Mountjoy Square's fate central to city heritage

Can Mountjoy Square be turned into the jewel of Dublin’s inner northside that it should be?

NOWHERE IS the casual neglect of Dublin’s northside more evident than at Mountjoy Square. With its perfect proportions, it should be one of the jewels of the northside. Instead, the central space is a mess, occupied by (among other things), a parks depot from which the Liffey Boardwalk is serviced.

The depot’s walls are scarred by graffiti, the park railings haven’t been painted for decades and one side of the square is used as a coach park – with official approval. It is impossible to imagine Merrion Square or Fitzwilliam Square being treated in such cavalier fashion. It’s obvious why – they’re on the southside.

But neither of the two southside squares is much inhabited – unlike, say, the squares of Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town. Mountjoy is, however. According to lobby group the Mountjoy Square Society, there are at least 1,000 people living on the square, in original houses or purpose-built flats.

History has not been kind to Mountjoy Square. Like the rest of Dublin’s northside Georgian core, it fell into decline after the Duke of Leinster built a new townhouse in Kildare Street, with its garden front facing what would become Merrion Square. The northside eventually became a set of tenements, suitable for Seán O’Casey’s trilogy.

The Shadow of a Gunman is unsurprisingly set on the square, as O’Casey once lived there. Arthur Guinness died in a house on the square in 1803, according to the Mountjoy Square Society. “Perhaps most notably, Mountjoy Square hosted meetings of the First and Second Dáil in 1919-1921,” it notes proudly.

“Mountjoy Square has an extraordinary history and, when it was built, was considered to be one of the finest residential squares in Europe,” says its secretary, Karin O’Flanagan, a resident since 1978. Dublin City Council needs “to create a space both for visitors and the local community which will breathe new life and pride into the square”.

By the early 1980s, when I first wrote about Mountjoy Square, only 43 of 67 houses built two centuries earlier had survived, despite the valiant efforts of Mariga Guinness, Uinseann MacEoin and others. No 50, the house Mariga bought to preserve, was later pulled down.

Since then, with the aid of urban renewal tax incentives, at least a semblance of the missing houses has been recreated. However, the new Georgian facades are not very convincing, and behind them lie shoebox flats with tall rooms that are evocative of Victorian prison cells, produced by Zoe Developments.

Nonetheless, anyone passing through Mountjoy Square now would at least get the impression that it’s intact. Previously, chunks of the south and west sides lay in ruins. The late Prof FX Martin used to avoid the square when bringing visitors into the city from Dublin airport; he didn’t want them to think it had been bombed. Now, it’s up for designation as an architectural conservation area (ACA). This would be “hugely valuable ”, says Garrett Fennell, the society’s chairman. Dublin City Council, he says, are key stakeholders, “given that they own and (mis)manage the park in the centre of the square. They also control the traffic/parking regime and deal with planning, and in particular enforcement and housing standards issues.

“They are utterly frustrating our efforts to take tangible steps in other areas of improving the square. In a mixture of indifference and inertia, they tolerate the use of the square as a commuter coach park. We were told recently that they have no plans to move the coaches from the square, despite earlier indications that they would be moved.”

It was a joke to think Dublin was being considered as a World Heritage Site for its Georgian core “when the city council allows one of its premier Georgian squares – and its only real residential Georgian square – to be used as a coach park”.

Fennell, a son of late Fine Gael TD Nuala Fennell, says if the council doesn’t start taking its responsibilities for the northside Georgian core seriously, the society will call on Unesco to “disallow the bid” for World Heritage Site designation. “It is a complete joke to think that Dublin is being pushed for [this status] while the city council itself is guilty of wanton neglect of that Georgian heritage.”

The society has said that, unless the council commits itself to improvements, it should cede control of the park to the Office of Public Works, which maintains St Stephen’s Green to a very high standard.

At a meeting with society members last February with 13 council officials, chief planning officer Dick Gleeson said that, despite much investment in the inner city during the boom years, “the north Georgian core had been obdurate in its resistance to a strategic uplift”, according to the minutes.

Heritage officer Charles Duggan saw ACA designation as potentially “an important step in Georgian parts of Dublin achieving World Heritage Site status”, while Charlie Lowe of the Parks Department agreed the location of its depot in the square was “not optimal” – although it would be “difficult to relocate”.

As for removing the coach park, the society was later informed by Tim O’Sullivan, executive manager of the roads and traffic department, that this had been rejected by members of the north inner city area committee in March on the basis that there should be “an examination of options on a citywide basis” for storing private coaches.

The National Transportation Authority had “indicated a willingness to consider funding coach parking facilities”, and there would be a “policy review”. When this was done, “we will be developing specific proposals for new coach parking facilities, which should allow for the removal or reduction of coach parking in the more sensitive areas of Dublin”.

There is some hope. Under Gleeson, an inter-departmental group has been set up to tackle the challenge of “repositioning the north Georgian core . . . in the life of the inner city”. And this is to involve a “strategic top-down and an inventive bottom-up approach”, with an input from residents.

The “down-at-heel” north Georgian core, so much at odds with Dublin’s aspirations to be a “creative, smart knowledge city”, may finally be rescued. But the challenge “is so great that it will require many layers of intervention, requiring the creative collaboration of all stakeholders, city council departments and relevant city institutions”.

Frank McDonald is Environment Editor of the Irish Times

Irish Times

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Gutted cathedral to rise from ashes

A LANDMARK cathedral, ruined by fire on Christmas Day 2009, is to rise from the ashes over the next five years as part of a multi-million euro project.

The Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Colm O'Reilly, yesterday announced that a contract had been signed with a design team of top-level architects to restore St Mel's Cathedral in Longford town.

A packed congregation of 700 worshippers attending Sunday Mass in a temporary chapel in the gym of the nearby St Mel's College applauded as Dr O'Reilly named Dr Richard Hurley, a distinguished church architect, as the lead designer in alliance with Colm Redmond, of FitzGerald, Kavanagh and Partners.

The historic cathedral, which was founded by Bishop William O'Higgins in 1840, was rated as a gem of Irish building, with critics acclaiming its interior to be "one of the most beautifully conceived classical spaces" in the country.

Today is the feast day of St Mel, the diocesan patron saint, and Dr O'Reilly said that each year on the Sunday closest to February 7, he would give updates on the progress of the restoration.

The 76-year-old bishop said that an annual restoration collection would be held on the Sunday closest to St Mel's feast day, as it was "the people's cathedral and it would be restored by the people".

He added: "We believe we are taking an important step towards a new day when we will be able to reverse the disaster of Christmas 2009.

"I am convinced that the two architects can deliver a restored cathedral which will not just be faithful to its original architectural splendour, but also a place of worship which will be inspirational for a new time in the life of the church in Ireland."

Costs

No figure is yet available for the final cost of the project, but Dr O'Reilly, has promised transparency by publishing details annually.

Dr Hurley vowed to recast St Mel's cathedral as "a religious space of powerful resonance, respecting the past, living in the present and pointing towards the future".

"If this can be achieved the cathedral will live again."

Dr Hurley, whose portfolio includes churches in Ireland, Britain, Africa and Australia, recalled how the man who began work on the cathedral, Bishop William O'Higgins, was inspired by classical buildings such as the Madeleine in Paris, the Pantheon in Athens and the Great Basilicas of Rome.

Referring to the many-times-destroyed Chartres Cathedral, Dr Hurley said his team was approaching the restoration "with the same ardour and belief that St Mel's will rise again and live again at the centre of Catholic life in the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise".

Up to €2m has been spent so far on essential maintenance to preserve the cathedral, explained project manager Niall Meagher while showing journalists the extensive damage to the walls, plaster work, columns, statues and marble decorations.

Mr Meagher pointed to the temporary roof put on the cathedral last August, which he said "has prevented the building from further disrepair from inclement weather".

The diocese has agreed with the design team to provide an apprenticeship scheme to train workers in specialist conservation skills, according to Seamus Butler, chairman of St Mel's Cathedral Project Committee

"It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for skilled workers," he added.

While insurance will cover replacing the building, further costs will be incurred by the installation of toilets, a creche, wheelchair facilities, and meeting health and safety standards.

John Cooney Religion Correspondent

Irish Independent

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Village's big conservation bill is a bridge too far for local council

DESPERATE attempts to protect a famous 14th century bridge from the ravages of modern traffic have undermined a village's attempts to expand tourism and industrial investment.

Now, the Government has been urged to sanction a special one-off grant package for a new bridge for the village of Glanworth in north Cork after council members acknowledged that financing such a project would consume most of their entire regional budget.

Glanworth village is famed for its narrow stone bridge. It is ranked as one of the finest medieval stone bridges in Europe -- and has been crossed by kings, chieftains and even Oliver Cromwell, according to local legend.

Despite its size -- it ranks as one of the narrowest stone bridges in Europe -- it remained in full use, even for heavy vehicles, until a decade ago. But when an accident involving a heavy lorry demolished part of the approach to the bridge, tough traffic restrictions were imposed to protect the structure.

These measures have successfully protected the bridge from excessive wear-and-tear -- but locals are now worried that it has also limited the attraction of Glanworth as a tourism and investment location.

Labour TD Sean Sherlock said that the magnificent bridge should underpin a money-spinning tourism industry for the village -- if it could be complemented by a modern bridge for easy access.

Such enhanced access would help make the village -- which also boasts a picturesque mill, castle and abbey -- more attractive for small-and-medium scale investment.

Local councillor Kevin O'Keefe (FF) said: "The simple fact is that the village is being slowly suffocated.

"On the one hand, it has a magnificent medieval bridge but then, on the other, it can't exploit the potential of the bridge because of the traffic problems in the village."

Ralph Riegel
Irish Independent

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