Sir, - Sylvia Thompson's report in your paper (Property, October 19th) refers to the "major restoration work" currently being undertaken at Carton. Far from being a "restoration", what is now happening at Carton represents the most serious single conservation loss in the history of the Irish State. It involves the destruction of the country's most important 18th-century "designed landscape" to make way for at least two golf courses, hundreds of "yuppie" houses and a vast hotel, while the greater part of the historic house itself is being made into flats.
Of course the present owner, Mr Mallaghan, would say that he thinks it will "become a flagship for Irish tourism". No doubt if the Rock of Cashel had been rebuilt as a hotel complex (as was once proposed in the 19th century), it too would be a tourist flagship. But it would also be a huge embarrassment to the country.
Carton is one of the key components of Ireland's post-1700 heritage and, as such, its destruction for pure commercial gain is completely unacceptable and runs directly counter to both the spirit and the letter of the Florence Charter, as adopted by the international conservation body ICOMOS in December 1982.
If Mr Mallaghan and his American partners, the resort operators Starwood, really believe that, once they have done their worst at Carton, the conservation objections will fade away, they have another think coming. I for my part and many others like me will never cease campaigning until Carton is restored to its 18th- and 19th-century glory and open to all the people of Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Terence Reeves-Smyth, Gleno Village, Co Antrim.