Orthopaedic surgeon from Balrath who followed in his father’s footsteps

NOELLE FINEGAN

Dr Anthony McGrath grew up in Somerville House, a substantial Georgian property at Balrath, near Kentstown, about 8km from Navan. The property was purchased by his late father, Joseph McGrath - also an orthopaedic surgeon - in the early nineties and refurbished over several years. His father had a great interest and knowledge of antiques and this was something he passed on to Anthony.

Joseph McGrath, who died in 2004, was an orthopaedic surgeon in Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, while his mother Jennifer, was a physiotherapist working in Beaumont Hospital for many years before transferring to Our Lady's in Navan. She died in 2010 at the age of just 62 after an illness.

The couple had five children. Tragically their only daughter Orla died in a road traffic collision in 1998 not far from her home after the car she was driving was in a collision with a lorry.

Two of the McGrath sons followed the family tradition of medicine, Sean, who is in general practice in Navan, and Anthony, an orthopaedic surgeon in London, while Conor and Andreas both went into finance. Conor now lives in the family home at Somerville. Anthony's uncle Paul McGrath, is a former FG TD for Westmeath.

The period property near Kentstown found itself front and centre of the police investigation into the alleged burglary at the rented home of Dr Anthony McGrath on the Luton Hoo estate in Bedfordshire in April 2015 where valuable antiques included a Rococo marble fireplace were stolen.

Police has suspected that all was not as it seemed the burglary and began investigating Mr McGrath and uncovered that he was in debt at the time as he undertook a major refurbishment project on a home he bought in St Alban’s.

Mr McGrath alleged that a Rococo marble fireplace worth £30,000 that was disassembled and stored in pieces in the cellar of his home was among the many items stolen in the burglary. The total insurance claim amounted to £180,000.

UK police traced a photograph submitted of a Rococco fireplace to being taken after the alleged burglary and in situ at Somerville House. Police obtained an international search warrant and swooped on Somerville House early one morning while a simultaneous search was carried out at the McGrath's home in Bedfordshire. This was all filmed as part of a Channel 4 episode of '24 Hours in Police Custody' which first aired in 2019.

It was the police's case that the fireplace allegedly stolen from McGrath's UK home was the same one in Somerville. However, Mr McGrath says he and his father had purchased two fireplaces in 2001 and 2003 which were similar but not the same and because he didn't have a photo of the fireplace assembled, claims he submitted a similar photo. Police and ultimately the jury rejected this claim.

He also had argued that his insurance policy excluded many of the valuable items and that he did not stand to make financial gain.

Mr McGrath while accepting the conviction, continues to maintain there were factual inaccuracies in the case and that is why he began appeal proceedings in 2021 which were heard in 2025 and were unsuccessful.