A Dublin Smithsonian and our own St Mark's Square

State plans to put the flagship Bank of Ireland building to cultural use have been expanded and now include a pedestrianised plaza on Dublin’s College Green

LET US take back from a bank that has nearly ruined us its flagship premises, a building that was the home of an Irish parliament long before there was an independent Irish state. Let us create, phoenix-like, from this ruinous financial legacy a project that will resonate throughout the world by reminding people of our cultural greatness.

The symbolism of restoring the Bank of Ireland branch on Dublin’s College Green to State ownership is inescapable; as if by wresting control of the historic building from the overlords of economic profligacy we can spring free of our current difficulties.

Just as the late 19th-century advocates of the Celtic revival restored the spirits of a nation by drawing on the literary traditions of an earlier era, the current proposal arouses hopes of an escape from the chains of our economic miasma by revisiting an earlier heritage. The proposal also suggests a unifying way of celebrating the disputed legacy of the 1916 Rising on its forthcoming centenary through the creation of “a compelling punctuation to a century of freedom”.

Few ideas in recent times have grabbed public attention as much as the Government’s proposal to turn the College Green site into a literary landmark.

For some, it offers restitution against a bank that has swallowed billions in taxpayers’ money. Others believe such a historic site should never have fallen into the hands of a grubby bank. Still others are motivated by concerns of architectural glory, or the promotion of tourism, or fear Bank of Ireland, and with it the College Green banks, could soon be taken over by foreign interests.

There’s hardly a politician in Dublin who doesn’t have a view on the issue. Former Green Party minister Eamon Ryan and Fianna Fáil’s Sean Haughey raised it in the past and, in recent months, a queue of deputies seeking to unburden themselves of their ideas for the building has formed at the door of Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan.

Newly elected Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, for example, would like to see the city library moved from its current location in the Ilac centre to College Green. “When you think of Dublin in international terms you think of its literary heritage. It would be a fantastic fit,” he says.

Not unexpectedly, Bank of Ireland was quick to tell the Minister of the importance of the branch to its operations, though it has long since ceased to be the bank’s headquarters.

Far from being put off by the bank’s rebuff, Deenihan appears to have redoubled his efforts to judge from detailed proposals drawn up on his behalf in the last month. These show that what started life as a proposal to create a literary centre on the site has expanded significantly in ambition.

What is proposed now is nothing less than the Dublin Smithsonian, according to the document. For those unfamiliar with the largest museum in the world, the Smithsonian in Washington DC comprises 19 museums and galleries, a zoo and nine research facilities.

In College Green, the proposed cultural centre would house parts of the national art collection, a centre of world literature, a national genealogy centre, an archive of historic papers and a “digital media lab for cultural materials”.

The proposal situates the bank at the hub of Dublin, the place where the main arteries of the city converge. College Green, it says, has the potential to become a “cultural and iconic counterpoint” to the great city squares of the world and “a natural gravitational point on the verge of Europe”. St Mark’s Square in Venice, Times Square in New York, St Peter’s in Rome and several other universally renowned squares are mentioned in the same breath, without any hint of embarrassment.

“Given the importance of the College Green nexus to the city every effort should be made to re-imagine the entire quarter,” the document states, referring to the benefits for property investors, cultural tourism and civic pride.

As the document reminds the bank, College Green was the venue chosen by two of the great orators of our time for their “seminal speeches” in Ireland: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The bank building was the first purpose-built parliament in Europe and served as Ireland’s parliament from 1739 until the Act of Union in 1801.

The design by Edward Lovett Pearce, semi-circular in shape and occupying 0.6 hectares, was revolutionary with extensions added by James Gandon, it says.

“Thus, this building is not only important from a Parliamentary point of view; it also tracks the history and progress of Irish architectural design through the 18th and 19th centuries.” Gaining control of College Green might be the easy bit for the Government. The bank, of which the State owns 36 per cent, is desperately short of funds. It is expected to be majority-owned by the Government within months, after which Ministers will be able to call the shots.

It seems likely that some form of accommodation will be reached to allow the bank to continue operating on at least part of the premises for a time. Deenihan has even suggested the bank might like to provide seed funds for the conversion of the site into an international cultural hub.

The challenge of creating a cultural centre to match the scale of ambition of those behind the project remains considerable.

Valuable cultural artefacts can’t be dumped in the nearest likely building. They need a temperature-controlled environment, high security, expensive insurance policies and attractive marketing strategies. The minister’s advisers insist Government funding cannot be guaranteed and the opportunity to generate revenue to support costs is “paramount”.

Developing the wider space around College Green also poses challenges. The row over the closure of the green to vehicles other than buses showed how much resistance there is to restrictions on traffic in this part of the city.

The idea of turning College Green into a pedestrian plaza is a bridge too far for Ó Ríordáin, who says it is “too important as a transport hub to be turned over to pedestrians in the long term”.

It offers restitution against a bank that has swallowed billions in taxpayers’ money