Dr Pat Wallace State Papers
Echoes of the past from the archives
As a consequence of the Wood Quay affair in 1970s and the social, political and environmental damage it did, the preservation of Ireland’s complicated heritage was on the minds of many in the late 1980s.
There was then an idea promoted by a group which included Dr Patrick Wallace, the director of the National Museum’s Viking digs, that the small urban enclave just behind the church of St Michael and St John, then being made redundant by the Catholic Church, which has now reverted to being the Smock Alley Theatre once again, the identity from which the Church had converted – though no allusion seems to be made in the modernised building to this past.
Their idea was for a ‘living medieval village’, a mixture of apartments and a museum, analogous to the Kirk Museum in the city of York – another city with rich Viking and medieval heritage. The Kirk Museum is an indoor affair. In Dublin the idea was for a form of ‘open air’ museum, in which actors in costume representing the ancient inhabitants would move around in a mock medieval streetscape, under the eyes of inhabited apartment blocks. Thus the life of the past would be made to mingle with the life of today.
The bustle of Temple Bar – controversial though that is today – would have been carried further west towards Cook Street and Thomas Street.
Dr Ryan’s idea would have prevented many of the eyesores that disfigure the city, and also prevent many of the numerous planning rows that prevent the orderly re-use of the cityscape”
It was a novel idea, but eventually, as with so many of Dublin’s ideal schemes over the centuries, it failed – the history of “unbuilt Dublin” is a rich one. The area they planned for has only been party rebuilt today; the junction of Essex gate and Lower Exchange street is still barred by a site with a crude and poster plastered hoarding around it.
In the files dealing with this matter there is also a personal communication to the Taoiseach’s Department outlining Dr Michael Ryan’s ideas as Director of the Nation Museum of the approach in general that need to be taken.
His idea would have prevented many of the eyesores that disfigure the city, and also prevent many of the numerous planning rows that prevent the orderly re-use of the cityscape.
He suggested that any vacant site which had been cleared ought be automatically excavated by archaeologists, even before architects were called in and plans drawn up to secure planning permission. “Pre-vision”, he was suggesting, was going to be far more efficient than partial remedies later.
The Department of Finance is loath to spend money”
He was proposing the setting up of a standing City of Dublin archaeological unit that, under his proposed legislation, could be seen to go into action when it saw such derelict sites.
This, too, was an excellent idea. But it also fell on stony ground among the civil servants, or perhaps the mandarins of the Department of Finance, who really have the last say over everything that the government wants to do. The Department of Finance is instinctively loath to spend money. And it is really at their door the blame should be laid for much what we all too often see in Dublin, and other Irish cities.
NA file 2019 /30 /0598.