New Academy for Heritage aims to protect historical environment
Fiona Tyrrell

Irish Times
Friday, April 23, 2004

Countering the profit-driven approach to planning is the aim of a new
organisation of historians and academics, which is due to be launched
in the next two weeks.

The organisation plans to involve historians, archaeologists and other
academics in trying to protect what "is left of our historical
environment", the historian, Prof Roy Foster, a member of the new
organisation, said before addressing the History Society of Trinity
College, Dublin last night.

Academy for Heritage, which is being set up by 20 academics, historians
and archaeologists in Ireland, aims to "speak up for heritage",
according to Dr David Edwards, Department of History, University
College of Cork. The organisation plans to make regular public comments
on heritage conservation, he explained. "We insist on having a role in
planning," he said.

The moment is ripe for such an organisation, according to Prof Foster,
not only because of the number of threatened sites, but also because of
"clear evidence from the tribunals and elsewhere how corrupt and
careless the entire area of planning has been in the past".

News report dealing with the Heritage Alliance

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Sites of historical importance which are currently under threat,
according to Prof Foster, include No 16 Moore Street, where leaders of
the 1916 Easter Rising had their last headquarters before surrendering
to British forces; Yeats's house in Rathfarnham; Trim Castle; the
medieval pleasure grounds at Leap Castle in Co Offaly; and Tara.

He hopes that the organisation will "draw attention to these outrages
and make An Bord Pleanála look very carefully at decisions that have
been made by local authorities".

He also called for the establishment of a public body which can oppose
planning decisions rather than just make recommendations. An Taisce and
Dúchas, which has now become the Heritage Service, have done "a lot of
good work" but a public body with "teeth" is needed, he stated.

Public attention needs to be alerted to this issue before it is "too
late", according to Mr Foster, who said that our historical, rural and
urban environment is being damaged by an "entirely profit-driven
approach to planning".

The layers of historical wealth that were once protected by Ireland's
poverty are now, ironically, being destroyed by our prosperity, he
added.

(c) Irish Times