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Inside the €695k Blackwater Mill home blending 1800s history with luxury country living

Inside the €695k Blackwater Mill home blending 1800s history with luxury country living

Irish Examiner3 days ago
Set just a field back from Munster's River Blackwater, and with roots back more than two centuries, is the 'older meets older still', Blackwater Mill.
Make an entrance in style?
The mix, a 1970s over-basement home with a B3 BER, is set within the immaculate walled grounds of a 1805 flour mill, switched to linen mill use a century later by 1902, reflecting changes in economic and industrial models, before finding a 'new' use, as a sheltered private home, from 1975.
Interiors are bright and spacious
The latter build, now half a century old, went through subsequent overhauls too since and comes now for sale, likely to continue in its current iteration, with a number of strong selling factors.
Hit the deck
Apart from the size and interior quality — and its basement gym and games rooms, plus large hot tub — the attractions include the very substantial surrounding high walls sheltering the grounds and providing privacy via an electric gate in an wide stone arch on the front wall, complete with upstaging 'soldiers', like stone battlements: it's about as impressive a screening wall as you'll see on a roadside property.
Blackwater Mill's basement
The setting is on the N72, which runs north of the River Blackwater west from Mallow towards Rathmore, at Gurteen which is south of Kanturk and north of Millstreet, about 50km/minutes from Cork city and about 40km/minutes from Killarney.
Daily grid: mill race replaced by hot tub
Auctioneer Michel O'Donovan jnr of Sherry FitzGerald O'Donovan is selling Blackwater Mill with a €695,000 AMV or about a competitive €1,000 per square metre, and describes the four acres of gardens and woodland it comes with as lush, with right of way access over an adjacent field to the banks of the Blackwater.
Suite dreams
Describing it as 'remarkable,' he says the 7,200 sq ft home has been 'meticulously restored and enhanced to offer refined country living with every modern convenience'. Instances of modernity include an EV charging station, thermal solar system, smart-home technology, a custom built bar by a dining table for 12 (come to think of it, that's more old fashioned banqueting than nouvelle cuisine?) and an impressive BER B3 thanks to insulation upgrades, meaning the chance for lower 'green' mortgage rates.
Babbling books
Rooms include that dining room, living room, modern kitchen/family dining with vast double range oven and small circular island with sink and spice racks; an office, and two/three mid level bedrooms, with four first floor bedrooms around a long galleried landing with arched window, with the bedrooms at either end being en suite with walk-thru robes.
In all, there are three ensuite bedrooms and five bathrooms in total, plus guest WC, quite the US standard of wash room provision…possibly to go along with the American walnut flooring used in a number of rooms.
There's both internal and external access to a substantial deck area, with composite decking used, at mid level abutting the stone back boundary wall as a ready reminder of the novelty of the site and its mill heritage.
VERDICT: Comparatively new and upgraded meets much, much older, with grounds and Blackwater river access…definitely a one-off.
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Is this EU-US trade deal a good one for Ireland?
Is this EU-US trade deal a good one for Ireland?

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Is this EU-US trade deal a good one for Ireland?

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In Quotes: Europe reacts to new trade deal with US
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time3 hours ago

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The US struck a framework trade agreement with the European Union, imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods and averting a bigger trade war between the two allies that account for almost a third of global trade. Following are reactions from European leaders and trade ministers to the deal. Taoiseach Micheál Martin The agreement "brings clarity and predictability to the trading relationship between the EU and the US - the biggest in the world. "That is good for businesses, investors and consumers. It will help protect many jobs in Ireland." Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Harris "A deal provides a measure of much needed certainty for Irish, European and American businesses who together represent the most integrated trading relationship in the world. "While Ireland regrets that the baseline tariff of 15% is included in the agreement, it is important that we now have more certainty on the foundations for the EU-US trade relationship, which is essential for jobs, growth and investment." French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou "It is a sombre day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission." Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán "This is not an agreement ... Donald Trump ate [Ursula] von der Leyen for breakfast, this is what happened and we suspected this would happen as the US president is a heavyweight when it comes to negotiations while Madame President is featherweight." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz "This agreement has succeeded in averting a trade conflict that would have hit the export-orientated German economy hard. "This applies in particular to the automotive industry, where the current tariffs of 27.5% will be almost halved to 15%." Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni "I consider it positive that there is an agreement, but if I don't see the details I am not able to judge it in the best way." Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan "Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan salutes that a trade agreement was reached it is a good omen," the government press office said. "...It eliminates present unclearness which caused disruptions and uncertainties in transatlantic trade relations." Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo "The agreement brings much-needed predictability to the global economy and Finnish companies. Work must continue to dismantle trade barriers. Only free transatlantic trade benefits both sides the most." Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen "The trade conditions will not be as good as before, and it is not our choice, but a balance must be found that stabilises the situation and that both sides can live with."

Tánaiste welcomes trade deal between EU and US but says ‘a lot of detail needed' for pharma sector
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Tánaiste welcomes trade deal between EU and US but says ‘a lot of detail needed' for pharma sector

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