St Vincent de Paul is set to receive a financial boost of up to €10 million when a Galway city centre pub it was bequeathed in a will is sold later this year.
Maureen O'Connell, the late owner of a licensed premises in Eyre Square, identified the charity as the main beneficiary in her will.
Ms O'Connell, who had no children, died seven years ago, but legal issues had delayed the sale of her business premises until now.
O'Connell's pub comes with 15 bedrooms and a considerable cachet. The four-storey premises was formerly also a guesthouse, and faces on to Eyre Square, which is currently undergoing a controversial refurbishment due for completion in the autumn.
The pub and guesthouse was run by Ms O'Connell's late aunt and uncle, who took her in to live with them from an early age. As the couple had no children, she inherited the business when they both died. A close family member said that she lived a fairly simple and abstemious life, and spent some years in a nursing home before her death in May, 1998.
At this stage, the pub is leased out and continues to be a well- known hostelry where both Aran islanders, pinstripe city professionals and other Connacht cognoscenti rub elbows over a pint.
It is within close walking distance of three banks and the landmark Great Southern Hotel.
Legal advisers for Ms O'Connell are understood to have given instructions for sale to two Galway property firms, and it is expected to be advertised shortly. No decision has as yet been taken on whether disposal should be by private sale or auction, but it is anticipated that the pre-sale marketing will take advantage of the high tourist season during next month's Galway Arts Festival and race week.
The Society of St Vincent de Paul had no comment to make on the sale yesterday but it is understood that it is aware that it has been nominated to receive most of the proceeds of Ms O'Connell's estate.
