A painstaking restoration of one of Clonmel's most impressive and important buildings is due to be completed in the summer.
The Main Guard, which stands at the opposite end of O'Connell Street from the town's other landmark structure, the West Gate, has been partly hidden by hoarding and scaffolding since restoration began in 1995.
Some locals are questioning the length of time it has taken Dúchas, the Heritage Service, to complete the project, but the work has been necessarily slow because of the fragile state of the building.
The Mayor of Clonmel, Mr Seán Nyhan, says the work undertaken to date has brought the building, built in 1675, back to its former glory. "It has a number of arches and a beautiful job has been made of them. It will be a major tourist attraction when it's finished and that's something that Clonmel needs."
Mr Ted Boyle, a Fianna Fáil councillor who queried the length of time the restoration was taking at last week's meeting of Clonmel Borough Council, said many people had raised concerns with him but he understood the reasons for the delay.
The work, overseen by Clonmel-born architect Ms Margaret Quinlan, required that certain parts of the building be stabilised before other parts could be touched because of its fragile state. All sound original material has been retained, with repairs and replacements carried out where necessary. A spokesman for Dúchas said a structure added to the rear of the building should be completed by May and it was hoped to have the overall restoration work finished by late summer.
It has not yet been decided how to use the building, Mr Nyhan said. It was built by the first Duke of Ormond, James Butler, as a courthouse but has been used for a variety of purposes since then, including a pub, Cooney's Bar, which closed in 1987. The Main Guard has been closed since then.
When the job is complete, the next project will be the West Gate, the roof of which is in urgent need of repair. The long-term aim, says Mr Nyhan, is to restore both the Main Guard and the West Gate to pristine condition and pedestrianise the street linking the two.
That would surely have impressed the late Lord Killanin who, according to Mr Boyle, once remarked that O'Connell Street, with such impressive buildings at either end, was "one of the finest streets in the world".