At the St Stephen's Green end of York St, across Proud's Lane from York House Salvation Army hostel and directly across the street from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, if you listen closely on a calm day you might hear the heavenly tinkle of chimes falling from above. On the second floor of a block of Georgian corporation flats, one family sometimes dangles three sets of wind chimes from a window box full of plants and flowers. When days are too windy the flower boxes are placed inside the windows. On the ground floor, a number of windows are boarded up.
York Street flats must be one of the few in the city that Sean O'Casey would still recognise. It could be a setting for many of his plays. The Shadow of a Gunman would be particularly appropriate given that the street is jammed between two of the 1916 Rising's garrisons, the College of Surgeons/St Stephen's Green and Jacob's biscuit factory (now DIT Aungier St). The world of the 1913 Lockout from James Plunket's Strumpet City could easily be imagined, too, with "Rashers Tierney" shuffling down the street. And that cackling screech echoing from a hallway might be the mocking laughter of a John Kavanagh character from any O'Casey play.
Mr Brendan Kenny, the corporation's chief housing officer, says that right now a team of architects is working on a architectural design and costings study of York Street flats which will determine the feasibility of a comprehensive refurbishment. This is what the tenants want and Mr Kenny says the corporation will be guided by their wishes, but if refurbishment is not possible the option than will be to knock the flats down and build new units on the site. Unless the tenants wish to move elsewhere, Surgeons and the queue of developers will have to avert their gaze.
It would be wonderful if id this magnificent remnant of a rapidly vanishing historic and cultural Dublin did not have to be put down - but merely required the application of some cosmetic surgery.