It’s hard to imagine a better monument to the hubris of the Celtic Tiger era than the sprawling, 588sq m house built by Chris and Rose Murray at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen in Co Meath. The five-bedroom detached home – with its double carport, impressive 9 metre roof height and Juliet balcony – seemed to have been transplanted from Northern California to its site 7km north of Navan. It did not, to adopt the language of the many, many planning inspectors’ reports on the issue, “reflect the vernacular style of the area”.

But it’s not just on the grounds of aesthetics or ambition that the house feels like a relic of the buccaneering spirit of the Ireland of 20 years ago: a time when an enormous kitchen island topped Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and taxi drivers were experts in the vicissitudes of the Bulgarian property market.

In June 2006, the Murrays were refused planning permission to build a 283 sq m dormer bungalow with a garage on the site. So – presumably adopting the “you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb” mindset that characterised Ireland’s banking and building culture at the time – they built something twice as big.

“Twenty years ago we said it is a mistake,” Rose Murray acknowledged this week. “And we’ve been trying to make it right since.”

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