Cashel is a heritage town - so how come it's full of garish murals and plastic windows?

The Rock of Cashel is visible from most points in the small Co Tipperary market town

The Rock of Cashel is visible from most points in the small Co Tipperary market town. Yet at the same time it can also appear to sneak up on the viewer, and certainly does so while standing in the forecourt of the Church of Ireland cathedral and parochial church of St John the Baptist, in John Street, an attractive side street. Built between 1750 and 1783, to replace the cathedral on the Rock, St John's is a small classical building - and a very fine one. The churchyard possesses an impressive series of medieval tomb effigies, among them that of a 14th-century armoured knight, as well as the effigies of three ladies. Also standing in the forecourt is the Diocesan Library, which was restored and renamed the GPA Bolton Library in 1986. Its collection of rare prints includes work by Caxton, as well as the world's smallest book, a copy of the Lord's Prayer, in German, printed with the use of photographic reduction in the Netherlands in 1952.

On the north side of the main street is the Cashel Palace Hotel, formerly the palace of the Church of Ireland archbishops. It was built by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce for Archbishop Bolton and its large forecourt now functions as a car-park. In nearby Moor Lane, to the north-east, are the ruins of St Dominick's Abbey, the fine church of the Dominican friary founded in 1243.

Probably one of the first Dominican churches built in Ireland, and accidentally destroyed by fire, it was restored about 1480 by Archbishop Cantwell. The cloisters are long gone, but a number of 13thcentury lancet windows remain, though some have been blocked up. Others have been replaced by 15th-century additions.

An awareness of a rich legacy is evident in Cashel, judging by the efforts to maintain a sense of period. However, not all of these gestures have been sufficiently well considered. In many cases, commercial motivation appears to have overshadowed the cultural, with little regard for subtle nuance or authenticity.

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Billboards and nostalgia-themed wall murals spoil gable ends throughout the town. It is a typically busy Irish main street. There is a Pound Shop and other modern shop-fronts, and these are acceptable elements in what has become a modern street. Far more offensive is the mock Georgian treatment of several buildings.

Worst of all is evidence of the most common and unnecessary failure of conservation policy throughout Ireland, mock Georgian-style plastic-frame windows. A number of otherwise well-maintained period buildings in Cashel have been downgraded by the installation of unsuitable outward-opening, hinged uPVC or aluminium windows. The loss of the authentic timber sash windows is serious; from a conservation viewpoint, it is tragic.

Not only is this practice short-sighted, it is also more damaging to Cashel's position as a "heritage town" than even the garish modern shop fronts. Having had the benefit of EU funding for the heritage centre and street furniture, Cashel's period buildings typify the lack of heritage management policy in Irish towns, the introduction of windows, which are architecturally incorrect as well as damaging to the environment - uPVC can be environmentally damaging owing to its short life-span. It is not recyclable and can release harmful fumes into the atmosphere. As a material, its rigidity is instrumental in the increase of condensation and with it, dampness, which can introduce various forms of rot. All of this is well explained in Nessa Roche's scholarly and practical publication, The Legacy of Light - A History of Irish Windows (Wordwell, 1999).

Some unsightly, architecturally unsuitable hinged windows could be fire hazards, as access in the event of emergency might prove difficult, even impossible. An Taisce has consistently attacked the installation of such windows in period buildings and in the course of extensive reports to date on 25 Irish "heritage towns", has identified the use of uPVC replacement windows, whether mock Georgian pastiche or otherwise, as "one of the most glaring anomalies of `heritage' Ireland".

According to John Cronin, a conservation consultant working on an assessment of planning and development in Cashel on behalf of the Heritage Council, "the `heritage town' model was developed for promotion purposes usually around a specific project". It was a tourism initiative. "It was not about conservation and only in the last year has the State provided a legislative basis for the protection of historic towns. As regards the newly introduced Towns Renewal Scheme, the question needs to be asked whether this will only accelerate the trend towards the removal of an authentic historic fabric in the pursuit of tax-incentive assisted developments."

Across Ireland, many original timber-framed windows could have been saved. By virtue of having survived, in some cases, for more than 200 years, there is no doubt as to the timber framed window having far greater longevity than its uPVC counterpart. The introduction of uPVC must amount to a serious misinterpretation of conservation practices.

According to Ian Lumley, heritage officer of An Taisce, "it is hypocritical to market a place as a heritage town when there is no effective policy to secure the maintenance of its genuine historical and architectural character. All too often, these places are a melange of hanging baskets, mock Victorian gas lamps and garish colour schemes". Shops and pubs are offenders, but far more culpable, he says, are the financial institutions, including the First National, the Bank of Ireland, which has at least used timber, albeit swing-out windows, and the Irish Permanent offices. "Where original shop fronts have been lost," says Lumley, "I would rather see an elegant and simple modern design instead of misguided attempts at historical pastiche."

So, argues An Taisce, why market places such as Athenry, Kells, Kenmare, Kinsale, Youghal or Cashel as "heritage towns" in the absence of an effective heritage management policy, which would ensure the large-scale listing of buildings as protected structures and comprehensive advice on maintaining property? Why weren't the original windows repaired and/ or restored? In most cases they could have been.

Overall, Cashel town, which should bask in the glory of its prized possession, the most extensive and cohesive of Ireland's magnificent monuments, is undermined by the poor design quality of its once handsome main street. This thoroughfare, which is part of the main Dublin-Cork road, has been diminished by a haphazard, often vulgar nod to its considerable heritage responsibilities. How ironic that any visitor passing through enroute to Cork could not fail to be more impressed by the solid architectural quality of Mitchelstown or Fermoy - neither of which have heritage status.