold or hungry.

    80
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    Mute anton de buitlear
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:59 AM

    A good old Charles .sure he gave us the bus pass.

    78
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    Mute Martin Curran
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:50 AM

    If them walls could talk!

    74
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    Mute James Murphy
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    Nov 12th 2013, 7:58 AM

    It cost so much, they probably can talk

    87
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    Mute Johnnie Sexton
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    Nov 12th 2013, 9:19 AM

    Abbeyville and an island…… some neck by him while telling the Irish people “to tighten our belts”

    63
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    Mute Fintan O HEifernain
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    Nov 12th 2013, 11:33 AM

    Apparently he spent over £40,000IRE on silk shirts in the same year that he told the nation that we were living beyond our means and needed to tighten our belts. If that’s not a traitor I don’t know what a traitor is. Public servant my hole, self servant at the expense of everyone else more like

    51
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    Mute Críostóir Ó HIonmhaineáin
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:21 AM

    I think we should build a statue of him tightening his belt on o Connel street

    61
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    Mute Paul Fisher
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    Nov 12th 2013, 9:32 AM

    Quick calculations suggest that Haughey managed to secure a mortgage at around 30 times his salary.

    Must’ve had an amazing credit record. DFS payments bang up to date, the lot.

    46
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    Mute Golden Bryan
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:52 AM

    It’s me. I bought it. I’m going to open the house to the public as a monument to Fianna Fáil corruption.

    There will be a Bertie Aherne room; a Ray Burke room……………

    41
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    Mute Thomas Richardson
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    Nov 12th 2013, 9:23 AM

    Criminal assets bureau should have seized that property before he sold it… because he was a gangster.simple as…..

    41
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    Mute Martin O Brien
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:05 AM

    Our politicians past & present should be loaded into the government jet & dropped into the irish sea.oxygen thieves is the word im looking for.

    34
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    Mute Norman Hunter
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    Nov 12th 2013, 9:01 AM

    Waste of a good jet.

    9
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    Mute Martin O Brien
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    Nov 12th 2013, 11:22 AM

    100% correct mate it would be an awful waste of a good jet.

    5
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    Mute Stephen Barry
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:33 AM

    Heard a fat grey haired man who hasn’t been seen in years paid cash up front for it using old irish punts.

    25
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    Mute Paul O'Grady
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    Nov 12th 2013, 9:18 AM

    Are CAB looking for a slice of the Eur 45 million???

    23
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    Mute Martin_Murphy
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:39 PM

    From the Haughey family?.
    Do you honestly believe that the state here would allow the Haughey estate be held to account.

    18
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    Mute Joseph Hughes
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:05 AM

    Quick, check the closets..there might be more skeletons!

    22
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    Mute PaulM1878
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:38 AM

    Gangsters can buy anything.

    21
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    Mute Eggfuel
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    Nov 12th 2013, 11:13 AM

    What’s the name of the company that sold it and the Japanese that bought it..?…
    Wasn’t that in the hands of pino Harris’s company … Ireland’s biggest FF campaign contributer….

    16
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    Mute Leo Latorre
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    Nov 12th 2013, 8:09 AM

    Easy peasy, Japanesey.

    15
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    Mute Martin_Murphy
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:38 PM

    The love of Haughey is still alive in FF. They love him for everything that the Irish people despise him for.

    Their Brussels Cumann chair and one of their Social Media guru’s Ciaran Bolger described him as “the greatest of them all.”

    Then again he is the same man who said @cbolgerr “Ireland has found a cure for suicide, you must be pregnant in order for it to work.”

    Lovely people.

    14
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    Mute Jer Lonergen
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    Nov 12th 2013, 10:45 AM

    The new electorate is on the way, a huge multi cultural one and the old corrupt Irish politics will be history.

    10
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    Mute Noel Smullen
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    Nov 12th 2013, 2:08 PM

    Jasus he really had is belt well tightened to save up for that ,the pompous git !!

    6
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    Mute John Waters
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    Feb 22nd 2014, 5:39 PM

    They (new owners) could always a Japanese fish & chip shop for the Northsiders lol

    1
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    Mute William Furlong
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    Jan 19th 2014, 12:33 AM

    Oh well the local japanese take away will benefit from the change of ownership

    1
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