The war memorial in Offaly town: a heritage test case

As the 11th of November, Armistice Day, approaches, I am giving up on my four year struggle to restore the integrity of the War Memorial in O’Connor Square. Without any allies other than An Taisce and two principled public representatives whose names I will not disclose, I admit defeat.

The conflict began when, within the context of the otherwise admirable and successful Street Enhancement Scheme, Offaly County Council decided to remove the Memorial from the Square but didn’t publicly signal such a dramatic decision. However, the Minister for Heritage intervened and it had to be retained.

Despite this, the Council felt that it was committed to providing a certain number of car parking spaces. To deliver these whilst leaving a space for buggies and wheelchairs to get past the Memorial, its raised kerb would have to go as it now represented an obstacle and a trip hazard..

So, the Council took away part of a structure listed for protection in its own development plan. As the nephew of one of those commemorated by the Memorial whose design and dignity I have always admired, I pointed out that they had no permission to do this and that it should be reinstated. The Council rejected this and claimed that their work was exempted development. An Bord Pleanala ruled that it certainly wasn’t but still the Council would not commit to the reinstatement of the kerb. The Minister for Heritage felt that it would be inappropriate for him to intervene or comment but suggested that his Department might offer funding in the event of the restoration of the Memorial.

Seeking the help of ostensibly dispassionate State arbitrators in pursuing the case for reinstatement produced interesting responses. Unfortunately, these appear to me to have been biased mainly towards saving the face of the local authority. The Office of the Planning Regulator had a look and cynically concluded that since Offaly County Council didn’t often mutilate Protected Structures, they should be allowed to get away with it just this once but shouldn’t make a habit of it. The Office of the Ombudsman surprisingly observed that mutilating a Protected Structure to avoid a trip hazard caused by the local authority’s own works was ‘a reasonable explanation from an administrative point of view’ .

Maintaining the integrity of a Protected Structure or the unwise precedents which their decisions might provide to more unscrupulous developers would not appear to have occurred to either Office.

Trust

Local buildings and memorials bring beauty and history into our everyday lives. Ideally they would be-and usually are- protected and enhanced without coercion, but sometimes that is regrettably necessary. This duty falls on local authorities who are equipped with an armoury of crushing penalties including fines and imprisonment. In protecting our architectural heritage they are supported by a trusting public. But should the gamekeeper turn poacher, that trust can be broken and I believe that as a result of its unauthorised treatment of the Memorial, Offaly County Council may be in danger of losing that moral authority.

Hope

To this day, the reasons why, particularly in this sensitive Decade of Centenaries, the Council decided to dig up the War Memorial and move it out of O’Connor Square where it had stood for ninety years have never been revealed and still remain a mystery. No justification, reports or heritage assessments were ever made public. Was there no more to it than just squeezing in a few parking spaces?

My only hope now is that the Council will relent and incorporate a few adjoining parking spaces into a generous space around the Memorial and reinstate the kerb and the intervening gravelled area in which wreaths are laid. This would restore its original architectural integrity and setting and be a fitting completion of the improvement of O’Connor Square.

However, should it achieve nothing else, the saga of the War Memorial has provided an intriguing insight into the workings of our heritage legislation.