The Irish Georgian Society will begin marking its 40th anniversary this year with a public lecture by the Hon Desmond Guinness tonight which will indicate that the battle to save Ireland's 18th century heritage is far from over.
Giving his personal reflections on the last four decades, the society's first president will attack the proposed "despoliation" of Carton Demesne in Maynooth, Co Kildare and the "scandal" that this may be aided by a £6 million grant under the EU-funded tourism programme.
It was at Carton that Mr Guinness and his late wife, Mariga, founded the Irish Georgian Society in 1958, after they were outraged at the demolition - by the Office of Public Works - of a terrace of 18th century houses behind the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin.
Since then, the society has fought many battles to save Ireland's built heritage, including Castletown House in Co Kildare, Fitzwilliam Street and Hume Street in Dublin, and Doneraile House in Co Cork. In some cases, it was successful; in others, it lost. Its concern about Carton is that the "insensitive development" of a hotel and golf courses in the demesne could destroy the integrity of one of the most important 18th century landscapes in Ireland, still largely intact.
Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin and current IGS president, will "rail against the continued erosion of the fabric of historic Dublin and insensitive developments all over the country", according to a press release issued to publicise the event.
He will also attack the National Gallery's controversial plan to extend into Clare Street, with a "humdrum modern" building on the approaches to Merrion Square. The society was among those who appealed to An Bord Pleanala against this £12.5 million scheme.
The lecture will take place at 8 p.m. in Tailors' Hall, off Dublin's High Street, one of the many buildings which was saved from demolition in the 1960s with considerable help from the IGS.
