I went on a tour of an old Georgian House on the northside of Dublin. The woman who currently owns and lives in the house took us on the tour and told great stories. The house was built in 1785 by the Lord Mayor of Dublin. It was at that time, a very lovely, very expensive house. Ireland went through a very tough economic period and the house fell to ruin. There were once 27 families living in the 27 rooms. There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and heating was from fireplaces only. The current owner of the house purchased it in 1975 and could not raise the rent or evict the families living there because of the tenacy laws in Ireland. If you were renting, you could pass the lease onto your surviving relatives, and they could live there as long as they desired with no increase in rent. It took until the 1980's before all the remaining tenants finally left. Since then, the owner has renovated the entire house back to it's original state. The house is estimated to now be worth 3 million euro.
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