Young Couple’s plan to rescue derelict house

An historic house which was built in the 1760s, and which was just about to fall into ruin and dereliction, has been rescued by a young couple, who plan to make a home there for themselves and their baby daughters.

Raheengraney House, near Shillelagh, was built by the Rev. Henry Braddell.

Rev. Braddell’s grandson, Thomas, who also grew up in the house, became Crown Prosecutor of Singapore, and the last family members to reside in the house were Robert and Felicity Braddell-Smith, who moved out in the 1960s.

Felicity Braddell-Smith wrote a book about her life and times at Raheengraney, called ‘They were good days’.

The house’s newest inhabitants are to be husband and wife Mike Izatt and Jillian Godsil, with their four year old and one year old daughters.

The couple were hunting for a house around that area when an auctioneer sent them details on Raheengraney House. They fell in love with it.

"We got it for a song, frankly," says Mike - but if they bought it for a song, it’s costing the equivalent of a full opera to do it up.

The original structure, of which the walls are four feet thick, was extended in the 1820s and although it had been inhabited right up to last year, only a couple of rooms had been in use, and the rest was gradually crumbling.

The house had to be gutted. While structurally quite sound, many of the floors had to be replaced, some remedial work had to be carried out to the roof, it had to be dry-lined, damp coursed, rewired, replumbed…the list goes on.

But he reckons it is a house worth preserving.

"The town land and estate of 500 acres were leased from Earl Fitzwilliam, who ordered that a house costing at least 1000 be built upon it," says Mike.

Rev. Braddell built it, and after his death in 1824, willed it to his eldest son, also called Henry.

The new owner had seven children, who went on to be prominent in Irish public life - and abroad.

"His eldest son, Thomas, enjoyed a particularly successful life in the East. He became Crown Prosecutor of Singapore, and Attorney General of the Straits," says Mike.

The Singapore connection is one of a number of coincidences between Raheengraney’s new and former owners, for Mike and Jillian actually lived in Singapore for a time, as well in Sydney.

The couple met in London, where Mike was employed by an American bank, and after working abroad, they moved back to Jillian’s native Dublin.

Jillian, a journalist and PR consultant is currently the breadwinner, while Mike is looking after the restoration. He has turned his back on his former career to run a bed and breakfast at Raheengraney.

With this view in mind, he is currently spending two days a week in the kitchen of Derry Clarke’s L’Ecrivan restaurant in Dublin, augmenting his already fine cooking skills.

The house was provisionally listed by Wicklow County Council and it is also on the Heritage Council’s ‘At Risk’ register. The couple are aiming to restore the house to the sort of glory it would have enjoyed in its heyday with four poster beds and heritage paints on the walls.

For one of Wicklow’s historic houses, the future now looks cheerful!