Leinster player and Doyle heiress move into €5.47m Ballsbridge home

When number 40 Elgin Road in Ballsbridge first came on the market, it looked an obvious embassy buy. Located beside the US embassy, the grand, double-fronted Victorian is bang in the heart of Dublin’s diplomatic quarter. On the same road alone you will find the embassies of Kenya, Belgium and Ukraine.

The fine redbrick came on the market through Simon Ensor of Sherry FitzGerald seeking €6.75 million in March 2019 and quietly sold before Christmas for €5.47 million. Early speculation was that the buyer was next-door neighbour the US embassy – an obvious purchase surely to accommodate visiting dignitaries. But when news emerged recently that the embassy is planning to move lock, stock and barrel down the road to the site of the old Jury's hotel it put paid to that theory.

It now transpires that the lucky new residents are newly-weds Leinster rugby player James Tracy and Ashley Doyle, daughter of David Doyle, the second son of late hotelier PV Doyle. The couple, who were married in a quiet Covid-19 wedding ceremony last August, are understood to have moved in to their new pad around Christmas time.

Now Ashley, who has more than 16,000 followers of her glamorous lifestyle on Instagram, is expecting their first child. Luckily the couple will have little to do except paint the nursery as much of the heavy lifting at number 40 has already been done.

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The property, which is just one of two detached, three-storey houses on Elgin Road, was completely overhauled about 18 years ago after its use was changed from commercial to residential. Developer Jerry O’Reilly engaged Cantrell & Crowley Architects to transform the property to a 525sq m (5,651sq ft), four-bedroom home.

There’s an “entertaining” kitchen on the first floor and a larger kitchen/breakfast room at ground-floor level, while at basement level is the wine cellar. A coach house to the side was also converted into a three-bed 183 sq m (1,969sq ft) mews. One of the finest houses in an area known for its substantial piles, it is not surprising that this came in as the third biggest residential property sale in Dublin last year.