Full-day K worth Jessamine taxpayers' dollars

Comment by Shark88: Friday, September 3

Ms. Dragomir, you can donate from your own personal funds to help the schools out. It is a free co...read more...

Fiscal court buys Nicholasville Cafe building

Comment by Shark88: Friday, September 3

So the state is forcing the county to build a justice center? When does that have to be built?...read more...

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Comment by tweldon: Thursday, September 2

For weeks I have grown so accustomed to writing acerbic retorts to Leland Conway’s columns with wh...read more...

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Nicholasville Mayor Russ Meyer walked into the historic house at Connemara, eyes wide at the sight at the renovation of his old home.

Dr. Pearse Lyons and his wife, Deirdre, who now own the home, just completed a million-dollar overhaul of the place, which completely replaced the wiring and the HVAC system and built an Irish pub in the rear of the house.

“It looks fantastic,” Meyer, who lived in the house from 1991 to 2003 with his family, said. “It makes us happy that we were a part of it, and to see the Lyons’ keep it a golf course and especially keep it green space, it always will have a special place in our hearts.”

The Lyons’, who hail from Ireland, own neighboring Alltech and bought the Connemara property, which is named after a region in western Ireland.

“It truly is the luck of the Irish when you find a place directly across from you which is called Connemara,” Lyons said. “So when that place came up for sale, there was no question that we had to buy the place and restore it and maintain it. That’s fundamentally what this is all about — retaining this beautiful piece of green.”

The house was built in sometime between 1833 and 1840 by the family of Joel Bryant, according to the history on the course’s Web site. It was placed on the national register in 1985.

Deirdre Lyons and her team of designers planned and designed all of the details of the renovation, including landscaping around the house and scraping paint down to restore the original look of the wood. The energy-efficient windows are all new, an air conditioning system was installed, the walls were painted and the heating system was replaced.

“We celebrated the house by keeping it as much in line with the original era,” Deirdre Lyons said. “The icing on the cake as far as I’m concerned is when we decided to paint the brick white and add new shutters on the front. It looks like it’s really shining now.”

Upstairs is a meeting room and a private dining room that can be reserved for gatherings. The focal point, though, is an authentic Irish pub that is open to the public and serves Alltech’s Kentucky Ale and Kentucky Bourbon Barrel beers.

“Everybody is welcome to come,” Deirdre Lyons said. “If it becomes too crowded that the golfers cannot take advantage of it, we may change that. But right now, everyone’s welcome to come and enjoy.”

The Lyons’ have also been working on additions to the golf course itself including planting more than 400 trees with another 500 on the way, planting 3,000 daffodils, installing new cart paths and realigning the pond by the golf course sign.

“I’m delighted,” Deirdre Lyons said of the results. “I’m looking forward to when the spring flowers bloom. “The idea behind this was really to keep a nice green space so your eyes are not assaulted by neon lights as you drive up Nicholasville Road. We wanted to protect this nice space and keep it Kentucky-looking.”

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