The Government should not be rushed into relocating the Abbey Theatre at the north end of Parnell Square, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor.
The public may well owe a debt of gratitude to the two property owners who are holding out for a king's ransom by the State to acquire their share of a building off Parnell Square. For this is almost certainly not the right location for a national theatre. The only reason it is being considered at all is that Coláiste Mhuire has fallen into the State's hands. It happens to be one of a number of properties transferred to public ownership under the controversial 2002 agreement with religious orders to deal with compensation claims by survivors of abuse.
The former Irish-speaking Christian Brothers' school consists of five Georgian houses, with more recent extensions to the rear, including a 1960s assembly hall (Amharclann Coláiste Mhuire). Though altered internally over the years, all five houses are protected structures, both inside and out.
So is No. 1 Granby Row, a three-storey, mid-19th-century building currently trading as Parnell Court, a business centre with five units. Last Wednesday, it was reported that negotiations on its acquisition by the State had broken down because some of its owners wanted too high a price.
The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, regretfully conceded that he was therefore not in a position to announce a new location for the Abbey before the end of this, its centenary year - as he had repeatedly promised. Now, with 10 days to go, his self-imposed deadline will be missed.
But why the rush?
Sure, the Government pledged several years ago that the National Theatre would be redeveloped. That was before it became apparent that sufficient property could be acquired in and around Abbey Street to create the larger "footprint" which the theatre has really always needed.
The dream was to extend southwards to Eden Quay, to give the Abbey a new frontage on the River Liffey. But, in the absence of compulsory purchase powers for purely cultural projects, adjoining property owners could name their price and the State might have to pay much more than market value.
Then the Abbey made the mistake of flirting with the notion of relocating to the Grand Canal Docks, on the south side of the river just a stone's throw from Dublin 4. The Taoiseach was reportedly furious, not least because the theatre would be evacuating his constituency, and the idea was quickly dropped.
The Carlton site on O'Connell Street offered a more tantalising prospect.
In December 2001, despairing that it would ever be developed by its current owners, Dublin City Council issued a compulsory purchase order for the former cinema and adjoining properties, one of which has been derelict for almost 25 years.
When this order was challenged by the Carlton Group, the case was heard on a priority basis last spring by the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan.
After a lengthy hearing, during the course of which one of the plaintiffs (Richard Quirke) withdrew, he reserved judgment on March 5th last.
Nine months later, Mr Justice Finnegan has yet to deliver his judgment on the continuing challenge by Paul Clinton, an architect and project manager for the Carlton Group, who claims that he is the beneficial owner of some of its properties. The latest news is that the judgment might be delivered next month.
As a result of this lengthy delay and the possibility of an appeal to the Supreme Court, the city council was unable to give Mr O'Donoghue an assurance that the matter would be resolved any time soon. So the Minister felt he had no option but to exclude the Carlton site from further consideration.
Attention then switched to the site of Hawkins House on Poolbeg Street, where the Theatre Royal once stood, and to Coláiste Mhuire. Another proposal to relocate the Abbey to a State-owned site at Infirmary Road was ruled out because it was seen - quite rightly - as being too remote from the city-centre.
Yet the Coláiste Mhuire site is fraught with difficulty, not least the fact that it is fronted entirely by protected structures - including No. 1 Granby Row. The school's former buildings also perform an important role in flanking the Hugh Lane Gallery in Charlemont House, as does the Georgian terrace to the east.
How then can the site accommodate a "signature building", which is what the Minister has said he wants, without demolishing or drastically altering the existing buildings?
Or would the Abbey be left lurking behind retained Georgian façades? Either way, it would be less than satisfactory.
It could be argued that relocating the theatre to Parnell Square would fit in with emerging plans to develop it as a "cultural cluster". The €12 million Hugh Lane extension, due to open in early 2006, is the first phase of a much bolder plan which might even see the Central Library relocating to the Ambassador. Given that Parnell Square is partially built-up, the idea is to reconfigure it as "a square within a square" - along the lines of Front Square in Trinity.
The very dead Garden of Remembrance would be one of the casualties, which should prompt a debate about how the centenary of 1916 might best be marked.
One of the more bizarre elements of the Office of Public Works' scheme for a new Abbey on the Coláiste Mhuire site is that it would be approached by a "pedestrian underpass" (a tunnel, in plain language) from within the reconfigured square.
That, in itself, also casts doubt on whether the site is really suitable.
Instead of rushing into the wrong outcome, Mr O'Donoghue should wait to see how the Carlton row is resolved. Or the Abbey might pursue a more modest plan to extend its backstage area to the site of two adjoining unlisted buildings and acquire and redevelop the nearby health studio as a new Peacock.