Sir, - I must comment on your article concerning Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry (August 19th). From a conservation and heritage standpoint, the project is indeed "wilder than dreams". It was decided to grant planning permission for the "reconstruction and restoration of seven thatched cottages", despite the fact that except for the word "thatched" (in the ease of just one building), none of these terms is actually correct.
It is definitely not acceptable to use the term "restoration" in the context of this project. The reality on the ground confirms what was proposed in the application before Kerry County Council - the total demolition (including foundations) of the buildings in question and their replacement by cavity block structures with stone facings.
Only one of the replacement buildings is to have even the same dimensions as the original. There are few details which are faithful to the original village - even the thatching is alien. in addition, the present village is most unlikely to be "pre Famine", as it is not marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1842.
There have been other precedents for dealing badly with our traditional heritage, most recently at Ballyknockan, Co. Wicklow, where planning permission was given for the demolition of a listed cutstone house without any referral to the statutory agencies. At Lusk, Co. Dublin, permission was given for the demolition of one of the village's best preserved traditional houses, despite at least a dozen clauses in the development plan, any one of which should have ensured its survival. The link between the Kerry, Wicklow and Dublin cases is the absence of due consideration of the heritage implications when planning proposals are processed. - Yours, etc.,
Archaeologist and vernacular architecture historian,
Penrose Street,
Ringsend, Dublin 4.