1972 – Dublin Sport Hotel, Kilternan, Co. Dublin

The development began life as Opperman’s Country Club, opened by hotelier brothers Johnny and Willie Opperman in 1972. It’s second owner was Pat Quinn, who lost the fortune he made with Quinnsworth with the hotel. Commonly described as cursed by the media, in total the hotel has gone bust four times, burnt down once, was rebuilt, and had multiple owners who lost small fortunes. By 2008 it was now an empty monument to Celtic Tiger folly – little more than an unused building site. The first artificial ski slope in Ireland opened here in the early 1970s.