One of the most famous buildings in Ireland with which Ronnie Tallon is associated is Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Tallon acted as partner in charge of the theatre when it was rebuilt to the designs of STW in the early 1960s, after having been seriously damaged by fire a decade earlier. The building which opened in 1966 now looks set to be completely redesigned or even demolished, options with which Tallon is unhappy.
He says that when plans for the new Abbey were being drawn up, the organisation's managing director, Ernest Blythe, "Didn't believe the theatre could independently support itself full-time. So a clear part of our brief was to design a theatre suitable for conference and music. We'd now realise this can't be done, but in a way the acoustics were a compromise", Thirteen years ago, in response to criticism of the Abbey's design and the likelihood that his would undergo some modification, Tallon wrote to the Irish Times arguing against the "bastardisation" of the building. Today, he believes that one reason for the theatre's unpopularity is that its appearance is out of popular favour, which prefers what he calls "Victorian-type interiors". He also believes that from the start there was a difficulty with restrictions imposed by a small site and an equally modest budget. He had more space - and more money - been provided at the time, the theatre could have been continued as far as the quays and also further down Abbey Street. With regard to the latter, Tallon points out that Michael Scott insisted that the back wall of the stage be built so that it could easily be removed and extended should an additional site become available.
Whatever happens to the Abbey, he believes the character of the original structure has already been fundamentally altered by the changes to its frontage undertaken in the last decade. The plain austerity of the STW design reflected Michael Scott's belief that "going to the theatre should be like going into a magic box" with the exterior giving no idea of the delights within. "The image of the Abbey as a box has been destroyed," says Tallon, although he cannot help observing of the current popular rush to come up with an entirely new theatre. "I think it's a pity not to look at the possibility of refurbishment; I don't think the Abbey us beyond that".