O'Leary

Corner-sited end-of-terrace two-bay three-storey house, built c.1820, with shopfronts to ground floor. Pitched slate roof with rendered chimneystack and eaves course with render corbels and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered walls having commemorative stone plaque to east elevation. Square-headed openings with concrete sills and two-over-two timber sliding sash windows. Replacement timber shopfront to south and east elevations comprising pilasters and capital having earlier moulded render architrave, cornice and painted fascia. Square-headed openings with replacement timber fixed pane display windows. Square-headed door opening having replacement timber glazed door and overlight. Timber shutters to interior upper floor windows.

This prominently sited building was built as part of a terrace with its neighbours to the west in the early nineteenth century. A plaque associates this place with Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, a noteworthy historical figure in the town of Skibbereen. He is said to have traded here as a young man, while the rest of his family emigrated to America. He later went on to found the Phoenix National and Literary Society. Noteworthy features include the timber sliding sash windows and associated shutters. The vertical emphasis and balanced proportions of this façade contribute positively to the coherence of the streetscape of Skibbereen.