English actor Dominic West, late of HBO’s The Wire and currently starring in Showtime’s The Affair, is branching into the hospitality business. Next year, West and his family will move to Limerick, Ireland, to turn Glin Castle, the 700-year-old ancestral home of his wife, into a boutique hotel.
The TV star and his wife, Catherine Fitzgerald, had previously planned to put Glin Castle up for sale for €6.5 million, but decided instead to keep the property and adapt it.
Originally built by an order called the Knights of Glin, the castle was handed down for generations and served as the ancestral home to the FitzGerald clan. Catherine Fitzgerald’s father, Desmond Fitzgerald, the 29th and last Knight of Glin, died five years ago. He had attempted to turn the castle into a hotel in 2002, but was forced to close it down seven years later due to the economic crash. Private renters have booked the building over the years for personal use.
West told local sources that he plans to manage the hotel “as much as he can” and wants to be “heavily involved” in the project.
According to the property page on Christies Real Estate, the 21-bedroom Glin Castle sits on 380 acres of parkland less than 1 hour's drive from Limerick city center and Shannon International airport. In addition to a library and dedicated smoking room, the property still has a bar license, and outbuildings could be converted to accommodate larger events.