Wednesday 5 February 2014

Government House Londonderry

Situated on the Letterkenny Road on the outskirts of Londonderry this listed property was constructed for the Honourable the Irish Society. The grounds extended to just over thirty two acres made up of three lots, the two smaller lots being separated from the house and pleasure grounds by the county road and the Great Northern Railway.

 

The property passed into private hands in the early years of the twentieth century being bought by Archibald Fitzpatrick Cooke of 6 Clooney Park, Londonderry for £5,500. When he died on 30th June 1929 he left Government House together with its contents to his trustees upon trust, inter alia, to allow his wife and daughter to have the use and benefit thereof during their lives and the life of the survivor. The executors and trustees of his will were his wife, Gertrude Caroline Cooke, his daughter, Iris Frances Lyle Cooke and his brother John Fitzpatrick Cooke of Glengallaugh House, Retired County Court Judge. Although the Cooke family retained ownership of the property until 23rd September 1968 when the then trustees of the will sold the estate it would seem that it was rented out for a period. An entry in the Belfast Gazette of 1956 states that it was at that time the residence of John Talbot McFarland, (now 3rd Bt.)


The 1968 purchaser was the Congregation of Christian Brothers. The purchase price was £30,000. The house and main grounds, (24a 3r 33p) were sold by the Christian Brothers to a private purchaser in the 1990's. It has now been renamed Termon House. The remaining lands were gifted to the local Council on 18th June 1990 for use as, "a park or recreation lands for the leisure and recreation of the people of Derry."

 

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