So you want to move to ENNIS?Ennis has long given a welcome to strangers, says Michael Parsons. He takes a walk down quintessential Main Street - Ireland
ENNIS is way beyond the Pale and quite outside Dublin's sphere of influence. Which is a grand state of affairs. Commuting to the city here involves a spin south on a new dual-carriageway to plentiful well-paid jobs in Shannon and Limerick or north to Galway. It's a dormitory town for thousands of people - but Ennis is not sleepy. The lovely, bustling market town on the banks of the River Fergus is a frequent winner of "Tidy Towns" awards and a popular weekend destination. It is also one of the most cosmopolitan places in Ireland mainly due to its proximity to Shannon Airport and in recent years has attracted a large influx of refugees and asylum seekers. An estimated 600 Nigerians alone live in the town and, during a recent visit, Ambassador Ekong Omaghomi, praised Ennis as "a wonderful example that should be emulated in other towns and counties in terms of integration".
There's something about Clare. Although the county is officially in Munster, it lies across the Shannon and is spiritually, geographically and temperamentally in the West of Ireland. It is arguably Ireland's most magical county yet in Ennis there is little evidence of the tourist tat and aggressive commercialism which is so overwhelming in a town like Killarney.
Earlier this year, a €120 million bypass opened on the N18 road which links Limerick to Galway and removed an estimated 20,000 vehicles daily from the streets of Ennis. The Clare county engineer Tom Carey was reported as saying that the scheme "will allow Ennis to breathe again".
One shudders to imagine what it must have been like previously because the traffic is still heavy although the dreaded articulated lorries have mostly gone. As you enter the town there are signs warning of narrow streets ahead and parking can be difficult. But further solace for the town (and motorists) is on the way with a western relief road (N85) scheduled to open in June.
The central square is dominated by a statue of Daniel O'Connell atop a soaring column marking the spot where, in 1828, the Liberator was returned MP. He looks down on the main street named in his honour. A New York-based organisation, "Project for Public Spaces", has named O'Connell St Ennis as one among "60 of the World's Great Places" defined as "places we remember most vividly, the places where serendipitous things happen, the places we tell stories about". When you consider that other spots selected include The Spanish Steps in Rome, Covent Garden in London, Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Tivoli in Copenhagen, The Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Charles Bridge in Prague and the Campo Santa Margherita in Venice - the Clare county town is certainly in impressive company.
Walk up and down the street and you may be puzzled by the accolade. But gradually the truth dawns. This is quintessential "Main Street Ireland" in all its rambunctious glory. Traffic is - unbelievably - still allowed, though it mercifully runs one way. Parnell Street, by contrast, is mostly a pedestrian zone. The town centre has thus far resisted the "little England" look which is sweeping the country. Shopping offers a pleasant mix of contemporary and traditional. There are good bookshops and you can buy everything from hand-made hurleys at Anthony Daly Sports to tuneable bodhráns at Custy's; a Sacred Heart lamp at James Brohan's Siopa Crua Earraí or 'Cherub Delights' chocolates (hand-made by a local French chocolatier) at the appropriately named Chocolat shop. Cool Clare dudes can have their hair cut at the country's best-named barbershop, "The Guillotine" on Merchant's Square. And it is a pleasure to see Pat MacCarthy's shop still selling the very best quality men's shoes. If it all gets too much, you can drop into the Poets Corner Bar at the Old Ground Hotel for a pick-me-up or have lunch at the very smart Town Hall restaurant.
Ennis is noted for traditional music and many pubs advertise "live sessions". The squeamish may prefer the more formal setting of the Glór centre - a purpose-built theatre, gallery and rehearsal area with a spacious and elegant café-bar.
Daniel O'Connell isn't the only big historical figure associated with the town. de Valera's legacy is omnipresent. In 1917, the Long Fellow was selected to contest the East Clare by-election and the rest is history. His former presidential car (a Dodge) is on permanent display in a glass walled garage behind the town library named in his honour and there's a memorial statue at the people's park (though curiously, no street is named after him). This is a good town for sculptors - there are numerous works dotted around the town - many along the banks of the Fergus. But, as is often the case in Irish towns, the river is an under-utilised feature.
Ennis, not surprisingly, is a popular town for relocation. Philip O'Reilly, a Mayo man who came to Ennis in 1977 as manager of the Ulster Bank, left his job in 1982 to start an estate agency. Today he employs 37 people. He says "long before there was any talk of multiculturalism, Ennis was a great town for the 'buail isteach' (the blow-in)".
He found it a welcoming and a great place to live and raise a family with very good schools, easy access to universities and a great sense of culture, history and Irishness.
Blow-ins will find property costs "reasonable" with the cost of an average three-bed semi about €285,000. O'Reilly describes Acha Bhile as an eco-friendly development of 183 houses and apartments on the Lahinch Rd where prices start at €215,000 for a two-bed apartment and rise to €450,000 for a detached four-bed house. He claims the homes built by Cronan Nagle Construction, a Corofin builder, are future-proofed to meet the most exacting environmental standards and are 40 per cent more fuel-efficient than a standard home. Phase 1 has sold outand Phase 2 has "limited availability".
Dermot McMahon is the third generation of his family to run the longest-established estate agency in Ennis which is now part of the Sherry FitzGerald network. As chairman of the millennium Scattering project (which involved six leading photographers travelling the world to photograph Clare emigrants) he is delighted by the steady stream of people returning home. Speaking in his office overlooking O'Connell Square, he says property prices have slowed after a few years of very strong growth and people moving to the town can choose from a very broad range of new and second-homes.
McMahon would currently recommend the townhouses, apartments and duplexes at Cúirt an Fhile at Roslevan, one mile from the town centre and close to shops, restaurants and the new bypass. McMahon believes "this development, by Kamer Construction of Galway, is probably the most innovative, best-finished and highest quality town house/duplex and apartment development ever built in Ennis". A two-bed, 73sq m (786sq ft) first-floor apartment costs €227,500 and a three-bed 102sq m (1,103sq ft) mid-terrace townhouse is €265,000.
ON BINDON Street, an elegant redbrick Georgian enclave, Michael Fitzpatrick of Fitzpatrick & Co Auctioneers agrees that the residential property market in Ennis is quiet following interest rate rises although demand for commercial property remains very strong. He says the most expensive houses in Ennis are "in the Cahercalla area (from the Kilrush Road extending into the Golf Links Road) and near the lake at Ballyalla, where prices can easily exceed €1 million.
More affordable homes are available at the Aisling estate off the Lahinch Road about 1.5 miles from the town centre in "a very nice residential area". This mixed development has one-bed apartments at €180,000; two-bed apartments at €200,000; three-bed semis from €260,000 and four-bed semis from €275,000.
Fitzpatrick adds that many newcomers choose to live in the very attractive villages surrounding Ennis. In Quin, an "old world village with good access to modern facilities", he's selling houses at Dún na Manach, a mixed development of 49 houses, where a 107sq m (1,150sq ft) three-bed semi costs €250,000 and a 121sq m (1,300sq ft) four-bed detached house is €335,000.
In the village of Clarecastle (now virtually a suburb of Ennis) he's selling townhouses form €235,000 at Creggaun na Hilla, an architect-designed development in a prime residential location close to the N18.
