Military Barracks ‘is going to fall’

A call to “slap a dereliction order sign” on Nenagh's historic and crumbling Military Barracks has been urged by local Independent councillor Seamus Morris who told the April Meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District authority that he is fed up with lack of action on the building by its owners, the Department of Defence.

District Administrator, Rosemary Joyce, informed the attendance that the council had written to the department requesting a meeting to discuss the site and had suggested a number of issues for the agenda. However, the department replied, saying it was not prepared to meet with councillors because of legal issues with regard to the site.

Ms Joyce said that since that response she had contacted the department again in relation to the members wishes to have a meeting, but there had been no reply from the department. She said the department had previously expressed a willingness to meet with executives of the council if they wished to discuss the acquisition of the site.

Cathaoirleach Cllr Michael O' Meara was reticent about putting a derelict site notice on the barracks, fearing it could prompt the department to move a step closer to demolishing the building. That was something he did not want to see happening as he felt the barracks could be restored. “I have seen buildings in a worse state that have been renovated.”

Cllr Morris said derelict order notices had been placed on many other sites in Nenagh in the past, and despite that they were still standing today. Placing an order on buildings was a way of forcing owners to do something with their properties. “It's obvious the department do not wish to talk to us, so I think we need to have some type of stick. The derelict order does not mean we want to knock the building.”

LISTED BUILDING

Cllr O' Meara said the barracks was a listed building and listed buildings had been demolished by owners in the district in the past. He could not understand how the department could stand idly by and let one of its listed building disintegrate to the poor state it is in now - a building that was included in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.

Cllr O' Meara added: “The building is of huge historical interest and is very important to the people of Nenagh and its environs. It's not acceptable that the department seem to want to sell it to anybody and that they are abdicating their responsibility and leaving the building the way it is.

“The way the department are treating us is contemptible, to say they will not meet with us, and getting rid of the building on the open market is completely unacceptable.”

Cllr Morris said the site on which the barrack was situated was very strategic in terms of the future development of the town. The condition it was now in was causing problems for the local community, particularly the people living close to it.

“What we should do now is ask the department to give us the result of the title search they themselves conducted on the site so that we know who owns what there and then see where we can go from there.”

Cllr Morris said it was obvious that the department did “not give a toss” about local elected representatives and their executives. They did not give a toss either about the barracks itself, “which is going to fall”. “I would like to see the building maintained or taken down in a safe way rather than let it fall and let what's in it at the moment run out into neighbouring estates.”

Members decided on the proposal by Cllr Morris to write to the department requesting the result of its title search.