€3.6 million asking price for former tenor’s home

John McCormack fans can now snap up the world famous tenor’s former Dublin home for a mere €3.6 million euro.

Glena, a landmark home in Booterstown, south Dublin, which Athlone’s most famous son bought eight years before he died, has come on the market for the first time in 40 years.

The six-bed red brick home is described by Lisney Auctioneers as an “outstanding and truly distinctive detached Victorian residence constructed circa 1888, occupying an elevated position on approximately 0.30 of an acre with wonderful views over Booterstown Nature Reserve, the Irish Sea and Howth Head.”

Bought by the Athlone singer in 1939, it turned out to be his final home before his death in 1945. Interestingly, it still bears many of landmarks of the Papal Count’s time there among its most distinctive features including some rich plaster friezes and an oak-panelled dining room with a plaque inset in the wall, thought to have been given by McCormack to his wife Lily.

The spacious home on the Rock Road comprising over 5,300 square foot in all, is said to have hosted many music recitals in McCormack’s time, and boasts beautiful stained glass windows throughout, an oratory and Céad Mile Fáilte inscribed in beautiful tiles in the entrance porch.

A marble plaque commemorating the famous former resident, unveiled by the American Ambassador to Ireland back in 1966, still greets visitors at the top of the stairs leading to the front door.

Back in the 1970s, it’s reported many US tour buses stopped outside to view the house, such was the tenor’s popularity, even several decades after his death. That may have waned now, but there is still considerable worldwide interest in the music and legacy of John Count McCormack, who was made a Papal Count in 1928 in recognition of his charitable endeavours, and is still remembered as one of the biggest worldwide stars of music in the early part of the 20th century.