Sir, - If there is one symbol of the way money and prosperity have changed the character of Ireland, while at the same time giving the illusion of protecting its heritage, that symbol is the town of Tralee.
It is well known that the town has a first class museum dealing with its Geraldine past, and that the Geraldine Experience, giving people an idea of life in Tralee in the Middle Ages, has won well-deserved praise. Nevertheless, I wonder how many people within the town, never mind outside it, realise that there is an authentic medieval Geraldine castle, now hidden in ivy, still in existence near the town centre. In any case, it is not mentioned in Tralee's tourist literature, nor is it on the Tralee tourist map.
The castle, with substantial ruins remaining, is situated on the banks of the River Lee, at Ballymullen, where it guarded the southern approaches to the then Norman market town. It is an authentic ancient Desmond Castle. Its exquisite medieval stonework and military aspect, seen from the southern banks of the Lee, evoke, as no museum ever can, the old Munster town of Tralee, and its magnificent and turbulent past. If there is one site that best represents the heritage of this ancient Munster town, it is this Desmond castle, where it stands overlooking, as in the medieval past, the still unspoiled fields and river banks of the Lee. The area has over the years been zoned for public amenity and this was only fitting given that this site, and no other, is quintessential Geraldine Tralee.
The site and setting was preserved for centuries by the people of Tralee. Now, sadly, there seems to be a brash insensitivity abroad in the town, as in the rest of Ireland, as various quarters lose their character, and countless old houses, walls, wells and bridges disappear. At best, some are replaced by haphazard replicas, at worst by cost-effective pieces of modernity that would look more at home in some industrial estate.
Perhaps the worst example of this insensitivity happened in 1995 when the ancient medieval style bridge next to the Desmond castle was destroyed and replaced by a futuristic concrete and metal footbridge. This was inexcusable but the error has now been compounded by the dropping of public amenity status for the area along the river opposite the castle. It has now been zoned for private housing, which would completely block views of the castle from the southern fields mentioned, and in effect, irrevocably damage the river setting of Tralee's magnificent Geraldine castle.
This area then is the last remaining authentic Geraldine quarter near the centre of Tralee, not a make believe museum piece, but the actual castle walls below which an important part of Tralee's turbulent and historic past took place. Past generations preserved this marvellous historical quarter as a birthright for the generations of Tralee people who would follow. Can this generation not do the same?
Apparently not, for there is now one measure, and one measure only, that decides in Tralee, and increasingly in Ireland as a whole, the value of our heritage. That measure is the amount of money the heritage "product" can make. And so fee charging museums, "experiences" and heritage centres are judged worthy of enormous funds while the restoration and protection of the actual physical and natural heritage itself, with only the occasional exception, is grossly neglected.
Nevertheless, if the mistakes that have been made in Tralee can be avoided by other Irish urban areas, the loss of character that this ancient Munster town has suffered over the last several years of unprecedented prosperity, will have at least served one important purpose. - Yours, etc., Ray Monahan,
Castlegregory,
Co Kerry.