Exchange shows Cork wing of An Taisce's concern for ancient site

WOOD QUAY:A LETTER from the taoiseach's office to An Taisce reminded the conservation organisation that it had previously said it was not opposed to the site at Wood Quay being developed as civic offices for Dublin.

An Taisce was a vocal opponent to the project and AF Hegarty, chairman of An Taisce in Cork, wrote to Jack Lynch in March 1979.

The letter concerned a statement by Corkman and junior finance minister Pearse Wyse expressing hope that those opposed to building offices on the site would not focus on Cork men.

“Jack Lynch and I ,” he said “care as much about Wood Quay as much as any Dubliner does.”

“In view of the Government’s decision not to intervene to persuade Dublin Corporation against building on the Wood Quay site we wonder if that can really be true,” Dr Hegarty wrote.

“It must be asked if you care about it as much as many Cork people do,” he wrote, referring to a Save Wood Quay signature campaign which An Taisce had held in Cork.

A draft response by the taoiseach Jack Lynch’s private secretary in April 1979 notes that Mr Lynch “is aware however of a press statement from An Taisce dated 14th December 1973 which is at variance with what you now say”.

It quotes the press statement in which the body said it “is not and never has been opposed to the development of the civic offices site” and that Christ Church would appear to the best advantage as a focal point of a group of buildings.

The exchanges came at a time of public outcry at the building of the Dublin City Council (then called Dublin Corporation) offices on the site of Viking remains. There was a protest march in April and the site was occupied in June of 1979.

A letter from the mayor of Boston, Kevin White, about the plans for the civic offices was among the other correspondence received by the taoiseach.

Mr White said the dispute reminded him of decisions he had to make about historic parts of Boston and that the preservation of historical sites such as the 18th-century Faneuil Hall have “aided our city and its people in every way”.

However, it took the government over six months to reply to this letter due to the “uncertainty surrounding the matter”.

A senior civil servant at the taoiseach’s office wanted to forget about replying because the letter was prompted by one of Fr FX Martin’s colleagues. Fr Martin was a leading member of the campaign to save Wood Quay.

However, the Department of Finance told the civil servant that a letter from the taoiseach was necessary.

In a draft letter dated April 30th, 1979, taoiseach Jack Lynch explained to the mayor that the site was different because “here we are dealing not with historic buildings but with a site which has produced evidence of successive periods of occupation from as early as the 9th century”.

The only structure capable of being preserved is the old city wall, he said.