Sir, – The Office of Public Works (OPW) has completed an expensive restoration of the bandstand in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin (“St Stephen’s Green bandstand reopens following €400,000 restoration”, News, December 14th).
I hope that, with the support of another cultural or musical body, the OPW can arrange a 2024 programme of music so the bandstand can be used for which it was established.
Commissioned by the Dublin Metropolitain Police in 1887, designed by the then architect to the OPW, James Owens, the bandstand was built by Musgrave and Co, Belfast.
It would be a fitting tribute if the Garda Band, which gave its first performance in Dún Laoghaire in 1923, could open its summer season next year with a programme in St Stephen’s Green.
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It would make for a fine start to a musical summer in Dublin, en plein air. – Yours, etc,
ALASTAIR CONAN,
Coulsdon,
UK.
