Style Bawn House Fire Being Treated As Suspicious

Gutted

dding to many local people’s suspicions, Gardai are now investigating the devastating fire that destroyed one of the country’s oldest private houses on Saturday night.

Said to be built in 1773, or possibly earlier, Delgany’s Style Bawn House had been lying idle since its purchase 12 years ago by a company associated with developer Johnny Ronan.

It has since gone through two planning permission refusals – one in 2004, for 11 dwellings and a new access road, and one in 2009, looking for the demolition of Style Bawn and the building of a new, seven-bedroom, three-storey house – and the property itself was very nearly rezoned by councillors during the drafting of the Greystones Delgany local area plan, but was ultimately left as residential.

Most recently, Wicklow County Council have been engaged with RGRE J & R Stylebawn Ltd – a private company  boasting Johnny Ronan and two of his children, James and Jodie, as directors – on conservation measures for the property, with a report on works undertaken filed just last Thursday to the council.

Just to muddy the murky world of property developers even further, RGRE J & R Stylebawn Ltd are in turn owned by Arkquade, a company where, once again, Johnny Ronan and two of his children – this time, Jodie and John – sit as directors.

You can read The Irish Times report on the Style Bawn fire here – where you will also see the Greystones Guide’s recent video embedded in the piece.

You can also see our November 12th visit to Style Bawn House with loco historian Shay Clear here.