It’s not just Ireland’s newest build of unfinished estates that requires maintenance, restoration and completion work. The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) have just released a statement, reported in the Irish Times, concerning the fate of some of Ireland’s historic buildings, such as the Hume Street Hospital in Dublin, bought by developed Michael Kelly for €30 million in 2006. They note that such buildings are suffering in two respects. First, that some of them are being left to the mercy of the elements, with nature doing a fair amount of damage to the structures. Second, that some of them are being visited by plunderers and vandals. For example, in the Hume Street case, the roof has been plundered of lead and building of copper piping, and no doubt ornamental fittings and other items. Belcamp College, on the north side of Dublin, was recently ransacked and set on fire.
The RHA strongly criticise NAMA for failing to ensure that developers with properties in their portfolio properly secure and maintain historic buildings. They argue that ‘conduct of omission as in itself an act of vandalism.’ They have accused the organisation of ‘not taking its legal responsibility seriously in regard to appropriate protection of several historic buildings currently under their ownership’ and said its ‘response to our approaches to them . . . has been evasive and ambiguous’. NAMA it said, would not admit to possessing the loan book on certain historic properties and would not any commitment with regards to safeguarding them. In this sense, NAMA is staying true to form, as it’s hardly a paragon of openness and transparency.
NAMA has responded by stating that it does not directly own any of the properties, only the loan books, and a spokesperson for the agency said that ‘it is incorrect to say that Nama has a direct responsibility in this area’, although it ‘has directly taken action with the property owners or with the relevant authorities to try to ensure that the properties are properly secured.’
However, properly secured is not the same as properly preserved and in response, the RHA has said that ‘section 141 of the 2009 Act that established Nama gave it the authority to seek “entry and maintenance” orders in the District Court to secure any building “at risk from trespassers or vandalism”.’ They would clearly like to see NAMA be much more proactive in forcing developers to secure and preserve Ireland’s architectural heritage. The alternative route will be, as with the Hume Street Hospital, seeking planning enforcement notices to try to force both the developer and NAMA to take action. That action has been taken by Dublin City Council and it requires repairs to be carried out by April 29th (this Friday). Having to serve notice on NAMA to ensure saving some of our most historic buildings is not an ideal way to proceed, but it might well be the principle route open to the RHA and others unless a more proactive approach is adopted by the agency and developers.
Rob Kitchin
April 27, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Soon you will see the fires as these historic buildings fall between quango’s. NAMA will ring the council’s who will try to contact the developers who will tell us that NAMA own them. NAMA tells us that it only owns the loans but that they will ring the council…. in the meantime the vandalism and stripping of the buildings will continue unabated! It is not much different to what happened prior to NAMA.
April 27, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Just goes to show what a pathetic, crooked ungovernable country we live in. Nobody cares. Criminal negligence on behalf of the authorities. It makes me sick.
April 29, 2011 at 10:06 am
Good to see a post about this Rob. I was thinking recently about how architectural heritage comes under threat both during economic booms and recessions.
May 1, 2011 at 11:58 pm
thanks Rob for highlighting this. I am part of the campaign and it has been a steep learning curve. Where once developers had to be chased to comply with planning there is now a so called government body which has to be chased to comply with planning. Please visit our website:www.irishartistsalliance.com and join our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/savehumestreetfromdestruction .. all comments and feedback welcome.
May 31, 2011 at 8:36 am
[…] from the recent post on this site about Dublin’s urban heritage, a number of recent news stories may be of interest to […]
March 2, 2012 at 2:32 pm
No 8 Hume Street was the birthplace Sept 20th 1784 of Sir Richard Griffith
of Griffiths Valuation fame. He, among countless embellishments to
Ireland, gave us the National Gallery, National Museum etc etc etc. No 8 was
also residence in 1840 of Nationalist Scholar, Poet and Barrister Denny Lane.
That such an august address should be abandoned to the elements and to
selfserving developemental bastards makes me ashamed to be Irish………….
May 10, 2012 at 9:48 am
The Save Hume Street Campaign is holding a public awareness meeting in Dublin next week (Monday 14th May 6.30pm, Little Museum of Dublin) where it will outline in detail its proposals for the Hume Street Hospital building.
This meeting will take the form of a Public Debate to highlight the potential use of this space as a cultural and public amenity.
Save Hume Street is proposing a combination of State, philanthropic and private investment to acquire and restore it.
\http://humestreet.org/