An Irish businessman based in London has rescued a charity in his native Kerry by paying close to €2 million for farmland surrounding a care home.
The religious order who once ran the St Mary of the Angels care facility, located in Beaufort in Co. Kerry, opted to put its 110-acre farm up for sale earlier this year.
Parents of residents of the centre and locals were concerned that the sale would lead to large-scale development, disrupting the work of the care home.
Businessman and farmer, Danny Tim Sullivan, founder and chairman of the London-based Danny Sullivan Group, was approached to buy the farm.
“Farms like this don’t come along every week in Kerry so it was an easy decision to buy it but also my sister Hannah was once a resident in St Mary’s so it is close to my heart,” O’Sullivan told the Farming Independent.
Danny, 64, is a father of five who has lived in London for over 40 years, hailing originally from a small farm in Gleesk. He emigrated to London in the early 1970s where he worked in the construction sector. Today, his firm is one of the biggest employers in the British construction sector.
He also owns about 15 farms around the country, with the majority in Kerry and three in Limerick which are run by his sons.
“I approached Danny asking would he consider buying the farm as I knew he had a number of farms in the area already and I knew he could be trusted,” Jack Fitzpatrick, the parent of a child cared for at the facility, told the Farming Independent.
“We already feel that the farm is in safe hands now and reassured for the future of the care home,” said Mr Fitzpatrick.
Sullivan added that he is “looking forward to being neighbours” with the St Mary of the Angels facility. “I’m the luckiest man alive. God has been very good to me so I was very happy to buy the farm.”
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