Attacks on heritage buildings due to high metal prices, claims An Taisce

GEORGIAN AND other heritage buildings across Dublin city are suffering levels of damage and dereliction comparable to the early 1980s, An Taisce and other conservationists have warned.

Commenting in the wake of attacks on Belcamp College, which culminated in the destruction of the building by arson last week, An Taisce said high prices for lead and other scrap metals had likely been behind the initial damage to the fabric of the building.

The organisation said it believed other protected buildings in Hume Street and elsewhere in the city were in similar danger.

Other conservationists have also warned of attacks on buildings on Parnell Square and Portland Row among others.

Belcamp College in Balgriffin, north Dublin, was bought from the Oblate Fathers in 2004 by developer Gerry Gannon for €105 million. The house, which stood on some 200 acres, was designed by James Hoban who also designed the White House in Washington DC.

Security had been provided for the property but in recent weeks, attacks on the building became more frequent and determined, extending to attacks on security personnel.

Last week six sets of stained glass panels were taken from the house by Mr Gannon with the aid of Fingal County Council’s heritage office and removed to the National Museum’s storehouse for safe keeping.

However, heritage features of the property were stolen, including marble fireplaces, brass letterboxes and door handles, as well as oak floorboards and lead from the roof.

An Taisce spokesman Ian Lumley said the organisation had written to Mr Gannon last Monday, expressing continued concern for the house and its associated chapel.

Mr Lumley, who is the organisation’s heritage officer, said there were a number of other streets in Dublin including Hume Street – “around the corner from Government Buildings” – where properties were being systematically stripped of their features “probably because of the high cost of scrap metal”.

He said the situation was “as bad as the 1980s” when a large number of properties were severely damaged or lost altogether because of attacks by thieves and vandals.

Mr Lumley and other conservationists were reluctant to name vacant properties at risk because of the danger of advertising the fact that they were vacant.

However, other conservationists did mention Aldborough House on Portland Row. The house has been attacked on a number of occasions and, while there is now security present, there is concern that the building, one of the last great Georgian houses to be built in the city and dating from 1798, could be severely damaged.

It has accommodated various uses ranging from a school, a barracks, a post office depot and it was once in the hands of Eircom.