Sheila Walsh has been a sitting tenant in a period house in Ballsbridge for over 40 years. A distinguished journalist with the Irish Press, as well as a longtime habituΘe of the embassy circuit, she was, with her weekly wedding column, Ireland's answer to Hello magazine. But she never owned a property.

"There was no reason to buy," she says. "I knew I could stay where I was. I didn't want the worries of owning a house and I was renting in a prime location close to town and everything that was going on.

She points out that renting was a choice rather than a necessity at the time. "Women rarely bought properties by themselves 40 years ago. And even men continued to rent unless they were about to get married," she says. "It was perfectly normal to rent for a long time and this area was full of people in flats rather than offices."

Walsh moved into the top floor flat of the early Victorian house with a friend. They had a one-bedroom apartment which was unfurnished. "It was very important to have the place unfurnished at the time since it made a difference in terms of rights and so on," she says. She recalls that the initial rent was for "around £100 a year".

Her friend moved out of the flat to get married within a short time, around the same time as the landlord moved out of the larger hall apartment, so she moved in there and has remained ever since. The unit boasts attractive plasterwork, original sash windows and a centre rose.

"I have had a number of landlords, but they rarely did anything with the house," she notes. "Another friend of mine shared with me for some years and she used to keep the garden out back. The flat was cold and I did a lot of internal decorating over the years."

One landlord did in fact ask her to move. "I got a solicitor's letter telling me I had to move but I ignored it. I knew they had no right to get rid of me," she says. It's no surprise that Walsh knew her law, being the daughter of Louis J. Walsh, the first ever District Court Judge appointed in the State.

The apartment became less ideal as time passed, since the kitchen and bathroom were in the return - and this involved traipsing back and forth through the main hall. But Walsh was determined to stay on. After the landmark Madigan case, the then landlord reviewed the rent. "I was asked to go to the courts to sort out the market rate but we came to terms," Walsh says.

Now into her eighties, Walsh says she has the best yet of her landlords. "A lot of work was done in the flat over the past five years. I have a right to be here but the landlord seems glad to have me. I splintered a femur last year and she has now put two hand rails on the steps leading into the back garden to help me get out there safely," she says.

"I also have an en suite bathroom with a sit-in bath, and a kitchen has been built in the far side of the livingroom. I was also sent alone to the gas company to choose a gas fire," she adds.

The terrace is now being gentrified with prices topping well over the £1 million mark. There is at least one other long-term tenant nearby - now in his 90s - but most of the houses are being completely renovated as family homes. But Walsh herself remains the only long-term tenant in her own house.

But Walsh herself remains the only long-term tenant in her own house. "So many people have lived and died here over the years. There has always been a great community in the house and the younger tenants now look out for me and get messages. I am living proof that renting can work out but I suppose it was useful to have legal protection over the years. I never married so it all ends with me."