THE GPO is viewed by the Irish public as Ireland’s most historically important property or landmark, a new survey has shown.
In the survey conducted by Ecclesiastical, an insurer of heritage buildings, one in five people said the building was the most historically important in Ireland.
Newgrange was named as the second most important site. Making up the rest of the top five were the Hill of Tara, the historical city of Dublin and Brú na Bóinne in Co Meath.
The survey of 200 respondents in 23 counties took place over four weeks in July and August. When asked for their favourite heritage site, the Burren came out on top – chosen by 12 per cent of respondents. It was followed by Newgrange at 11 per cent, the Cliffs of Moher at 8 per cent and with Glendalough and the Hill of Tara completing the top five list.
The Burren, which is one of 10 Irish sites on the Unesco heritage “tentative” list is also the site that most people would prefer to be granted Unesco heritage status.
The research also showed that almost four in every five people were dissatisfied with the level of promotion of heritage sites and a low satisfaction was recorded on the question of children’s exposure to heritage.
Responding to the findings, Ian Doyle, head of conservation at the Heritage Council said: “There are 1,300 events in Heritage Week this year, an increase of 300 on last year and we’re seeing very large attendances at these.
“We’ve made a huge effort this year to involve families and children, through our Wild Child Day in August which was a great success and of the 1,300 events organized for Heritage Week a large proportion are child-friendly.”
The council also said their Heritage in Schools scheme where heritage officers visit schools reached 70,000 students last year. Office of Public Works spokesman Kevin Kennedy said its heritage sites it manages are free to all schools.
