A chara, – I was less surprised by the amount spent by the OPW on its projected history (Home News, January 4th) than by the reasons given.
This is the organisation, after all, that produced the expensive Mullaghmore and Luggala debacles, not to mention the recent controversy at Skellig. On the other hand, when I began research on the Great Famine in the early 1990s, I was told on presenting myself at the OPW’s elegant Stephen’s Green headquarters (why was a new one required?) that within the previous 15 years all their records had been destroyed in order to create storage room in the basement. Can one read between the lines in regard to the present publication difficulties?
Meanwhile, despite the recession, the OPW spend cheerfully continues, its total absence of respect for the heritage that it is required by law to guard as marked as ever. As we speak, millions are being wasted on at least one current project, the extraordinarily secretive “restoration” (ie Disneyfication) of the Old Friary ruin at Ennis, which has already resulted in the mutilation of one of the country’s most important national monuments. – Yours, etc,