Plaza 'looks great' but doorway is in danger

It may look like it, it may feel like it, but Eyre "plaza" is no longer a square. That was the conclusion of Galway historian and author Peadar O'Dowd this week as the final touches were put to the controversial €9.6 million project.

Pedestrianisation of the "Skeffside", running by the Skeffington Hotel, also means it is no longer a "glorified traffic roundabout", he notes. O'Dowd believes the finished project "looks great", but he has serious concerns about the future of the early 17th-century Browne doorway, which is "degrading very badly". Galway City Council's plans to move the doorway to the new €9.5 million city museum were halted by a planning appeal.

When Pádraic Ó Conaire's statue was decapitated, the writer was moved up to city hall - and is earmarked for the museum. Fine Gael councillor Pádraig Conneely has called for an Ó Conaire replica to be commissioned, as the writer is "synonymous with the square".

"Brave, modern, spacious - and the pedestrian is the winner," was the response of Galway Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Coyle yesterday, while noting a "plethora of new traffic lights" on the perimeter.

"The one fact is that this should have taken 15 months, not 25, to complete," said Mr Coyle.

Derrick Hambleton, chairman of Galway's An Taisce, has welcomed the inclusion of a children's play area but has been a vocal critic of the plan. Like Peadar O'Dowd, Mr Hambleton believes the materials, including imported limestone, won't stand up to many weeks of skateboarding and substance spillage.

The materials are "too light, too bright", Hambleton said. "One wonders what the maintenance bill is going to be, and why we have to have a European plaza in the capital of the west of Ireland?"

Like his colleagues on the Galway Environmental Alliance, Hambleton will always wonder about the plan drawn up at no cost by Chelsea flower show award winner Mary Reynolds. It aimed to highlight Galway's natural link with the Atlantic Ocean, incorporating lawns moulded into flowing waves in a "Celtic-key pattern", drawing on high-quality materials of local extraction and native trees and shrubs.

Eyre Square: story of the project

January 1999: Millennium project to redevelop Eyre Square unveiled by Galway city manager Joe Gavin at quoted price of .5 million.

June 2000: Galway city councillors approve project.

November 2002: An Bord Pleanála rules in favour of project with conditions.

January 2004: Samuel Kingston Construction Ltd awarded .362 million contract.

June 2005: Samuel Kingston Construction quits the project in the early hours of the morning on the 27th.

September 2005: Galway City Council confirms that Siac Construction is to complete the project in six months from October.

April 2006: Construction barriers come down on the square. Planned official opening of the new Eyre "plaza" on May 27th.