The Riverdance promoters Ms Moya Doherty and Mr John McColgan have sold a Georgian house on eight acres of terraced gardens at Howth, Co Dublin, which they bought at auction six months ago for £3.875 million (4.92m).
The five-bedroom house, The Tansey, which stands on one of the most dramatically beautiful sites in the Bailey, has been sold on for the same price to an Irish businessman based abroad.
Iain Finnegan of Finnegan Menton, who set an auction record for the year when he sold the house under the hammer last May, also found the latest buyer, one of the four under-bidders at the auction. He said the private treaty sale showed that despite the slowdown in the market there were still buyers around for top quality houses.
Ms Doherty and Mr McColgan recently moved into a newly-built mansion a short distance away in the Bailey.
Their three-storey house took two years to complete and was one of the most expensive to have been built in Dublin in recent years.
It has well over 10,000 sq ft of floor space, stunning reception rooms, a swimming-pool and underground car-parking. About four years ago the couple paid around £1 million (1.27m) for the four-acre site and a modest bungalow, Danes Hollow, which has since been demolished. The original grounds have been considerably enlarged since the couple acquired an adjoining bungalow as well as a cottage.
Ms Doherty and Mr McColgan, who have amassed a fortune from the Riverdance show, also have a holiday home in Mount Juliet Country Club in Co Kilkenny, which cost them close to £500,000 (634,869), and another one in the south of Spain.
They also have an apartment in the Trump Tower in New York which they use while on business there.
The couple are in line to net a significant sale price from their shareholding in Today FM if the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland approves Scottish Radio's purchase of the outstanding 76 per cent of the radio station. Ms Doherty and Mr McColgan, along with the concert promoter Mr Denis Desmond, will share almost £26 million (33m) for their 42 per cent stake.
Iain Finnegan has also found a buyer for a substantial Georgian house fronting on to the River Liffey near Sallins, Co Kildare, which failed to sell at a Hamilton Osborne King auction last May.
An Irish businessman working abroad has agreed to pay close to £5 million (6.35m) for Millicent, a particularly spacious two-storey over garden level house which stands on 27 acres of parklands.
Over £1 million (1.27m) has been spent in recent months on refurbishing the house, which has four principal reception rooms off the entrance hall and two more in the basement. There are also six bedrooms, five bathrooms and a separate staff flat.
David Ashmore of HOK is handling the sale for the vendor, Mr Paddy Falloon, who restored the house after it was seriously damaged by fire in the late 1960s.
