John Rocha returns to the auld sod after buying period home in Killiney for €2.6m

When designer John Rocha sold his Leeson Park home in Dublin 6 two years ago for €3.5 million, he said he planned to move permanently to London as that was where daughter Simone, also a fashion designer, and son Max, a chef and cafe owner, were based. He seems to have had second thoughts, possibly related to the winding down of his fashion empire. Last year his main company, Three Moon Design Unlimited, was voluntarily wound up, resulting in a pretax windfall of €11.5 million for the Hong Kong-born couturier.
We hear Rocha, now 71, and wife Odette are the new owners of Carrickmoleen on Killiney Hill Road in south Co Dublin, a period pile on two acres with sea views spanning Killiney Bay to Bray Head and the Sugar Loaf. While the five-bedroom property was on the market for €4 million, the property price register records a sale price of €2.6 million, although that may not include its sprawling gardens, which include an array of glasshouses and fruit trees – perfect for Rocha, a keen gardener.
One of the biggest house sales in South Dublin last year was the €3 million paid for The Battery in Sandycove, a granite structure built soon after 1800 beside the seafront Martello tower. When it came on the market in 2022, there were calls for the State to buy the 0.4-acre site, which originally formed part of Sandycove’s coastal defences against a Napoleonic invasion. Instead the new owner is Louis Ronan snr, the owner of Tipperary veterinary pharmaceutical company Enfer, and his wife, Kate.
The couple recently submitted plans for a dramatic revamp of the landmark, including the restoration of a number of historic structures, the addition of a series of contemporary-style extensions and the addition of a bedroom suite above the magazine accessed by a lift.
If the couple visited last week, with the neighbouring Forty Foot bathed in glorious sunshine, the €3 million price must have seemed like a snip.
Catholic Unscripted – the self-described “Catholic renewal movement” – was founded in 2022 by Katherine Bennett, Gavin Ashenden and Mark Lambert, seeking to promote the “beauty, truth and goodness of the Catholic faith”, using conferences and a regular podcast to get across their message. More often than not, it takes aim at what the presenters perceive to be the latest “woke” hot-button issue.
Some of the podcast’s recent episodes took aim at Pope Francis, accusing him of “deserting Jesus”, “losing the plot” and being “more like a Buddhist” than a Catholic in his teachings. Another praised Tommy Robinson, the far-right agitator from the UK, saying he is “speaking the truth” and calling for prayers for him and his family.
Not that any of that has stopped the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore welcoming the three to a weekend of “talks, conversations, reflections, prayers and fellowship” at Glencomeragh House in Co Waterford, a property owned by the church. Indeed Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan appeared in a photograph with the three to publicise the event, and the diocese’s Facebook page has advertised the weekend.
Asked about their criticism of the pope, a spokesman for the diocese said it did not endorse the views expressed by Catholic Unscripted on their podcasts, particularly those that are critical of Pope Francis, and were not aware of them until they were brought to their attention by The Irish Times.
“Additionally, it is worth noting that Glencomeragh House serves as a retreat centre for a diverse range of groups, including Catholics, non-Catholics, and secular organisations,” he said, adding that it was not “feasible nor appropriate” to scrutinise every statement made by potential speakers.
In the summer of 2023, agent to the stars Noel Kelly was losing clients such as Lottie Ryan, Ciara Kelly and Ciara Doherty in the aftermath of the Ryan Tubridy payments controversy. Just over a year later and Kelly is adding to his roster. In recent weeks four new clients popped up on his website, including broadcaster Brian Dowling Gourounlian, podcaster Mark Mehigan, psychologist Allison Keating and, in a straight GP for GP swap with Ciara Kelly, Operation Transformation expert Dr Sumi Dunne.
Gone, though, is RTÉ’s Cormac Ó hEadhra, who seems to have cut his ties with Kelly late last year after the controversy had died down. Tom Dunne, who briefly disappeared from Kelly’s website after some impertinent comments about Tubridy, has also returned. Something obviously happened.
The former RTÉ correspondent turned Independent Ireland MEP Ciaran Mullooly has gone with experience in choosing his political adviser in Brussels. We hear he has hired John Harkin, a son of former MEP Marian Harkin and a long-term Brussels-based operator, as a member of his back room team. Harkin had been working as a lobbyist with Ceemet, a European employers’ organisation representing the metal and engineering industries.
Incidentally Harkin’s mother, Marian (70), confirmed last week that she is to run in the next general election in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency, which also takes in chunks of south Donegal and west Cavan now.
Local story of the week comes from Roscommon, where a gang of sticky-fingered criminals who burgled Chatterland Creche in Elphin last Sunday, causing considerable damage, made fish fingers for themselves before making their escape. Let’s hope the local gardaí give them a good grilling when they’re apprehended.