Sir, – It is with a sense of weariness that I read on Monday in The Irish Times a report that Dublin City Council has endorsed the proposed building of a 12-storey apartment block at Herbert Park, and the demolition of an intact and well-built early 20th-century house from which The O'Rahilly left for his death in 1916 ("Council backs demolition of O'Rahilly house", News, August 24th).
Herbert Park was a gift to the citizens of Dublin from the Pembroke Estate, a developer. Would that the present developers gift us this bit of land and relative seclusion for the children of Dublin and their parents.
I walk frequently in the park and know that this block will overlook, shadow and diminish the qualities of the lovely playground that is used by children all the time.
In my work as director of Wood Quay, the largest urban Viking site in northern Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s, I dreamt that in time Dublin City Council would safeguard and understand the heritage of Dublin. Vainly, as it has turned out, I also hoped it would establish a “Museum of Dublin”.
Is the legacy we have inherited yet again to be demolished and handed to developers and their bankers with the encouragement and backing of Dublin City Council and its planning department? We have learned nothing. – Yours, etc,
PAT WALLACE,
Dublin 4.