A flat in Galway. A flat in Dublin.
Sure, I have my fantasies about living in Ireland. As someone whose great-grandparents emigrated, I can't do the grandparent-born-there citizenship thing. But maybe I could go for extended stays. Maybe I could have a pied a terre to flee to if things get super ugly here. (Or super uglier.)
Is an Irish home-away what I'm going to spend my retirement savings on?
Probably not.
But if I won a place - a well-located city flat, or even a wee cottage somewhere - well, I wouldn't say no.
So while I'm usually not the jealous type, I'm feeling a bit green-eyed monstrous when I saw an article on an American woman who'd just won a cottage in the sweet County Leitrim. Sweet! (This isn't the cottage, but close enough...)
Anyway, Kathleen Spangler is the lucky colleen who's now the proud owner of a little bit o' heaven. Make that an updated little bit o' heaven, as the owner had recently swanked up her 2 BR cottage. (New kitchen, etc.)
Spangler had recently secured her Irish citizenship, thanks to a County Mayo grandmother. (Damn! Why couldn't County Mayo's Margaret Joyce have been my grandmother, not my great-grandmother. She was poking around Irish real estate sites and came across a raffle that looked interesting. She's not a gambler, but took a flyer and bought $12.67 worth of tickets. One of those tickets was the winner.
Spangler is not in danger of decamping to Ireland any time soon. She's so incredibly busy, I'm exhausted just reading about it.
She's a Marine Corps officer and mother of three, two toddlers and an infant. She and her husband (also a Marine officer) recently transferred to a new post, where they'll both be pursuing graduate degrees in engineering. Yikes!
Still, Spangler likes the idea of having the new place.
“My husband and I have talked about someday, when we are out of the military, getting property overseas and splitting time between the United States,” she said. “But that was obviously a future goal.” (Source: NY Times)
Mission accomplished! Good on yez, Kathleen and Michael Spangler.
And good for Monica Collins, who raffled the house to fund a move to Italy.
Her deal with Raffall, the British raffle site Collins worked through, was that she would sell 150,000 tickets.
But in the end, Ms. Collins said, 206,815 tickets were sold, grossing 1,034,705 pounds (about $1.4 million). Besides the 10 percent to Raffall, she has about 2,600 euros to pay in affiliate fees, plus a 33 percent capital gains tax, 1 percent of the value of the house for stamp duty, and fees for her lawyers and the Spanglers’ lawyers.
Fair play, Monica Collins!
Personally, I wouldn't want to be in the back arse of Leitrim, even if the cottage is only 12 miles from Sligo Town. Sligo isn't my favorite place in Ireland, but it does have critical mass in terms of stores, restaurants, pubs. And just outside of town, there's Rosses Point which to me is the most beautiful place in Ireland.
But I may start meandering around Irish real estate sites and see what's up for raffle grabs. You never know. Maybe I'll have the luck of the (partial) American Irish.
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