Glencairn House

At the beginning of the 20th century, the house was owned by Richard Croker, a leading figure from New York's Tammany Hall.

The house and its surrounding estate were sold by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in April 1999 for GBP£24 million, without having purchased an alternative residence. In 2000, an alternative site was purchased at nearby Marlay Grange, close to Marlay Park.[1]

The Ambassador continued to live at Glencairn while the Marlay Grange site was refurbished. A subsequent cost appraisal showed that it would in fact be more cost effective to repurchase Glencairn than to continue with plans to refurbish Marlay Grange, and in 2007 the British Government sold Marlay Grange, without ever having occupied it.[2][3]

Prior to Richard Croker's ownership, Glencairn was in the Gresson family. It was the home of the Reverend George Leslie Gresson, born in 1767 in Ireland. George Leslie Gresson and his wife Clarissa Reynell, whom he married in 1798, had ten children: William Reynell 1799, George 1800, Chapman 1801, Harriette 1804, Henry Barnes Gresson 1809, Clarissa 1811, Richard 1813, Robert Christmas 1817, Eleanor 1819, and finally Skelton. In 1826, George Leslie Gresson married Mary Anne Turpin and they had five children: Charles, John, Henrietta Elizabeth, Mary Ann, and Alicia in 1835.

From the Gressons ownership of Glencairn passed to James Murphy, judge of the High Court. The judge was noted for his "warm-hearted hospitality", and in his time Glencairn was one of the centres of Dublin social life. On his death in 1901 his heirs sold it to Croker.[4]

The sale of the land facilitated the acquiring of a railway corridor for an extension of the Luas Sandyford (Green) line to Cherrywood. It runs in front of the gate (see the image above) and gatehouse of the Ambassador's residence. It began operating in 2010, and a stop/station on the line is built near the gate. The stop is called Glencairn.[5]

• Christopher Ewart-Biggs
• Embassy of the United Kingdom, Dublin