Bellefield House: A lost Limerick mansion and its remarkable residents

Occupied by the Mid-Western Regional Maternity Hospital since October 1960, this prominent location on the Ennis Road was previously the site of Bellefield House, a large mansion featuring ornamental lawns, and a walled garden reached by a short avenue and gate lodge.
Bellefield was a handsome two-storey, three-bay house with a single-storey side wing, pitched roof, and rendered chimneys. The walls were lime-rendered masonry with timber sash windows. A central entrance with a small, enclosed porch provided the focal point. Over the course of its existence, Bellefield was the residence of several well-known Limerick families, including Fitzgerald-Magraths, Gabbetts, Vandeleurs and Marretts. The house was probably built by the Fitzgerald-Magrath family in the closing years of the eighteenth century. The family was well-established by the eighteenth century. Gamaliel Fitzgerald Magrath was an agent to the Earl of Dunraven. In December 1774 he married Elizabeth Quin, daughter of Windham Quin of Adare. Magrath was described as a ‘man of extensive property.’ In January 1808, John Magrath-Fitzgerald offered Bellefield for rental.

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According to a notice in Saunders's Newsletter published on October 28, 1809, Christopher Arbuthnot Marrett, Esq. was the next resident of Bellefield. He attended Trinity College in 1794 and earned BA in 1799. Marrett was called to the Irish Bar 1804. Marrett served as mayor of Limerick in 1820. During the visit of George IV to Ireland in 1821, Marrett was presented to the king by Lord Viscount Gort, and received a knighthood. Christopher Marrett’s daughter, Hannah Maria married Francis Nathaniel Keane, son of Robert Keane of Beech Park House, Ennis. Sir Christopher Marrett died at Corbally in 1826.
It is unclear who resided in Belfield following the departure of the Marrett family, but as the house was held by the Gabbetts, it makes sense that members of that family lived there from time to time. In 1837, Daniel Gabbett jun, married Susanna, daughter of the Rev Wyndham Magrath Fitzgerald. Thereafter, the couple lived at Bellefield. Daniel Gabbett died October 20, 1857. In his will, he bequeathed £300 to the Protestant Orphan Society; £100 to the Poor of St. Munchin's Parish; £50 to Barrington's Hospital; £25 to the Catholic Magdalen Asylum; and £25 for other charitable purposes. Following Daniel Gabbett’s death, his wife, Susanna appears to have taken up residence across the road in Strand House, another house in the Gabbett Estate. She died at Strand House in 1878.
Bellefield was next occupied by Major Thomas Pakenham Vandeleur. He was the son of Lt.-Col. John Ormsby Vandeleur and Rosetta Beattie. He married Frances Lucy Maunsell, daughter of Venerable William Wray Maunsell and Charlotte Warburton, on August 26, 1834 in Limerick. They had five children, none of whom lived beyond the age of 24. In 1855, he was appointed treasurer of Limerick on a salary of £400 per year (£65,000 in 2026). He held the post for 25 years. Major Vandeleur died at Bellefield on January 17, 1879. His funeral report in the Limerick Chronicle noted ‘all the county families of note were in attendance’. Major Vandeleur was interred in the family vault at St John’s Churchyard, although rather curiously a headstone bearing his name is to be found in St John’s Churchyard. His widow, Frances Lucy died at Hartford House, Cramlington, aged 76 on the October 24, 1891.
By the mid-1890s, Michael Geraghty (1843-1921) was living at Bellefield. Geraghty was a wine and spirit merchant whose offices were on Thomas Street. He went on to become a director of J Quin & Co, Ellen Street. In 1896, his eldest daughter, Maggie married HF Powell, MD of Nenagh. When the 1911 census was recorded, the Geraghty family were living in another large suburban villa, Mount Gerard on O’Connell Avenue.
The next person to live at the house was Sybil Ievers (1850-1931) from about 1910. The same year, she married Captain Hector Atkinson, son of Lord and Lady Atkinson. The wedding report was carried in several society magazines including the Ladies’ Field which stated, ‘the occasion created a great social stir in Limerick… the ceremony took place in an old-world cathedral and a lavish reception was held in Bellefield.’ The marriage produced one daughter, Olga Rowena Maude Atkinson, born in 1912.

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In 1911, Sybil’s mother Phoebe E. Ievers (née Allen) was a candidate for the Limerick Board of Guardians. Unfortunately, she lost in Custom House Ward, but four other women were elected. Up until 1911, all eight wards in the city had only male representation. Much like her mother, Sybil was also not going to be held back by societal norms and she matriculated at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin in 1920/21 and qualified as a doctor in 1926. Sybil had four siblings. Her eldest sister, Agnes married Augustus Riversdale John Blennerhasset Warren in 1898. He became the sixth Baron Warrenscourt in April 1914. Agnes was styled Lady Warren. Tragically, she was widowed just five months later when her husband died from pneumonia. Thereafter, Lady Warren spent a lot of time at Bellefield and gave her address as the house in 1916. More tragedy was to strike Bellefield when Sybil’s brother, Sydney Gladstone Ievers (b.1886) died of complications from influenza in 1919 at his home Bellefield aged 33.
The contents of Bellefield were auctioned on July 27, 1921. In the following years, the house was owned by the Foley family and the Herriot family. The beautiful gardens were gradually reduced, and the land was sold. Eventually, the house itself was demolished. The adjoining developments of Belfield Gardens and Belfield Park are reminders of a once magnificent house which counted trailblazers, merchants, army officers, and society beauties among its many residents.
Dr Paul O’Brien, assistant professor in Pedagogy of History, Faculty of Education, Mary Immaculate College