You ‘crack’ the whiskey with a droplet of water from a straw, swirl it in the glass and watch the ripples trickle down the walls inside. You smell the aroma of peat used for heating during the pot still distillation three years previously before it was placed in its oak cask where it waited until now. You drink and take the taste, it’s a smokey type of sensation and feels traditional for no other reason than you know people have been doing this for hundreds of years.
This used to happen in Ireland. It used to happen in Scotland. The difference between the two nations is that it still happens a lot in Scotland. Ireland lost its way in the age old craft of whiskey/whisky production – and a note here, there is more of a difference between the two than the subtlety of the spelling. There is an argument over where the famous Uisce Beatha was first produced, Ireland or Scotland, however there is no argument now over who is the contemporary industry leader.
Ireland’s range whiskey production has been reduced from its heyday at the start of the 20th century when there were up to 80 distilleries on the island to a point today where there are just four. Despite rumours of potential distilleries cropping up Belfast and Porterhouse’s work in Dingle, the charge is still being led and dominated by commercial giants Bushmills and Jameson. Two brands which tend to focus more on industrial output and large profits rather than the art of the traditional craft. The Cooley and Kilbeggan distilleries are more inclined to the way things were however, and Bushmills do still produce a single malt so the tradition has not been lost entirely. The situation in Scotland however is much different.
Scotland has more whisky regions than Ireland does actual distilleries. An undercurrent in the Scottish tourist industry has risen in reaction to the interest in its wide range of product, not too dissimilar from the manner in which the French wine industry is revered. Scotland has five single malt whisky regions; the less popular Lowlands; the sweeter Speyside; the rather varied Highlands, the heavily productive Speyside; the dry, peaty Islay and the full bodied Campbelltown. This large network was being built at the same time as Ireland was establishing itself as the best whiskey producer in the world, and whereas they Scots subsequently strengthened, Ireland unfortunately lost its way.
If you enjoy whiskey and you are in Edinburgh, go up to the castle for a look but don’t pay in, rather return to just before the end of the terrace of the Royal Mile. There’s an old school house there that has been turned into the largest whisky collection in the world. The Scotch Whisky Experience is an introduction to whisky for those unfamiliar with it, but it also serves those who want to learn more. There are plenty of other options around Edinburgh or Glasgow to sample without paying for a tour though
.
Carla, our tour guide, from Barcelona has worked at the Scotch Whisky Experience for three years and has become something of an expert in her four years in Scotland. Diplomatically, she didn’t claim Scotch was better or invented before whiskey, but did appreciate that the traditional craft has been somewhat lost in Ireland and regularly mentioned our historical dominance.
The question you ask is what ever happened to whiskey? How did we go from supposedly being the best in the world at the craft, to a situation where it’s difficult to judge in a monopolised market? In the early 20th century, there were up to 80 legal distilleries in Ireland (excluding the unquantifiable poitín stills) at its height.
John Cashman from the Cooley Distillery in Louth explained how a number of events transpired to effectively destroy the craft distillers’ network in Ireland with independence from Britain forming the critical contextual event to what happened. Broadly speaking there were three reasons for the decline, chief among them was the temperance movement in the country. Here, there developed an inherent fear propagated by the Catholic Church that if you drank you would go to Hell – thus many chose not to. This would’ve been part of the problem, though the prevalence of Good Friday barbeques across the country in contemporary Ireland will lend a clue to historical every-single-day levels of temperance.
The second problem was modern technology. The column still technique of distillation was invented which enabled continuous production of the liquid and allowed for a larger-scale more productive output, although the quality was reduced. Irish distillers, preferring the traditional pot still procedure, refused to accept the change. Their counterparts in Scotland were more inventive however; they embraced the new technique and began blending this with single malts to produce a higher quality, more palatable drink. The result was a rise in popularity for Scotch distilleries, and as the Irish declined the Scots seized advantage and began buying up their Irish competitors.
The final contributor in the erosion of the once proud industry was down to the closing off of our two primary markets. One we slammed the door shut ourselves while the other was entirely out of our own hands. The resulting economic war between Ireland and Britain once the Free State was established saw the government of the time close ties with our closest neighbour, thus eliminating our largest export market for everything – including whiskey. In America where Irish whiskey held a 60% share of the market, prohibition was introduced. The culmination of these two events saw the a rapid decline in distilleries across the country from the peak of 80 in the early 20th century, down to six after World War II, to just four now with the most recent (Cashman’s employers and the first Irish-owned for some time) opening in Cooley in 1987.
The Cooley distillery hardly holds any of the old romance associated with the type of building one would presume – the Jameson visitor centre in Smithfield, Dublin springs to mind though no whiskey is actually produced there. The industrial shed in Louth was a formerly an ethanol plant, and was transformed in less than thirty years into a successful and respected distillery and cites its raison d’être as reviving old Irish brands and rediscovering the former tastes associated with Irish triple-distilled whiskey that some connoisseurs had come to describe as bland.
John Cashman is the Cooley Ambassador, and he explained how they produce the liquid in Cooley and the whiskey is then matured in oaked casks depending on their brand. The inevitable monopoly that arose when distilleries were reduced to just four saw triple-distilled as the product chosen for production, however Cooley have a much wider variety seeking in to reset connoisseurs preconceptions, describing the Irish whiskey they distil as being “full of character and flavour.”
You would hope that the best efforts of craft breweries and distilleries don’t get undone yet again and driven out of the market by aggressive monopolies. As swift as one may be to blame the callous Scotch distilleries for pouncing on Ireland’s misfortune, proud ‘Irish’ brands Guinness and Bulmers have historically been guilty of similar tactics with their competitors on the island. The hope among industry artisans is to bring variety to the market, and perhaps in the future re-establish Ireland’s former reputation for drink – that of the craft and not that of Copper Face Jacks on a Saturday night. The expectation would be that they wouldn’t get blinded by the lights of large scale, highly profitable monopolies again, although history has an unfortunate way of repeating itself in this country.
John Cashman explains how today it is difficult for distillers to get started as they will have to wait three years before seeing a return on their product and the setting up whiskey production is expensive. This in contrast to the craft brewing industry which has ‘exploded in Ireland of late,’ with the likes of Galway Hooker, Dungarvan Ale and the Hilden Brewers in Belfast seeing a resurgence in recent times. At the moment, the Porterhouse Brewing Company making a whiskey in Dingle and are to fund the interim three years by selling vodka and gin, however little has come of that as yet. Similarly in Belfast, there were rumours of a new distillery, unfortunately to date, rumours is all they appear to be. Even the whiskey being produced in the Kilbeggan in Westmeath as part of Cooley’s work isn’t going to be available for consumption until 2014.
According to Cashman, “Ireland’s whiskey is currently riding on the crest of a wave; it’s the fastest growing brown spirit in the world at the moment.” Although he placed a caveat on that, remarking that it is the Irish Distillers group impressive marketing campaigns fronted by Jameson that are the reason for the successes. Cooley are making inroads however, the near lost craft is being kept alive. The hope is to learn from the past, revive it where appropriate and be innovative where possible –the hope remains that this isn’t another element of Ireland’s unfortunate cyclical histories, because if it is the only other option is to just hop across to Scotland.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sustainable Home
Story telling by a warm, turf burning, open hearth sets the scene of the tradition of old Ireland. Traditions change however, and as wholesome and as cherished a national delight as open turf fires are, they will have to go sooner rather than later. It’s not just the heart of the home changing though, Foxford Woollen Mill blankets and hot water bottles are hardly a standard of living to treasure in a bedroom of a severe winter. With whoever forms the next government, Green Party or no Green Party, looking to build the increasingly fashionable ‘green economy,’ sustainable and ecological considered design will be the means to achieve that.
The Fianna Fail led Government, with significant influence from their junior partners, had begun a process of making grants available to homeowners with a view to retrofitting houses to reduce domestic energy consumption. Creating jobs through new technologies seems a common trend of all elections these days, it was among Barack Obama’s promises in 2008 and our own political parties have followed suit in the current campaign (the less said about Enda Kenny’s attempt to reproduce Obama’s iconic ‘Hope’ image the better however). Taking Fine Gael and Labour’s promises at face value, it’s safe to assume that the new government will move forward with a similar strategy of retrofitting homes to lower their energy consumption rates. It is a dependable means to stem the decimation of construction sector employment, and inevitably create jobs for there are almost none left in that industry. The only hope is that their rhetoric extends to other sectors and creates a meaningful increase in employment, though that’s another debate entirely.
Since the downturn struck in 2008, much has been speculated on Ireland’s means to re-establish itself as a stable economy with the ‘green revolution’ and Ireland’s abundance of renewable energy leading the way in talk, if less so in action. With no oil and minimal reserves of gas (that we gave away anyway) Ireland missed out on the Industrial Revolution and all the prosperity that came with it. However, with the ‘green revolution’ still somewhat in its infancy, Ireland’s abundance of natural resources of wind and tidal energy positions us well to take advantage (assuming no strange paradox emerges wherein we again doom ourselves to unsustainable practice in the pursuit of these sustainable energies).
Few opportunities to engage in sustainable building approaches were taken during the building boom, with most realised ecologically considered designs limited to a small number of specialist practices. There were moments however; Frank Cooney was the project architect for the Green Building in Temple Bar as far back as 1991 at a time when interest in theories to do with global warming and climate change were largely the reserve of kids watching Captain Planet and smelly students called Swampy living in forests where roads were due to cut through.
The Green Party’s influence in government means newly built homes will now have to meet very high standards of sustainability and energy efficiency, and new regulations due out in 2011 will set high targets for energy efficient new buildings. The unfortunate reality of the boom however, is that there are already too many new houses, thus the challenge for the incoming government will be to continue the process of retrofitting Irish homes by maintaining the grant scheme for improving energy efficiency in households.
Frank Cooney is a member of the (Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland) RIAI‘s Sustainability Task Force and has recently completed such retrofitting with the radical transformation of a derelict 19th century farmhouse outside of Kingscourt in County Cavan to the industry’s ‘Passivhaus’ standard. He describes the process by which one could go about retrofitting of an existing dwelling, starting with the cheapest, simple measures through to the more expensive and more severe undertakings.
“The passive techniques will be the cheapest, whereby the envelope of a building is optimised so as not to waste energy. The primary and easiest way to go about making your home more energy efficient for less money is, simply put, to wrap it up warm,” he said. Many Irish houses are poorly insulated, particularly those in city and town centres which, because of their age, will have none at all. The obvious approach here is to dry line the house by fixing insulation to the inside wall, “ the best solution however is to actually fit the insulation externally so that the wall serves as a thermal mass, storing heat for the slow release of heat inside.”
Orientation and cold bridging are critical considerations with new builds, though difficult to fix once a building is complete. Replacing windows is an option however, moving from double to triple glazing, and for those in homes of an historical quality, modern sash windows can be built to better energy efficient standards, so compromises do not have to be made.
The last, and among the easier to achieve, of the passive techniques he mentions is to improve air-tightness. It probably seems obvious; if there’s a draft it will be cold. Taking the principle to a more advanced level by sealing all joints with “specifically designed membranes and adhesive tape will dramatically reduce air-leakage and in so doing further reduce air leakage and the associated heat loss.”
The passive techniques will deal with conserving energy, the focus for a home then will concern how that energy is produced. Heat recovery ventilation can be used to promote air circulation in a now air-tight house, solar panels could be used to heat the water (yes, even in Ireland) and wood chip burners could be used to heat the whole house. The latter will likely be the focal point around which the change comes to Irish homes, no longer the traditional open hearth for chimneys, in the conventional sense, are the chief offenders when it comes to wasting energy in homes. Among the more expensive (but efficient) options in retrofitting, is to remove the fireplace and chimney altogether, and to replace it with a much more efficient balanced flue.
These alterations will improve your home and see it achieve an improved energy rating; however, the policy, despite worthy intention, somewhat misses the point. Newly built homes in Ireland are put through a computer program called DEAP, from which its BER (Building Energy Rating) is arrived at. Frank Cooney’s house in Cavan has an A2 rating, whereas a Victorian stone-built terraced house in Dublin with no insulation is likely to achieve a lowly F or G rating. The curious thing about the DEAP assessment is that it does not take into account the embodied energy of materials, how occupants get are transported to their house or water conservation.
Under the current policy, it doesn’t matter if timber used in construction comes from unsustainable rainforests in Indonesia or an occupant has to drive ten-miles to get to and from their home every day. A Victorian house in south-county Dublin will have less embodied energy due to its proximity to Dart or Luas lines than a rural farmhouse in Cavan which requires cars for transport for example, but this is not considered in DEAP calculations either. These are quite bizarre shortcomings in what is an otherwise worthwhile policy.
The complete lack of intent in regard to water harvesting is most conspicuously odd in its absence considering our abundance of it and the impending introduction of water rates. It is our single most plentiful resource; it seems absolute folly not to take advantage of it.
Whether Ireland could ever be the world leader it aspires to be remains to be seen, but the inevitable inescapable changes are coming. On the Aran Islands a series of electric cars are currently being piloted with a vision towards making the islands completely carbon free – that will mean laying aside the open fire tradition too because burning turf in a conventional hearth is simply not sustainable and domestic turf cutting is legally due to cease in 2012 anyway.
What industry professionals term ‘cold bridging’ is the critical element to avoid in contemporary building design. This is the potential location in the building envelope where insulation does not enclose it, and allows warmth to escape through the building fabric. Chimneys are the chief offender in this regard, and that is why a cherished custom will now have to at least change. The open fire doesn’t necessarily have to go, but chimneys in the familiar sense are falling out of favour. Now, Irish families will sit around a wood burning stove with a balanced flue in highly efficient, potentially carbon-free homes – it seems a much more polished, cleaner vision than the cosy tradition that will not be lost, but rather re-imagined for another generation.
The Fianna Fail led Government, with significant influence from their junior partners, had begun a process of making grants available to homeowners with a view to retrofitting houses to reduce domestic energy consumption. Creating jobs through new technologies seems a common trend of all elections these days, it was among Barack Obama’s promises in 2008 and our own political parties have followed suit in the current campaign (the less said about Enda Kenny’s attempt to reproduce Obama’s iconic ‘Hope’ image the better however). Taking Fine Gael and Labour’s promises at face value, it’s safe to assume that the new government will move forward with a similar strategy of retrofitting homes to lower their energy consumption rates. It is a dependable means to stem the decimation of construction sector employment, and inevitably create jobs for there are almost none left in that industry. The only hope is that their rhetoric extends to other sectors and creates a meaningful increase in employment, though that’s another debate entirely.
Since the downturn struck in 2008, much has been speculated on Ireland’s means to re-establish itself as a stable economy with the ‘green revolution’ and Ireland’s abundance of renewable energy leading the way in talk, if less so in action. With no oil and minimal reserves of gas (that we gave away anyway) Ireland missed out on the Industrial Revolution and all the prosperity that came with it. However, with the ‘green revolution’ still somewhat in its infancy, Ireland’s abundance of natural resources of wind and tidal energy positions us well to take advantage (assuming no strange paradox emerges wherein we again doom ourselves to unsustainable practice in the pursuit of these sustainable energies).
Few opportunities to engage in sustainable building approaches were taken during the building boom, with most realised ecologically considered designs limited to a small number of specialist practices. There were moments however; Frank Cooney was the project architect for the Green Building in Temple Bar as far back as 1991 at a time when interest in theories to do with global warming and climate change were largely the reserve of kids watching Captain Planet and smelly students called Swampy living in forests where roads were due to cut through.
The Green Party’s influence in government means newly built homes will now have to meet very high standards of sustainability and energy efficiency, and new regulations due out in 2011 will set high targets for energy efficient new buildings. The unfortunate reality of the boom however, is that there are already too many new houses, thus the challenge for the incoming government will be to continue the process of retrofitting Irish homes by maintaining the grant scheme for improving energy efficiency in households.
Frank Cooney is a member of the (Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland) RIAI‘s Sustainability Task Force and has recently completed such retrofitting with the radical transformation of a derelict 19th century farmhouse outside of Kingscourt in County Cavan to the industry’s ‘Passivhaus’ standard. He describes the process by which one could go about retrofitting of an existing dwelling, starting with the cheapest, simple measures through to the more expensive and more severe undertakings.
“The passive techniques will be the cheapest, whereby the envelope of a building is optimised so as not to waste energy. The primary and easiest way to go about making your home more energy efficient for less money is, simply put, to wrap it up warm,” he said. Many Irish houses are poorly insulated, particularly those in city and town centres which, because of their age, will have none at all. The obvious approach here is to dry line the house by fixing insulation to the inside wall, “ the best solution however is to actually fit the insulation externally so that the wall serves as a thermal mass, storing heat for the slow release of heat inside.”
Orientation and cold bridging are critical considerations with new builds, though difficult to fix once a building is complete. Replacing windows is an option however, moving from double to triple glazing, and for those in homes of an historical quality, modern sash windows can be built to better energy efficient standards, so compromises do not have to be made.
The last, and among the easier to achieve, of the passive techniques he mentions is to improve air-tightness. It probably seems obvious; if there’s a draft it will be cold. Taking the principle to a more advanced level by sealing all joints with “specifically designed membranes and adhesive tape will dramatically reduce air-leakage and in so doing further reduce air leakage and the associated heat loss.”
The passive techniques will deal with conserving energy, the focus for a home then will concern how that energy is produced. Heat recovery ventilation can be used to promote air circulation in a now air-tight house, solar panels could be used to heat the water (yes, even in Ireland) and wood chip burners could be used to heat the whole house. The latter will likely be the focal point around which the change comes to Irish homes, no longer the traditional open hearth for chimneys, in the conventional sense, are the chief offenders when it comes to wasting energy in homes. Among the more expensive (but efficient) options in retrofitting, is to remove the fireplace and chimney altogether, and to replace it with a much more efficient balanced flue.
These alterations will improve your home and see it achieve an improved energy rating; however, the policy, despite worthy intention, somewhat misses the point. Newly built homes in Ireland are put through a computer program called DEAP, from which its BER (Building Energy Rating) is arrived at. Frank Cooney’s house in Cavan has an A2 rating, whereas a Victorian stone-built terraced house in Dublin with no insulation is likely to achieve a lowly F or G rating. The curious thing about the DEAP assessment is that it does not take into account the embodied energy of materials, how occupants get are transported to their house or water conservation.
Under the current policy, it doesn’t matter if timber used in construction comes from unsustainable rainforests in Indonesia or an occupant has to drive ten-miles to get to and from their home every day. A Victorian house in south-county Dublin will have less embodied energy due to its proximity to Dart or Luas lines than a rural farmhouse in Cavan which requires cars for transport for example, but this is not considered in DEAP calculations either. These are quite bizarre shortcomings in what is an otherwise worthwhile policy.
The complete lack of intent in regard to water harvesting is most conspicuously odd in its absence considering our abundance of it and the impending introduction of water rates. It is our single most plentiful resource; it seems absolute folly not to take advantage of it.
Whether Ireland could ever be the world leader it aspires to be remains to be seen, but the inevitable inescapable changes are coming. On the Aran Islands a series of electric cars are currently being piloted with a vision towards making the islands completely carbon free – that will mean laying aside the open fire tradition too because burning turf in a conventional hearth is simply not sustainable and domestic turf cutting is legally due to cease in 2012 anyway.
What industry professionals term ‘cold bridging’ is the critical element to avoid in contemporary building design. This is the potential location in the building envelope where insulation does not enclose it, and allows warmth to escape through the building fabric. Chimneys are the chief offender in this regard, and that is why a cherished custom will now have to at least change. The open fire doesn’t necessarily have to go, but chimneys in the familiar sense are falling out of favour. Now, Irish families will sit around a wood burning stove with a balanced flue in highly efficient, potentially carbon-free homes – it seems a much more polished, cleaner vision than the cosy tradition that will not be lost, but rather re-imagined for another generation.
Sign of the Time
On Westmoreland Street in Dublin over the course of a day hundreds of people will pass by, the vast bulk of which paying attention to their own lives and little else of the world around them. Some however will be looking around wondering how to either improve their environment or at least maintain it. In this case the built urban environment and how to go about preserving the character of their historic city because if they don’t do it no one will.
Westmoreland Street and its surrounding area just south of O’Connell Bridge in Dublin has come to the attention of the National Heritage Trust, an Taisce, earlier this week for the dearth of “cheap garish signage” and “lower-order shops” that it now comprises. Their concern is that Dublin’s civic and architectural historic core has become a swamped by tasteless and ill considered clutter as a result of the City Council’s failure to bring enforcement to breaches of planning laws.
As such, they have lodged a complaint with the city authorities in which they lay the blame for the decline and “reckless neglect” of the capital’s urban heritage firmly with the Council and expect them to bring enforcement to those in breach of planning permission. Unauthorised shop-fronts and signage, particularly of the temporary, plastic variety, are the foundation on which their complaints are made, with some business having been permitted to operate for without planning permission for several years. “Low-order shops” compete with each other for attention and complete a street frontage made up of otherwise dead frontage. They say this is a city-wide problem, which’s true, but it tends to be somewhat more acceptable in some parts than it is in others.
An Taisce have been in existence for over 60years as the National Trust for Ireland. In their role as impartial monitor, it is their quest to uphold (and not create as their President, Eanna ni Lamhna, was quick to point out) planning policy in the country. In that time they have consistently sought to realise their role in society, much to the antipathy of many with particular vested interests prior to 2008. Almost as often as An Taisce are found to be complaining over a planning issue, individuals are found to be complaining about An Taisce with the Healy Rae family in Kerry among their more pronounced detractors; “Why must An Taisce stick their noses?”
In medieval times, bloodstained bandages were wrapped around a pole and placed outside barber shops. Back then barbers were the contemporary surgeons and even dentists – the bloodstained pole outside indicated the function of that which went on inside. There’s no chance An Taisce would ever approve of such practice today on a hygiene basis alone, but in the timeless tradition of form following function there was a reasonably sound argument for it. Could it, perhaps, be argued that the ‘cheap garish’ nature of the signage goes some way to describing the function of what goes on in the fast-food outlets of Westmoreland Street? And at least their ‘low-order’ shops bring an activity to the street in contrast to their dead-fronted neighbours such as at Bewleys which closed in 2004 and wasn’t replaced by another tenant.
It comes down to taste of course. There was also reported in the Irish Times last week that a drive-thru McDonalds had been refused planning permission in Sandymount, Dublin 4. The McDonalds restaurant was originally objected to on health of local children in nearby primary schools who promote healthy eating policies, with the initial refusal ultimately on the basis that the proposal would run contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area. Suspicious minds may also be quick to wonder whether garishness so often associated with the golden arches would just be too out of character with the leafy suburb. An Taisce seemed to steer clear of this of this particular planning matter, where in many other similar circumstance they would be quick to send a letter of protest.
In that same report they issued concern over Parlament Street as well. They (along with many others) have in the past raised concern over O’Connell Street. In this instance though, the focus was just south of the Liffey where they say the law is being broken. Supermac’s had been refused permission for certain signage and alterations made to the shopfront in October 2009 and Charlie’s 3 Chinese takeaway, had been refused permission for its shopfront and to operate as a fast-food restaurant in 2005, but strangely has remained open.
According to Supermac’s Managing director, Pat McDonagh, the signs referred to by An Taisce were temporary and Supermac’s was in the process of applying to the council for permanent projecting signs needed to attract customers. “An Taisce musn’t know there’s a recession – without these signs, which are less garish and more delicate than the flat signs, people could walk by and not even know we’re there,” he said.
There are many who question the necessity of an Taisce – largely those keen to build one-off homes in rural areas with spectacular opportunities to frame views with a bay window. Generally speaking, an Taisce are only ever heard of when they are objecting or complaining over some environmental matter. Chief among moans over An Taisce are found is that it really could be anybody (for a membership of €45) in any part of the country making the complaint and that that person may never have even been to where they are complaining about.
If An Taisce don’t monitor Ireland’s heritage however, who will? For the morally conscious and proud Irish, their existence has a sound rationale. The objections come as investors ask what merits their attention and what doesn’t.
Town Hall Square in Copenhagen is another capital with a rich heritage in its civic core – yet here, the historic architecture is adorned with neon advertising screens and bright (perhaps garish) lights. Piccadilly Square in London is similar albeit on a much larger scale to Supermacs and Charlie’s 3, yet their gaudy signs have become iconic. They are contained locations in the city centres. Edinburgh retains its historical town centre largely void of plastic temporary signage, but that seems as much a tourism strategy as a heritage one.
At home however, there is another relevant case study – on High Street in Kilkenny City, it’s primary thoroughfare, no plastic or temporary signage is permitted. The same policy is place for O’Connell Street in the capital, but in Kilkenny it seems to work, so much so that even the gaudy Euro 2 and Westmoreland Street offender Supermacs sit comfortably on the streetscape alongside more tasteful shop fronts.
For their part, Dublin City Council have said that the submission received from An Taisce “will be investigated and where appropriate enforcement will be taken,” and that they received just shy of 1,000 complaints last year, and investigated all of them. They didn’t specify how many of those complaints came from An Taisce.
Over the course of twenty-four hours on the historical core of south Dublin City, on Westmoreland Street there will pass by hundreds of people. There will be some, perhaps plain clothes an Taisce members looking up lamenting the indifference of fast food outlets to the importance of old buildings. There will be the rush hours when no one even notices the old buildings or savagery of their contemporary decoration. There will be the fast food outlet owners wondering how to better bring attention to their already ‘garish’ signage so that people will still know where to go for a ‘Snack box’ or a 3-in-1 in this recession, and then, at around about half-two in the morning, there will be glary eyed individuals stumbling from out from Fleet Street and Temple Bar and they’ll need the ‘garish’ signage so that they know where to go next.
Westmoreland Street and its surrounding area just south of O’Connell Bridge in Dublin has come to the attention of the National Heritage Trust, an Taisce, earlier this week for the dearth of “cheap garish signage” and “lower-order shops” that it now comprises. Their concern is that Dublin’s civic and architectural historic core has become a swamped by tasteless and ill considered clutter as a result of the City Council’s failure to bring enforcement to breaches of planning laws.
As such, they have lodged a complaint with the city authorities in which they lay the blame for the decline and “reckless neglect” of the capital’s urban heritage firmly with the Council and expect them to bring enforcement to those in breach of planning permission. Unauthorised shop-fronts and signage, particularly of the temporary, plastic variety, are the foundation on which their complaints are made, with some business having been permitted to operate for without planning permission for several years. “Low-order shops” compete with each other for attention and complete a street frontage made up of otherwise dead frontage. They say this is a city-wide problem, which’s true, but it tends to be somewhat more acceptable in some parts than it is in others.
An Taisce have been in existence for over 60years as the National Trust for Ireland. In their role as impartial monitor, it is their quest to uphold (and not create as their President, Eanna ni Lamhna, was quick to point out) planning policy in the country. In that time they have consistently sought to realise their role in society, much to the antipathy of many with particular vested interests prior to 2008. Almost as often as An Taisce are found to be complaining over a planning issue, individuals are found to be complaining about An Taisce with the Healy Rae family in Kerry among their more pronounced detractors; “Why must An Taisce stick their noses?”
In medieval times, bloodstained bandages were wrapped around a pole and placed outside barber shops. Back then barbers were the contemporary surgeons and even dentists – the bloodstained pole outside indicated the function of that which went on inside. There’s no chance An Taisce would ever approve of such practice today on a hygiene basis alone, but in the timeless tradition of form following function there was a reasonably sound argument for it. Could it, perhaps, be argued that the ‘cheap garish’ nature of the signage goes some way to describing the function of what goes on in the fast-food outlets of Westmoreland Street? And at least their ‘low-order’ shops bring an activity to the street in contrast to their dead-fronted neighbours such as at Bewleys which closed in 2004 and wasn’t replaced by another tenant.
It comes down to taste of course. There was also reported in the Irish Times last week that a drive-thru McDonalds had been refused planning permission in Sandymount, Dublin 4. The McDonalds restaurant was originally objected to on health of local children in nearby primary schools who promote healthy eating policies, with the initial refusal ultimately on the basis that the proposal would run contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area. Suspicious minds may also be quick to wonder whether garishness so often associated with the golden arches would just be too out of character with the leafy suburb. An Taisce seemed to steer clear of this of this particular planning matter, where in many other similar circumstance they would be quick to send a letter of protest.
In that same report they issued concern over Parlament Street as well. They (along with many others) have in the past raised concern over O’Connell Street. In this instance though, the focus was just south of the Liffey where they say the law is being broken. Supermac’s had been refused permission for certain signage and alterations made to the shopfront in October 2009 and Charlie’s 3 Chinese takeaway, had been refused permission for its shopfront and to operate as a fast-food restaurant in 2005, but strangely has remained open.
According to Supermac’s Managing director, Pat McDonagh, the signs referred to by An Taisce were temporary and Supermac’s was in the process of applying to the council for permanent projecting signs needed to attract customers. “An Taisce musn’t know there’s a recession – without these signs, which are less garish and more delicate than the flat signs, people could walk by and not even know we’re there,” he said.
There are many who question the necessity of an Taisce – largely those keen to build one-off homes in rural areas with spectacular opportunities to frame views with a bay window. Generally speaking, an Taisce are only ever heard of when they are objecting or complaining over some environmental matter. Chief among moans over An Taisce are found is that it really could be anybody (for a membership of €45) in any part of the country making the complaint and that that person may never have even been to where they are complaining about.
If An Taisce don’t monitor Ireland’s heritage however, who will? For the morally conscious and proud Irish, their existence has a sound rationale. The objections come as investors ask what merits their attention and what doesn’t.
Town Hall Square in Copenhagen is another capital with a rich heritage in its civic core – yet here, the historic architecture is adorned with neon advertising screens and bright (perhaps garish) lights. Piccadilly Square in London is similar albeit on a much larger scale to Supermacs and Charlie’s 3, yet their gaudy signs have become iconic. They are contained locations in the city centres. Edinburgh retains its historical town centre largely void of plastic temporary signage, but that seems as much a tourism strategy as a heritage one.
At home however, there is another relevant case study – on High Street in Kilkenny City, it’s primary thoroughfare, no plastic or temporary signage is permitted. The same policy is place for O’Connell Street in the capital, but in Kilkenny it seems to work, so much so that even the gaudy Euro 2 and Westmoreland Street offender Supermacs sit comfortably on the streetscape alongside more tasteful shop fronts.
For their part, Dublin City Council have said that the submission received from An Taisce “will be investigated and where appropriate enforcement will be taken,” and that they received just shy of 1,000 complaints last year, and investigated all of them. They didn’t specify how many of those complaints came from An Taisce.
Over the course of twenty-four hours on the historical core of south Dublin City, on Westmoreland Street there will pass by hundreds of people. There will be some, perhaps plain clothes an Taisce members looking up lamenting the indifference of fast food outlets to the importance of old buildings. There will be the rush hours when no one even notices the old buildings or savagery of their contemporary decoration. There will be the fast food outlet owners wondering how to better bring attention to their already ‘garish’ signage so that people will still know where to go for a ‘Snack box’ or a 3-in-1 in this recession, and then, at around about half-two in the morning, there will be glary eyed individuals stumbling from out from Fleet Street and Temple Bar and they’ll need the ‘garish’ signage so that they know where to go next.
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