How a family in Dundrum revived their prize-winning 1930s Art Deco home with a substantial extension

Ard Aoibhinn, 16 Taney Road, Dundrum, Dublin 14

Asking price: €1.85m

Agent: Sherry FitzGerald (01) 2961822

Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach and Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours hit the top of the charts in 1986 with big hair and shoulder pads the order of the day.

In interiors meantime, a revival of Art Deco kitsch was also in full swing, evidenced by the flamingos and chrome furniture that festooned some of the trendy bars and clubs of the time.

It was also the year Ciaran and Maria Rowsome were in search of somewhere to bring up a family, and they inadvertently ended up bringing some authentic Art Deco into their lives, purchasing a careworn international moderne-style home from the 1930s, situated almost opposite Taney Church in Dundrum, Dublin 14.

The Rowsomes were just the third family to live in the unusual five-bed since its completion just before World War II. The original owners were fishmongers from Dundrum Village, who lived there until the day John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

“We had lived in England for a couple of years. So we decided to look around in Dundrum as family were close by,” says Ciaran.

A local agent pointed them at the house and the Rowsomes liked what they saw.

“It took us about six weeks of ‘fixing up’ to get it to the point we could move in,” Mary says. “We got a new roof and got some much-needed insulation put in.”

While Ard Aoibhinn doesn’t quite have the glamour of Geragh (Michael Scott’s iconic Sandycove house of the same era), it does show off some of the irrefutable features of this confident mid-20th century building style, such as the flat roof, bays and rails.

“It was designed and built by a local firm headed by a man called Andy Walsh in 1936,” says Ciaran.

“The design won an award at the time. It was roughly in the ‘international moderne’ style of the mid-20th century.”

The Rowsomes have extended twice, each time paying careful attention to the integrity of the design of the house. Ciaran’s architect brother Sean designed the portico to the front, which they added in 1990.

It fitted into the style of the house seamlessly.

In 2007, they added a more substantial extension by architect Anthony Whittaker, which almost doubled the size of the dwelling.

“The original look and design of the house allowed us to be modern, adding a substantial space without altering the look of it or without adding anything that jarred,” says Ciaran.

The extension added substantially to the accommodation, which is now roughly 3,500 sq ft and effectively created a ‘house of two halves’.

The extension provided roomy open-plan living, dining room and kitchen with a south-west facing aspect, plus a working area and a conservatory.

The rest of the ground floor of the house continued to comprise separate and private living rooms.

The open-plan section is roughly 800 sq ft and Mary says this is her favourite part of the building.

“The light you get here is very special, even when it’s raining. I love to sit here and read the newspaper on a Sunday morning. The cat will testify to the warmth of this room.”

Ard Aoibhinn was the perfect family home for the Rowsomes to bring up their three children, Erin (42), Moia (40) and Hugo (33).

“The house is deal for parties,” says Ciaran. “The house and gardens can hold a lot of people comfortably. For Erin’s 21st, it was a Hollywood theme with life-size Oscars outside and red carpet for the 120 guests.

“Then for Hugo’s 21st, he picked a Father Ted theme which, as you can imagine, was quite hilarious.”

The hallway is wide and has a staircase centrally placed, with a drawing room and family room off to the left and two further living rooms off to the right, one of them with a bow-front jutting out to the side of the house in the typical ‘international marine’ style, topped with a railed balcony.

“The unusually shaped sitting room was perfect for Christmas Day. It is also our music room and when anything was happening in the house, we always supplied our own entertainment,” says Ciaran.

Ard Aoibhinn is a definitively musical home. “Uilleann pipe-playing and making has been in the family since the 1870s,” says Maria.

“Ciaran’s uncle Leo made pipes, taught them at the College of Music and played both Carnegie Hall and the Albert Hall.

“My dad Tom was one of the founders of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and the Fleadh Cheoil.” Mary and Erin both sing (the latter for events), Moia is a keyboard player, while Hugo plays guitar and piano.

“Between us all, we can rock,” says Ciaran.

Upstairs, all five bedrooms are double-size and two have en suite facilities. The master bedroom overlooks the back garden.

As well as being a married couple, the Rowsomes are professional partners and will have been in business together 40 years this year.

They run a successful company called FlexTime, which is based in nearby Churchtown and specialises in helping large companies efficiently organise hybrid working for their employees.

Ironically, having been forced to work from home during the Covid pandemic, they now prefer to go to the office five days a week themselves.

“The garden is unusually large for an urban setting,” says Ciaran. “Relatives and friends from the country have often remarked it doesn’t feel like being in the city or suburbs.”

A fully-antlered stag pitched up in the garden one morning, staring daughter Erin in the eyes. The Rowsomes are still unable to work out where it came from.

“We have other regular visitors, such as squirrels and foxes,” Ciaran says.

Living a couple of minutes’ walk from the Luas stop at Dundrum, the couple have seen massive changes in the area since they moved there in the mid-1980s.

“The traffic used to be quite heavy on Taney Road when we moved here first,” Mary says. “But the M50 has taken away a lot of that and it is quieter now.”

Ard Aoibhinn is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €1.85m.

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