Sir, – Thatched cottages are disappearing at an alarming rate in Ireland today for the simple reason that they are left empty of occupiers. Between the cost of insurance and the shortage of thatchers nobody can get a loan to buy one. And an empty thatch cottage, as any thatch dweller will tell you, will very quickly go to ruin in a matter of years if not looked after properly.
A thatched roof needs a moderate amount of heat and maintenance to remain intact. That’s why, once a thatched dwelling has dwellers and the heat that dwellers generate, it can easily survive ‘snug and secure’ for centuries.
Today, more and more thatched cottages are being left empty when their elderly occupants die. That’s the death knell of so many good thatched dwelling in Ireland today.
Indeed, the current situation about the survival of the very few remaining thatch cottages in Ireland is so bad that already, all the indications are that within the lifetime of most people reading this letter very soon there will be no heritage thatch dwellings left in Ireland – none at all! The few survivors will be those reconstructed or preserved in heritage parks and commercial premises like tourist centres and pubs.
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Something needs to be done urgently to secure all standing thatched cottages in Ireland. This raises an interesting question: Could a current vacant thatched house qualify to be brought back into full “dwelling use” with the Government’s vacant homes plan?
Because if it could, I suspect that it would make a very worthwhile contribution to both our chronic dwelling shortage problem and our ongoing heritage protection problem.
It could also provide employment to local thatchers and considerably enhance and maintain the multi-million tourist attractions of The Norman Way, The Wild Atlantic Way and, indeed, all of the country. By my estimates it costs on average ¤2,000 per annum to keep the roof of a thatched dwelling in very good order. And I say this as someone who owns and maintains a mud-walled thatched cottage. That’s a tiny sum of money when measured against the cost of tackling the current housing shortage problem to create even a single extra home.
Surely, this is a combined welfare, housing, heritage, and tourism investment that is well worth looking into. But hurry! The few remaining thatched dwellings in Ireland urgently need dwellers. Ironic, isn’t it: there are 2,000 thatched dwellings in Ireland crying out for long-term dwellers in a country that has one of the highest shortages of dwellings in the EU. Yours, etc.
ROBERT HAYES-McCOY,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.