Time to knock the barracks?

DECADES of procrastination over Nenagh’s military barracks may be coming to a head with fresh ideas for the future of the site.

With the Department of Defence discussing a transfer of part of the site to Nenagh CBS, calls are being made for a new masterplan for the entire site. Local councillor Séamie Morris said this plan should not include the barracks ruin itself, which he believed cannot be saved and therefore should be demolished. While perhaps a previously unpopular decision, Cllr Morris said it is time to reckon without the barracks because the hope of saving it is preventing progress with a prime town centre site.

“It’s unsavable, and anyone who says it is, please come up with a survey to tell me that it is saveable,” Cllr Morris said. “It’s not, and what’s happening is because of this, it’s not allowing us to do anything with it, and we have to do something with it.”

RETIREMENT VILLAGE

Cllr Morris referenced a survey carried out in 2004, which indicated that the authorities had just 10 years to make use of the building, after which it would be beyond salvation. Around that time, Nenagh Town Council was drawing up a development brief for the site, which the Department of Defence offered for lease. A 999-year lease for the nominal sum of €1 was eventually agreed, though the local authority has never accepted it.

“We’re in different times now,” Cllr Morris said. “The fact is that the State are now claiming that they want to use these sites – and I want this site used. So, I’m calling now for this site to be included as part of a suite of housing plans for the town to include a retirement village. The department are willing to let it go for a euro, so cost is not a thing. Obviously, the military barracks will have to go, but the State should be able to fund that.”

‘PLANNED DESTRUCTION’

Cllr Morris expressed concern for the adjoining Hawthorns estate, where residents have been affected by overgrown vegetation and rodents coming from the barracks. “Some day, the military barracks is going to fall and every rat in the place is going to be looking for a new home,” he said.

“That has happened before in other places where you have stone walls – you will have rodents. You’re better off having a planned destruction of the military barracks.

“Look, the military barracks is unsavable. There’s no point in people saying it can be.”

He said the site is large enough to accommodate a museum recognising Nenagh’s rich military past in addition to the retirement village. Further uses could include carparking provision for the adjoining Christian Brothers School and facilitation of a new roadway connecting the Borrisokane and Dublin roads, taking pressure off the problematic junction between Summerhill and MacDonagh St.

While expressing concern over resolving the issue of title on the site, Cllr Morris said that in the midst of a housing crisis, Tipperary Co Council should be accepting the department’s lease offer and seeking funding available for new use of the site, with retirement accommodation at its centre. “How many sites have we bought around the town for housing, and we have that one sitting there all the time that we could have got for a euro? It’s high time now to take up the €1 offer and use this site for the people of the Nenagh MD area.” Cllr Morris added that he has looked for the barracks to be included on the Derelict Sites Register in order to progress matters. “That will force someone to pull the finger out because we really need to use this site now,” he said.

DISAPPOINTMENT

Members of the Nenagh Barracks Preservation Group this week agreed that a new and co-ordinated masterplan needs to be drawn up for the site. However, they disagreed strongly with demolishing the barracks as part of this plan.

Group members John Flannery and Michael Reynolds recalled presenting their proposals for the site to a meeting of Nenagh Municipal District in 2023. They received widespread support for their call to preserve the building, and a proposal was made to set up a sub-committee towards that end.

They this week expressed disappointment that this committee was never formed. They maintained their view that the barracks is saveable if the will is there to save it. They cited numerous funding streams through which this could be done, and even suggested that they as a group would take on the project if Tipperary Co Council does not want to.

Mr Flannery did not see why the issue of title should hold up progress; there was a title search carried out in the 1980s when there was a plan to base the Revenue Commissioners at the site; the search clearly determined the Department of Defence as owner of the entire site, he said.

The local historian said he had been advised by a builder as recently as last year that the walls of the building “could be stabilised”. Based on other projects he is involved in, Mr Flannery reckoned it would cost €30,000 for an updated conservation report on the structure.

Mr Reynolds said there are several examples around the country of buildings - some in worse condition than Nenagh’s barracks - that have been successfully brought back into use for their local community. Among them is the former Kickham Barracks site in Clonmel, Connolly Barracks in Longford and Parke’s Castle in Co Leitrim.

While he had no doubt that Nenagh’s barracks restoration would be a multi-million euro undertaking, Mr Reynolds again made the point that funding streams are available and said the project could be undertaken in stages. The first stage would be to prevent the building from decaying further.

‘LOST CAUSES’

Mr Flannery and Mr Reynolds regarded military history tourism as the fastest growing type of tourism in Ireland. They spoke of the amount of people who have contacted their group – which gathered almost 1,500 names on a petition calling for preservation of Nenagh’s barracks – and believed a military museum would bring a great deal of visitors to the site.

“We need to give the people who come something tangible to see here,” Mr Flannery said. “If you had the building, you could make a fantastic visitor attraction there. If you take out the barracks, what is left?” He believed there was a certain irony in talking about demolishing the building, a Protected Structure, on the cusp of National Heritage Week, this year’s theme of which is ‘Heritage at Risk.’ He spoke of many long-running conservation campaigns over the decades – including Nenagh Castle itself – which people told him were “lost causes”, only to find new life.

“I always live in hope and I’ll fight to the end for this because I believe it is a very important part of our heritage,” Mr Flannery said.

DISCUSSIONS WITH SCHOOL

Asked to comment on the present situation with the barracks, a spokesperson for the Department of Defence said a “local school” recently expressed interest in acquiring part of the site to support future expansion.

“Engagement on this proposal is ongoing. As the outcome of those discussions may have implications for the future of the wider site, consideration of options for the remainder of the property will take place once that process has concluded,” the spokesperson stated. “The department has engaged with Tipperary County Council on a number of occasions regarding its intention to dispose of the property. To facilitate any future transfer, first registration of the property was completed in 2022.” The department previously indicated that if there was no interest from the council or any other public bodies in the barracks, it would put the property up for sale by public auction.

Mr Flannery was of the view that the barracks building could be kept even with the CBS expansion. He said there would be scope for using the building for educational purposes, similar to that of UL’s outreach programmes at Portumna Workhouse.Other suggested uses include using the barracks as a Co-operation Ireland centre for peace, or a residential workspace for artists akin to the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan.

'NO MERIT' IN TITLE SEARCH

Meanwhile, Nenagh Municipal District Administrator Rosemary Joyce confirmed that the executive of Tipperary Co Council has not made any request to the Department of Defence for a title search.

"Back in 2021 we were advised that the Department of Defence had lodged an application to the Tipperary County Registrar to acquire the Freehold Interest in the property under the Landlord and Tenant Acts 1967 to 2005 with a view to First Registration of the Property with the Property Registration Authority. They also advised that, subject to a successful First Registration, it was the department's intention to dispose of the property in the usual manner on the open market.

"In 2022 we were advised that the Department of Defence had completed First Registration of the property with the Property Registration Authority and the property is now vested in the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and administered by the Minister for Defence. We were also advised that, given that the title of the property was settled, the Department of Defence intended to proceed with its disposal in line with Government policy regarding surplus military lands. The members were advised that this was the position.

"On that basis it was considered that there was no merit in seeking a title search."