When health officials called for a storied Dublin nursing home to be modernised a few years ago, the lay Catholic order that ran it had a problem: upgrading the building would cost money it did not have, so the group was in a bind.
Assisi House at Navan Road, Cabra, was home to hundreds of elderly residents for more than 40 years.
The Secular Franciscan Order had set up the home in 1983 with public donations. With roots going back eight centuries, the order is a group of lay people inspired by the mission of St Francis to help the poor.
The secular group is also known as the Third Franciscan Order and is separate from other orders such as the Capuchin Franciscans.
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When Irish Catholicism was in its prime, it had thousands of members. But those days are long gone. Not only was the order lacking money to bring Assisi House into the 21st century. It lacked manpower and organisation.
Unable to see a way of keeping the nursing home going, the secular order reluctantly decided to close it in June 2021. The order was keen to see its proud tradition of service continue, so it came to a solution of sorts by giving Assisi House and other property assets free of charge to the Peter McVerry Trust.
The homeless and housing charity was established by Jesuit priest Peter McVerry in the early 1980s, about the same time the nursing home opened.
Assisi House and surrounding lands were valued in 2021 at €4 million on a “development site basis” by consultants Bannon, although that was before the latest wave of property inflation brought values above Celtic Tiger peaks.
In 2022 the order gave the nursing home complex and three separate investment properties to the McVerry charity on the basis that future Assisi House plans would abide by its ethos.
Three years later, Assisi House is dormant. Plans to move the trust’s head office to the house came to nothing. There was no sign of life there on Tuesday morning: shuttered gates, grass on the driveway and gardens overgrown.
In the middle of a worsening housing crisis, the sense of drift and disarray has annoyed some close observers and left them with acute concerns about waste.
“People are very, very angry and disappointed,” said one person who knew Assisi House in its heyday.
The McVerry charity declined to answer any questions about its stewardship of the building and any plans for it.
The home was originally established for women members who were in a fraternity of the Franciscan order, based at Merchant’s Quay, Dublin. At a time when cash was in greater scarcity than it is now, the fraternity made public collections to fund the work.
“The money was gathered together with the very noble idea of providing care for people in their old age,” said Gabriel Costello, national president of the Secular Franciscan Order in Ireland.
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In some ways Assisi House occupies hallowed ground. The Apostolic Nunciature – official residence of the papal nuncio and, in effect, the Holy See embassy – stands on one side of the building. Navan Road parish church is on the other.
When Pope John Paul II stayed in the nunciature during his 1979 visit to Ireland, he is reputed to have walked across the field in which Assisi House was later built to pray in the church. A plaque marks his blessing of the foundation stone.
The extensive buildings comprise four wings laid out in quadrangle surrounding enclosed gardens. Áras an Uachtaráin, 1km away in the Phoenix Park, can be seen from the balcony of the main house.
At one point there were 65 bedrooms. Each has a toilet but not many have showers, a big concern for inspectors from health service watchdog, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), who wanted en suite bathrooms throughout.
“The proposal by Hiqa was out of the bounds of the resources of the order,” said a person familiar with the discussion.
The property was handed to the McVerry trust in 2022, the year before it was rocked by a disastrous financial crunch that prompted a €15 million government bailout. Regulatory inspectors later made damning findings about the way its affairs were conducted. The trust has said its financial oversight has “improved substantially” since the crisis struck.
But these looming troubles were unknown to the Franciscan order when it transferred its assets to the trust without money changing hands. Such assets included three residential investment properties valued at €1.24 million which were leased to private tenants.
A report by the Charities Regulator published in October was heavily critical of the way the trust managed a €4.7 million Capuchin donation in 2022. The donation included €1.2 million to supposedly buy the three Assisi investment properties. But such properties were already under the trust’s control as a result of the trust Assisi House takeover weeks previously, an arrangement not known to the Capuchins when they made their donation.
The secular order had only one request when it made the deal with the McVerry trust: that whatever happened next in Assisi House would be in line with its ethos of helping the weakest in society. That certainly aligns with the charity’s core mission, but the future of the house remains unclear as the charity strives to overcome two years of turmoil.
Mr Costello declined to comment on the status of Assisi House. But he made clear the terms on which it was handed to the McVerry charity.
“Assisi nursing home was donated free of charge to the trust,” said Mr Costello. “The only request was that any new project undertaken by the Peter McVerry Trust would conform to the Franciscan ethos of Assisi House.”
He continued: “The money was raised by donations from fraternity members and fundraising events. The purpose of the nursing home was to provide care in old age to members of the ladies’ fraternity.
“I was full of admiration for the work of the Merchant’s Quay fraternity to raise money, implement the project and voluntarily serve on the board of trustees and finally to arrange the generous transfer of Assisi House nursing home to the Peter McVerry Trust.”
The fact that the house remains closed has left other people familiar with the order to question the deal. “It’s totally neglected,” said one person, expressing sadness that the property is not in use.
“Back five years ago, that place was absolutely pristine. The lawns were lovely, it was all planted out with birch trees by the side. The place looked really attractive. The hedges were always trimmed.”
Another individual spoke quietly of people being “heavy-hearted” about the uncertain fate of the house.
Despite the trust’s insistence on not answering questions about Assisi House, it is clear the deal was highly advantageous to it.
The freehold property was valued in 2017 by Hickey Auctioneers at €6.44 million, a considerable sum after the financial crash, so there is obvious potential for further uplift from the €4 million 2021 valuation.
With costs projected in millions of euro, the plan to move the trust’s head office to Navan Road came to be seen as a “money pit”.
Assisi House was established with high ideals and transferred to the trust with good intentions. Today it is a monument to something else.
