The singer-songwriter, who hails from a two-up two-down in Belfast, explains why he now plans to trade down for his 60th birthday, to another two-up two-down in Dublin
Asking price: €995,000
Agent: DNG (01) 679 4088
The next owner of singer-songwriter Brian Kennedy’s home at No519 South Circular Road in Dublin won’t be short of a dinner party anecdote. They can point at the fireplace where Nell McCafferty pontificated, fag in hand, or the spot where Clannad singer Moya Brennan draped herself across a sofa at Kennedy’s 40th birthday party in 2006.
Brian Kennedy’s house at No519 South Circular Road
A sociable character and a keen home cook, Kennedy has always loved to entertain at his period red brick Dublin 8 pad, but the former Eurovision contestant and hit songwriter won’t be having his 60th there. That milestone will be marked instead with a new album — his 20th — and a special show at nearby Vicar Street.
The singer says he is looking forward to the next chapter in the form of a two-up two-down terraced house somewhere else in Dublin 8, much like the one he grew up in on the Falls Road in West Belfast in the 1970s.“You don’t need so much space when you get older,” he says.
The hall at No519 South Circular Road
Kennedy came to the South Circular Road by accident. He had been living in London, where he went from busking in tube stations to renting a flat in Highgate, counting the likes of George Michael among his neighbours. This was followed by a stint living in New York, working on Riverdance on Broadway, where he rented “the most amazing apartment in the West Village”. Then he bought a house in Killaloe, Co Tipperary, which he eventually sold, in part to fund the purchase of No519.
“I thought I’d left behind the ideas of ‘north and south’ when I left Belfast,” he says. “And then you come to Dublin and people are on about: ‘Are you going to live north side or south side?’ This strange postcode war that people have.”
The dining room at 519 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
Kennedy was out of town when he bought the house at auction in 2003, working on his first novel The Arrival of Fergal Flynn at the Annaghmakerrig artist’s retreat in Co Monaghan. So he sent a solicitor along. “We had a top price where I was willing to go, and I got a phone call to say we won. We got it. I couldn’t believe it.”
Another view of dining room at 519 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
The three-storey Edwardian townhouse was built in 1902. He says he found it “unloved but full of promise”. With almost 2,500 sq ft, it came with high ceilings, five original chimneypieces, cornicing, original floorboards, and recently restored sash windows. “I could see the potential straight away. I love a project. I love doing up houses and flats. So I just made it really beautiful again.”
The kitchen at 519 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
Kennedy’s approach to renovation was hands-on: careful choices of colour, sourcing of furniture and paintings and what he describes as a sensibility attuned to the house’s origins. “I thought about what it must have been like to get the key for the brand new door in 1902,” he says. “If you were middle management at Guinness, you might have lived here. What was life like then in Dublin?”
The living room at 519 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
Kennedy added a bathroom and a sunroom, and his interventions are mostly in timber, which he notes “can easily be pulled down”. The chandelier cleaners come twice a year. He says: “It’s a mad thing, but I managed to do it all by myself. I bought this house by myself. I remember a neighbour saying to me, ‘Are you married?’ No. ‘And did you buy this house by yourself?’ Yes. Then a week later she saw me again and said, ‘You never said you were on the telly. I can see now how you could afford it’.”
Brian Kennedy. Photo: Bryan Meade
The accommodation at No519 is spread across three floors. A tiled entrance porch with an original stained-glass door leads into a bright hallway with black and white harlequin tiles, a carved ceiling rose and cornicing.
The front reception room has a large bay window, an original marble fireplace and sanded floorboards, and connects through double-glazed doors to the dining room, which has a second fireplace.
One of the bathrooms at 519 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
Off this run a bathroom, a pantry room, and a small kitchenette. The latter was added during Kennedy’s recovery from surgery when the stairs were not accessible – he was diagnosed with cancer in 2016.
“It was weird, because then it was so easy to isolate when we got the lockdown,” he says. “I was very lucky. This house has been so good to me. I’ve recovered completely and I’m cancer free now, and I feel the house kind of gave me that too.”
A kitchenette at 519 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
The main kitchen is at the rear, fitted with a Smeg range cooker. Beyond it, a sun room with decked flooring opens through a barn-style door to the south-facing rear garden with gravel, decking and a magnolia tree that flowers twice a year.
A relaxation area at 519 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
Upstairs, the four double bedrooms are on the first and second floors, each with original floorboards and cast-iron chimney pieces. There are two bathrooms upstairs. To the rear of the garden is what Kennedy has used as a dedicated writing and recording room.
This is a self-contained space with a mezzanine sleeping area, its own bathroom, fully fitted kitchen, and a private section of garden with a pergola and dining table. It has independent laneway access at the rear. “I very definitely wanted the house that I lived in and a little room that I could go to and work on music and songs,” he says.
An outdoor seating area at 519 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
“I’m one of those people that moves on very easily. I suppose the year will really be about turning 60, what they call the third act,” he says. “A friend of mine put this into sharp perspective. He said, you’re not middle-aged. You’d only be middle-aged if you lived to 120.”
“I grew up in a two-up two-down, and then I bought this big, lovely, three-storey Edwardian house. But really, I don’t need very much space any more. I’d love a much smaller house, more manageable, where I can walk to town in 15 minutes.
DNG is seeking offers in the region of €995,000.