{"id":380082,"date":"2026-04-03T14:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/380082\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:17:14","slug":"family-home-of-munster-and-ireland-legend-is-ripe-for-picking-at-model-farm-roads-cherry-grove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/380082\/","title":{"rendered":"Family home of Munster and Ireland legend is ripe for picking at Model Farm Road’s Cherry Grove"},"content":{"rendered":"

MICK LANE was so immersed in building up the family business and raising half a dozen kids that you\u2019d like to think he put his international rugby career behind him with ease, even one as distinguished as his.<\/p>\n

Over a few short years in the late 1940s-early 1950s, he achieved what many players only ever dream of. He was part of the Irish side that won both the Five Nations Championship and the Triple Crown in 1949; he lined out for the all-star Barbarians in their Easter tour of Wales the same year and went on to play in the 1950 British and Irish Lions tours of New Zealand and Australia \u2014 one of the most successful in the team\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

His final appearance in the green jersey came in 1953, the year he married his beloved Betty, after which his priorities turned firmly to family life. As a second generation builder \u2014 his father, Joseph Lane, had founded the family business \u2014 he was in a position to build his own home, which he did, expanding it over time as his brood grew.<\/p>\n

\"Melmore\"Melmore<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a typical builder\u2019s house. It started out as a three-bed and it ended up as a six-bed,\u201d laughs one of his daughters.<\/p>\n

Mick\u2019s building background surely helped inform his choice of location for the family home. Cherry Grove, to this day, is one of Model Farm Rd\u2019s more notable cul-de-sacs.<\/p>\n

\"HomesHomes in Cherry Grove<\/p>\n

\u00a0All of the homes are quite different; none are anyway small. Garden sizes are in the one-third-of-an-acre range. The Lane family home \u2014 Melmore \u2014 was one of the early houses on this leafy lane, tucked up off Model Farm Rd. While additional bespoke homes have materialised on the laneway over the years, none have compromised on size.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0The evidence of the Property Price Register suggests re-sales are rare \u2014 just two since the register was established in 2010. One was Moyola, Melmore\u2019s next door neighbour, which sold a decade ago for \u20ac900,000. Like Melmore, it was dated.<\/p>\n

\"MoyolaMoyola before it was extended and upgraded<\/p>\n

\u00a0New owners kept the shell (easy to tell because the original featured in these pages when up for sale in 2016) but it\u2019s a fresh, contemporary-looking home now, with single and two story extensions to front, side and rear, thanks to a corner site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MoyolaMoyola (left) after the upgrade<\/p>\n

Permission for a two storey extension was also given to Curraghmore, the only other house to sell in Cherry Grove since 2010.<\/p>\n

The trend among new owners at Cherry Grove is to make more of these already substantial homes, traditionally favoured by medics (on the right side of the city for CUH\/Bon Secours), academics (near MTU and UCC) and more recently, IT professionals, given how close it is to Cork Business and Technology Park.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a safe bet new owners will ring in changes at Melmore \u2014 the children that grew up there say that other than extensions, it hasn\u2019t changed much since it was built in the 1970s \u2014 but as the site it\u2019s on is a generous 0.3-acre, all you need is a good architect and no shortage of cash.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For your investment, you get to settle in a highly desirable \u201chome-for-life\u201d neighbourhood, on a road where \u20ac1m-plus house sales are now commonplace, both new and secondhand.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

You will also inherit an extremely well-tended garden, where a magnificent magnolia tree takes centre stage out front, while clever planting at the end of the sizable rear lawn has produced a mature screen of trees, ensuring the utmost privacy.<\/p>\n

Melmore \u2013 named after Melmore Head in Donegal, where Mick and Betty honeymooned \u2014 was a terrific home for the Lane brood: handy to schools, third-level, sporting facilities (none of the Lane children played rugby at Mick\u2019s level, although his nephew, Michael Kiernan, did).<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Mick played his club rugby with Dolphin and was inducted into the Rugby Writers of Ireland Hall of Fame in 2011.<\/p>\n

\"StatuetteStatuette marking Mick’s induction into the Rugby Writers of Ireland Hall of Fame in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur parents lived at Melmore for 72 very happy years, until they both passed away last year, Betty aged 97 and Mick 99,\u201d their daughter says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0Prior to Mick\u2019s passing, he was the last surviving member of the 1950s Lions tour, following the death of Lewis Jones in 2024. Following his passing he was remembered during a minute\u2019s silence at an Autumn International in the Aviva Stadium last November.<\/p>\n

Melmore holds a lifetime of great memories for the Lane clan, but they\u2019re all settled now \u2014 in Cork City, Chicago, and Schull \u2014 so it\u2019s time to sell up.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Dennis Guerin and Chloe Reidy of Frank V Murphy auctioneers describe it as \u201can exceptional detached family residence on a generous 0.3-acre site in an exclusive, mature residential setting\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile offering substantial accommodation throughout, this property would now benefit from modernisation and re-imagining to realise its full potential,\u201d say the agents, who are guiding the property at \u20ac1.15m.<\/p>\n

\n VERDICT: Substantial family home that will benefit from renovations and upgrades. Smashing gardens. Model Farm Rd location is the cherry on top<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MICK LANE was so immersed in building up the family business and raising half a dozen kids that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[626,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-380082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-house-prices-mortgages-estate-agents-cork-munster","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}