Thirty protesters including members of the Irish Georgian Society (IGS) held a demonstration on Saturday calling for the immediate conservation and restoration of a historic villa.
Vernon Mount, in the suburb of Douglas in Cork city, was built in 1784 and is owned by multimillionaire businessman Jonathan Moss who lives in the United States. Earlier this year it was proposed for the 2008 world monuments watch-list, which is compiled by the New York-based World Monuments Fund.
The organisation is the foremost private, non-profit-making group in the world dedicated to the preservation of endangered architectural and cultural sites.
IGS deputy director Donough Cahill says the villa has largely been left to the elements since planning permission for a major hotel was refused for the site in 1997. Water had been entering the building through holes in the roof since late 2005 and in spite of pressure from the local authority stop-gap repairs were only made in recent months.
"The purpose of the demonstration was to highlight the continued decline of Vernon Mount . . . what is needed is very significant investment," said Mr Cahill.
Desmond FitzGerald, president of the IGS, expressed concern in relation to ceiling and wall paintings executed by leading 19th-century Cork artist Nathaniel Grogan which remain inside the house. Grogan's oil on canvas paintings are mounted on the ceiling of the ground-floor drawing room and on doors and niches in the first-floor vestibule.
Mr FitzGerald said that, in spite of its beauty, its significance and its status as a protected structure, Vernon Mount now stands empty and in a desperate state of neglect.
VM Restoration Ltd, who represent the owner of the villa, told The Irish Timesearlier this year the company was doing a huge amount of work behind the scenes and there had been ongoing maintenance work at the villa in recent times.
The IGS considers it to be one of the finest neo-classical houses in Ireland.