Let them eat cake -- We need our Embassies

The largest residence ever built in Rockcliffe Park, Ottawa in Canada was recently completed for Irish Ambassador Declan Kelly, and
is estimated to have cost Irish  taxpayers $7 million.

It takes seriously posh digs to wow the 2,000
residents of Ottawa's ritzy  diplomatic enclave.

But construction workers have just finished
creating the largest residence in Rockcliffe Park and the neighbourhood is agog
at the sprawling mansion  financed by a country on the economic skids.

When it comes to pampering their ambassador in Canada, nobody beats -- surprise -- the Irish.

 Despite suffering at home,  prudence was not a
consideration in the 15-month gutting of a modest  stone house to recreate an
abode of unbridled luxury for Irish Ambassador  Declan Kelly.

Coming in at more than twice the floor space of
the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's official residence at 24 Sussex Drive, with a re-construction tab  exceeding $7 million, the 24,000-square-foot,
four-storey house is now the  accommodation envy of the diplomatic corps in Ottawa.

 "All that's missing is a throne for
Caesar," one construction  worker said. "I've  never worked on
anything like this before."

 The original house has been wrapped in vast
new wings including a huge  dining and living room with an upstairs featuring a
2,000-square-foot  suite and bathroom for the privacy of the ambassador and his
wife Anne.

Blueprints show what appears to be eight
bedrooms in all and 10 washrooms  plus a pair of powder rooms, a Jacuzzi and a
sauna. Two staff bedrooms and an employee lounge are perched over the two-car
garage toward the back of  the residence.

There's an oversized wine cellar, hobby area,
data room, recreation room, study, library, gymnasium with a green padded
floor, two kitchens including a commercial-sized operation, a chef's office,
art gallery and what appear to be five fireplaces, including a stone-plated monster
in the living room with the capacity to kick out enough heat to warm an average-sized
house.

The interior flooring is mostly ceramic tile or
hardwood and features a 1,500-square-foot dining room with a chandelier the
worker said cost  $30,000 dangling overhead. A less opulent chandelier hangs in
the vaulted  entrance.

A case of the luck of the Irish privileged,
maybe?