History of Dundrum House

Dundrum House is a Palladian-style country house built around 1730 for the Maude family — later Viscounts Hawarden and Earls of Montalt — on lands once held by the O'Dwyers before the Cromwellian confiscations. Attributed to the school of the renowned architect Edward Lovett Pearce, it is an elegant seven-bay, three-storey house over a half-basement that remains substantially intact within its demesne.

It carries a national rating on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (ref. 22102010) and is a Protected Structure under the Tipperary County Development Plan 2022 (RPS ref. 1039). For three centuries it was bound to its community — in many ways it created the village of Dundrum itself — serving over time as a country house, a convent and industrial school, and finally a hotel and championship golf resort.

Recent History: Closure, Restoration That Never Came, the Ukrainian Response, and IPAS

The estate entered receivership in 2014. In 2015 a fire destroyed the ballroom and kitchen, leading to the closure of the Manor House — but the wider site kept going, with the golf course, gym, swimming pool, restaurant, bar and on-site guest accommodation continuing to serve the public and the local community.

In 2016 the property was bought by Steelworks Investments, funded by the Wenning family of Ohio through Wenning Holdings Ltd and held via the subsidiary Brogan Capital Ventures (BCV). In 2018 planning permission was secured to restore the Manor House and wider site. Despite many promises the works never began.

In 2022, with community support, the site began housing Ukrainian families fleeing the war on a temporary basis, and approximately €11 million was paid to BCV for this accommodation.

In summer 2024 the first international-protection (IPAS) residents — around 50 — were placed on site. Plans then shifted to a long-term IPAS centre for 277 residents, announced without local consultation. In April 2025 the Department entered a contract with Utmasta Ltd. That contract expires in April 2027.

A Protected Structure Reduced to a Storeroom

The IPAS use covers the converted accommodation blocks on the wider site — Holm Oaks, the Square Block, the Coach House and the ground floor of the Old Wing/C Block. It does not cover the 300-year-old Manor House, which was deliberately excluded from the Class 20F change-of-use exemption.

Yet the Manor House — the historic heart of the estate — sits empty and unheated, its heating systems removed, while its principal rooms are used as a dumping ground. Photographs show Heras fencing, mattresses, doors, furniture and boxes stacked beneath original cornicing and chandeliers. Windowpanes are broken or missing on every floor, allowing water ingress; vegetation is taking hold internally and the fabric of the basement is degrading.

A conservation assessment is unambiguous: using a protected structure for storage is an unauthorised change of use that requires planning permission in its own right, and it sharply multiplies the risk of fire and of irreversible loss. Once original fabric is gone, it can never be recovered. Far from protecting the building, the current use is accelerating its decay — in direct breach of the owner's statutory duty of care.

Who Is Responsible — and the Breaches

Responsibility sits with several parties:

Tipperary County Council — the planning authority charged with enforcing planning and heritage law on this site.
The owner/operator entities — Brogan Capital Ventures Ltd, Steelworks Investments Ltd and Utmasta Ltd.
The Department responsible for migration — as the contracting authority that placed and continues to fund the IPAS use.

Breaches identified at the site

(under the Planning and Development Act 2000)

Unauthorised development — substantial works carried out without planning permission.
Section 57 — works affecting the character of a Protected Structure carried out without a Section 57 declaration or permission.
Section 58 — failure in the owner's and occupier's statutory duty to protect the structure from endangerment and decay.
Section 59 / Section 71 — grounds for enforcement action and the endangerment of a Protected Structure.
Unauthorised change of use to storage of the Manor House.
Unauthorised wastewater treatment system — no planning permission; 2024 testing showed discharge exceeding waste licence DW023-02, and a Section 12 notice under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 remained outstanding as of 16 June 2025.
Environmental / Habitats Directive — the lands lie within or adjoining the Lower River Suir Special Area of Conservation, with the Multeen River running through the site, requiring a full appropriate assessment that has not been carried out.
Building Control Acts 1990–2020 / Building Regulations — no Fire Safety Certificate for the change of use and no Commencement Notice lodged.

Current Status: Awaiting a Decision from An Coimisiún Pleanála

Utmasta Ltd lodged its own Section 5 declaration application seeking to regularise the change of use. Tipperary County Council was unable to make a decision and referred the matter to An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP case ref. RL92.323829; planning authority ref. S5/25/127). Dundrum Heritage Group made a detailed submission to ACP on 19 November 2025.

This follows a long road: a complaint to the Council in February 2025, a judicial review initiated in March 2025, the Council's concession in June 2025 that its original Section 5 was flawed (agreeing to cover the Group's costs), and a unanimous Council vote in July 2025 to rezone the site for heritage, leisure and amenity use only.

The Manor House, meanwhile, remains empty and decaying. The community now waits for An Coimisiún Pleanála's decision.

Make your voice heard

Contact Tipperary County Council

Dundrum House is a live planning enforcement file (Ref. TUD-25-023). Under the Planning and Development Act 2000, an enforcement complaint must be made in writing, so the most effective route is a direct email to the Planning Section, with a copy to the Heritage Officer.

Planning Section (formal enforcement complaint): planning@tipperarycoco.ie

Heritage Officer, Róisín O'Grady (protected-structure concerns): roisin.ogrady@tipperarycoco.ie

Phone: 0818 06 5000

Post: The Planning Section, Tipperary County Council, Civic Offices, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary

Email Council to Complain

To challenge this decision in the High Court Judicial Review, we urgently need to raise €20,000.

Please support this fight to protect our heritage by contributing:

🔹 Via GoFundMe: GoFundMe.com

Every donation, big or small, brings us closer to saving Dundrum Manor House.

Thank you for standing with us.

GoFundMe is Now Closed - Thank You to our Supporters

Ger Crosse. Paddy Kelly, Lucy Kelly, William Crowe, Raymond Heney, John Fennessy, John Winters, Liam Kelly, Mike Hennessy, Vinny Downey, Maura Tynan, Liam Coen, Allan Beechinor, Eamon Mahoney, Thomas Hennessy, Donal Hennessy, Pat Twomey, Steph Rawlings, Michelle O’Regan, PP & Nora O’Dwyer, Arnold O’Dwyer, Peter O’Dwyer, Vera Heffernan, Bart Murphy, Michael O’Dwyer, Adrian Crosse, John Hennessy, Sandra Connors, Tom & Minnie Comerford, Pauline Burke, Donal Morrissey, Seamus Hennessy, Kieran O’Dwyer, Dave O’Meara, Denis Kelly, Marie Corcoran, Oliver Browne, Mary Sarath, Alison De Vere Hunt, Fran O’Dwyer, Mary Twohig, Cora Crowe, Andrew Fryday, Mairead Fogarty, Peter O’Dwyer, Fiona Kennedy, Anette Hunt, Bernadette Kelly, Valentine O’Gorman, Michael Murphy, Pauline Burke, Claire O’Mahony, John Farrell, Sheamus Walsh, TJ Heffernan, Claire Ryan, Margaret O’Carroll, Seamus Quirke, Padraig O'Donnell, Mike and Marie Cummins, Karen Cummins ………..plus anonymous contributions (84 donations so far).