IAN LUMLEY,
Sir, - A report by Joe Humphreys in your edition of March 27th may have given the misleading impression that Laura Magahy initiated the development of Temple Bar.
The crediting of the identification of Temple Bar as a distinct historic quarter of Dublin, and the planned development, conservation and regeneration of the area should go to An Taisce. It was An Taisce, in a 1985, report that first publicly defined the area by name and began a campaign for the abandonment of the Central Bus Station plan which would have destroyed it.
This report was co-ordinated by the artist and author Peter Pearson, and included a comprehensive historic and architectural inventory of the area which led to its historic and architectural character being completely re-evaluated. The political turning point came in 1987, with the commitment by Charles Haughey to take on the rehabilitation of the area as a special Government project.
The eventual vehicle, the semi-State company Temple Bar Properties, which was set up to oversee the area, was devised by Paddy Teahon, then Assistant Secretary to the Department of An Taoiseach, and run for several years from its inception in 1991 by Laura Magahy. While there is much to take credit for in the final outcome of the development of Temple Bar, including the architectural quality of the new buildings designed by members of Group 91 architects, there is a flip side also.
During the 1990s An Taisce repeatedly criticised the excessive space given over to public houses in the area, facilitated in a number of cases by Temple Bar Properties itself. The development of the Viking Centre in the Church of St Michael and St John led to the virtual destruction of the earliest pre-Emancipation Catholic Church interior in Dublin.
While the full history of the recent development of Temple Bar remains to be written, An Taisce is entitled to due credit for the original initiative and for its strong watchdog role in seeking the maintenance of the original vision thereafter. - Yours, etc.,
IAN LUMLEY,
Heritage Officer, An Taisce,
Tailors Hall,
Dublin 8.