Judge grants possession order against former owner of castle

AN ORDER for possession was granted against the former owner of Kinnitty Castle hotel in Co Offaly yesterday in his absence.

Hotelier Cornelius Ryan was not present and was not legally represented to hear the case against him taken by Stepstone Mortgage Funding Ltd.

The court was told that the lender did not know where he was.

Mr Ryan borrowed more than €550,000 in May 2007 with an annual interest rate of 9.7 per cent from Stepstone.

His monthly repayment on the property, Piper’s Cottage in the grounds of Kinnitty Castle, near Birr, was over €4,400.

The mortgage began to go into arrears from November 2008 and, the court heard, was now in arrears of almost €80,000.

Mr Ryan now owed, €560,000 to the lender, the court heard, more than his original loan.

Applying for an order for possession, counsel for Stepstone said they had attempted to contact Mr Ryan, but they had been unsuccessful.

His home was abandoned and he had left no forwarding details. They believed he had left the country.

Mr Justice Brian McGovern agreed to grant the order and said he would put no stay or delay on it since it had been abandoned.

He agreed that the documents detailing the order could be fixed to the door of Mr Ryan’s home since there was no other way to contact him.

In January this year, Mr Ryan and Kathleen Seret Ryan, with an address at the Algarve, Portugal, abandoned a court action against KBC, Bank Ireland and Declan Taite of Farrell Grant Sparks, Bride Street, Dublin.

Mr Taite had been appointed as receiver and manager of Kinnitty Castle in November last year.

They had brought the action to restrain Mr Taite from selling the castle through a tender process. They discontinued the case when Mr Taite decided to place the property on the open market for sale by private treaty after failing to achieve an adequate price in the tender process.

Mr Ryan bought the hotel in 1994 and mortgaged the property to IIB bank in 2004 for €5.8 million.