'SENCHAS" IS NOT a word one would expect to find in an economist's lexicon and yet its value is almost inestimable. Translated by Heritage Council chairman Conor Newman as the "patina of age and history" that defines places and gives them historical meaning, it serves as an essential compass at a time when, as he puts it, an "economic Tower of Babel" is collapsing around us, writes LORNA SIGGINS
Stewards of the “senchas” can be found in many guises, but a formal network of such key agents established by the Heritage Council marks its 10th anniversary this year. Programme planning for national heritage week, which opens in Kilkenny Castle today, is just one of many duties assigned to the 28 heritage officers attached to local authorities throughout the State.
Galway city’s Jim Higgins was the guinea pig back in 1999, closely followed by Una Cosgrave, appointed in Kerry, and Siobhán Ryan, appointed to Sligo county. “I imagine there were mutterings that it would ‘never catch on’ when the Heritage Council was negotiating with city and county managers back then,” Higgins says.
Initially, Higgins was assigned responsibility for the old city museum, but if there was any subconscious desire to keep him in a corner in aspic, it was quickly dissolved. As the fastest growing city of its type in Europe, Galway has been a developer’s paradise. And so Higgins found himself fighting a lonely battle at times to try to conserve what was left of the city’s rich archaeological provenance.
ONLY RECENTLY,even as the pace of construction appeared to be faltering, AIB applied for planning permission to redevelop Lynch's Castle, which was recorded on the 1651 pictorial map of Galway and is the only surviving building of its type among mansions owned by the city's 14 "tribes". Its carved facade bears the arms of King Henry VIII, and it has been described as an excellent example of Irish Gothic architecture.
Higgins issued a strong report advising against the proposal, his concern about the impact on one of the city’s most historical quarters, and his advice that there should be a comprehensive archaeological “resolution” of the site before any work is carried out. However, the local authority granted permission early this summer for demolition of later additions to the protected structure, and construction of a “glazed facade” to the rear.
The permission is being appealed by An Taisce’s Galway branch.
Higgins’s role has evolved since 1999, with a specific focus on both built and cultural heritage, and biodiversity. He works with Stephen Walsh of the city’s parks section on biodiversity- and ecology-related projects such as Barna woods and Merlin Park woods – two of the city’s green lungs – while he is also involved with the Placenames Committee, An Coiste Logainmneacha, and Gaillimh Le Gaeilge to nurture the use of Irish in a city which serves the State’s largest official Gaeltacht.
A RECORD OFGalway's protected structures was compiled in 2007, and Higgins has worked on a folklore scheme to transfer taped interviews about life in the city on to disc.
Conservation work and archaeological excavations have been conducted in locations such as Terryland Castle and Merlin Park Castle, and he has plans for an archaeological summer school. He is particularly proud of efforts to restore Mutton Island lighthouse, location of the controversial sewage pumping station which marks the entrance to Galway docks.
However, as Higgins and some of his colleagues elsewhere acknowledge, increasingly complex legal obligations regarding environmental heritage issues have exerted considerable pressure, even before the imposition of cutbacks in spending. There is also limited expertise employed in some local authorities to deliver these new responsibilities, with heritage officers forced to double up to cover the expanding brief.
“The level of scrutiny has been way above what it was before, because Ireland was found lacking in several key environmental areas before the European Court of Justice,” says Dr Gerry Clabby, heritage officer for Fingal County Council in north Dublin.
Dr Clabby has been in the post for eight years – initially with two local authorities, Westmeath and Longford, and from 2003 with Fingal. “Yes, it has been challenging,” he says, given that his remit covers the rapidly expanding suburbs of Swords, Blanchardstown and Balbriggan.
“At the same time, I have a sense now that heritage and environmental issues are being taken far more seriously and are central to our sense of identity.
“I tend to work more on strategic planning, but I would be involved in discussions with developers of larger projects,” Dr Clabby says. “Sometimes that has been, and can be, difficult, but when a developer wants to integrate the environmental and heritage aspects of a location at the outset, it is very rewarding.”
Fortunately, Fingal has the support of an architectural conservation officer and a biodiversity officer, says Dr Clabby. “I was on my own in Westmeath/Longford, and one really does not feel so isolated when one is part of a team. The Heritage Council has been enormously supportive in administering a local heritage grants scheme, and in organising regular contact between post-holders across the State. It has nurtured the network and this has been essential.”
The post requires a degree of diplomacy which could test the most tactful. That’s why education is an essential dimension, according to Donegal County Council’s heritage officer Joseph Gallagher. For the past three years, he has hosted a seminar on vernacular architecture which is always oversubscribed.
“Our first one, on Donegal’s Gola island, was held with the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, and we had 250 applications to attend – so we had to run the seminar twice, along with a field trip to the island,” he recalls.
“The seminar takes the form of a series of short talks by professionals on the importance of built heritage, and why it is so important to conserve it,” he says. “In the afternoon we run demonstrations of traditional skills, such as thatching, application of lime mortar, repair and maintenance of sash windows and dry-stone wall construction.
“These are skills that were once in abundance, but began to die out,” Gallagher says. “The idea of the seminar is to foster these skills, encourage people who own buildings of a heritage value to learn some of the techniques themselves, but also establish a network that ensures that good conservation practice is maintained. We have 400 thatched structures in Donegal, for instance, and techniques of thatching can vary so much. One can recognise the signature of a thatcher on a particular roof,” Gallagher says.
“However, such skills could disappear overnight. And at a time like this, just think of the local employment opportunities. It is a great opportunity for agencies such as Fás to maintain the skills base.”
Dry-stone wall construction can also vary within regions and even localities, Gallagher says. Donegal County Council initiated its first survey last year on dry stone wall types. It has already found that walls were combined with ditches or grass layers in some areas, whereas in areas such as Bloody Foreland they were single-stone structures.
“We ran a two-day training seminar with stonemason Pat McAfee and as a result we have enlisted 70 volunteers from communities to head out and record different types of stone wall construction,” Gallagher says.
The fact that tourism is such an essential part of the economy, and that appreciation and conservation of the built and cultural heritage is central to this, has been acknowledged to a large degree by local authorities, according to Jim Higgins. At the same time, the Heritage Council agrees the State faces “challenging times”.
It says the tenacity of heritage officers over the past decade, their professionalism and adaptability, has demonstrated their worth. In another 10 years, it hopes to be celebrating the first heritage officer to make it to county manager – if not before.
“In times of scarcity, it is even more important to ensure that the decisions we make in relation to our environment are sound,” DrClabby says. “Otherwise, we are only storing up costs for later on.”
For details of National Heritage Week, see heritageweek.ie