SAD TO see the passing of billionaire John Paul Getty III, whose family briefly brought a touch of glamour to the Lough Derg area of Co Tipperary. He purchased a large house on 100 acres there in 1998, at the same time as members of his family acquired Irish passports. Gurthalougha House was a refuge for wheelchair-bound Getty and his mother, Gail Harris Getty, who furnished the house in an eclectic style and entertained many friends there over the past 12 years.
Last September they put the property on the market at €5.2 million ( Property, September 16, 2010) and there it has stayed for the past five months, like many other country estates. Sales agent Robert Ganly of Knight Frank says there are no plans to drop the price of the property for the moment.
The former Hidden Ireland guest house, located just outside the village of Ballinderry, was bought for €1.27 million and a good deal more money was spent upgrading the house and the gardens.
The ground floor has several fine reception rooms, including a superb library. Getty led a reclusive life there under medical supervision.
The grandson of John Paul Getty, the American industrialist who founded Getty Oil and was once declared America’s richest man, as a teenager in the 1970s he was kidnapped by Sicilian bandits.
When his grandfather refused to pay a €17 million ransom, a further demand arrived with an envelope containing the 16-year-old’s ear. A ransom was eventually paid and he was released.
