Selling IrelandFrom thatched cottages to pubs to holiday homes in the grounds of a Mayo castle, Irish property caught the imagination of New Yorkers when an Irish estate agency brought a roadshow to Manhattan last week. Seán O'Driscoll reports

The crowds mingled around a small function room in the Intercontinental Hotel in Manhattan, peering at brochures and scrolling through the Sherry FitzGerald website. Some middle-aged couples are looking for a retirement home, some Irish emigrants looking for a way back home, some New York investors are curious about the gravity-free Irish market, some Irish New Yorkers want the stability of having a second home in Ireland.

Sherry FitzGerald's first New York expo on Irish property has drawn big crowds that almost overwhelm the small room where Sherry Fitz director Ian McCarthy delivers a presentation on why the Irish property market is still a good investment.

Next door, couples sit down with exhibition staff to look over the website and talk tax, location and maintenance costs.

Like most people here, Sharon Feenstra from Westchester County has ties to Ireland and is buying for sentimental reasons as much as for profit.

A bubbly quality assurance manager who works at Mount Sinai hospital in Manhattan, she is here with her sister to look for a holiday home, possibly near her mom's home town of Roscrea in Tipperary.

"I haven't really decided yet, but if a good deal comes up, I could buy anywhere in Ireland. But the property prices are higher than they are in the US," she says.

Sharon is here more for the human touch, having already consulted with her father, an Irish American. "To be honest, I know a lot of the information already, but it's nice to see what's on offer," she says, holding up a brochure.

Sharon is the type of person the agency is hoping to attract - New Yorkers with income who have a positive view of Ireland and have confidence in the long term property market.

Standing close by is Imelda Petery, a high-end investor who is looking for a retirement property with her husband, who worked on Wall Street. "Oh, I wish they had done this five years ago!" she says. "We had nowhere to go, nowhere to get information!"

The Peterys already have homes in Kerry and Westmeath. "We'd still love to invest in Ireland, maybe take something out of one property and put it in another," she said.

She bought her Irish property in the mid-1990s. "And we thought it was expensive at the time. Things were peaking then, we were told, but look what happened since." Originally from Westmeath, she came to the US in the 1960s. "I left when I thought Ireland would never, ever change," she says.

The level of potential investment here is very mixed, from the Peterys on the upper scale to someone like Terry Connaughty, a single middle-aged man from New Jersey who took early retirement from the maintenance department of a sheriff's department. His father is from Cavan and he has cousins in Trim and Tallaght and he is looking for a "second-hand home or something on the affordable end".

He admits that his motivation for buying in Ireland is almost totally sentimental. An Irish language enthusiast, his face lights up when he hears that the article is for The Irish Times.

"I read An Teanga Beo every single week. I feel I'd be closer to the language if I had a place in Ireland but I've seen people burnt so many times on holiday homes. If I'm going to buy, it's going to be for more than a few weeks a year."

Further down the corridor, I find Gerard Diviney, originally from Galway and now working as an estate agent in Maspeth, New York.

He is here with his Brazilian wife, Louisa. They have already purchased property in Brazil and are now looking to Ireland. "Galway has become so expensive and now it's spreading to the county. Dublin compares to Paris or some major European city in price. However, I do think that property in Ireland will go up in the long term and I'm willing to invest and rent it out."

They have both seen more and more Brazilians settle in the west of Ireland, from Gort to Roscommon. "There are still people coming into the country and that's a good sign for property," says Gerard.

Standing nearby in a crisp pinstriped suit is John P Church, a telecommunications specialist from Syosset, Long Island. He and his wife intend to retire shortly to Ireland and are very serious about buying property outside Dublin.

"There's quite a crowd at this thing, the talk really gives a nice capitalisation on why the Irish property market has done so well," he says. Both he and his wife have Irish citizenship and have a daughter in Galway who is moving to Dublin to work in a hospital.

His side of the family has relatives in Longford and today he discussed midlands property .

Like many here, he is concerned about fluctuations in the value of the dollar against the euro. "It really pays to shop around and be very careful on timing," he says.

Next up is Jerome O'Connor, another -born estate agent looking to invest back home. Originally from Millstreet, Co Cork he has his own commercial real estate business in the uber-trendy Williamsburg district of Brooklyn.

Known for a legal tussle with Steven Spielberg over a Northern Ireland comedy O'Connor produced called Everlasting Piece, he believes that many Irish people living in New York want to buy in Ireland but find access difficult.

"I think that's why people are drawn to a show like this. People are looking for one company they can go to, they don't want go to 20 different small companies," he says.

He believes that there is still good investment potential in Ireland because of high rents. "I can't imagine how people pay the rents over there. I don't think the investment returns are as good as in New York but I think that there are still places worth investing in Ireland," he adds.

Close by, I meet Nuala Mullooly Henry, a private nurse on Manhattan's Park Avenue. Now approaching retirement age, she has property in Longford and is thinking of selling it for something smaller and is hoping the agency might find her somewhere new.

She is here with her friend Kathleen Kelly, also from Longford and now working as an estate agent in New Jersey. Kathleen owns a farm in Longford which she rents out and is curious about other property in Ireland.

"I'm even thinking of getting a real estate licence in Ireland. I love the wheeling and dealing of the property trade and finding that good deal," she says.

"People might say Ireland has become too expensive, but there are always deals. You just have to look. That's why we're all here today. Hunting is all part of the fun."