Nenagh Castle in North Tipperary is one of the finest surviving examples of an Anglo-Norman round keep in Ireland. But plans to develop the castle as a major tourist attraction have been seriously scaled down, much to the anger of local campaigners.
The Irish Times has learned that plans to develop an interpretive centre with a cafe, toilet facilities and an enclosed walkway accessing the first floor of the castle are not now going ahead 2½ years after they were approved.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Environment and Local Government said the number of visitors to the castle did not appear to warrant the funding needed to build the interpretive centre.
"Following a review of NDP in 2003-04 the decision was taken in April 2004 not to go ahead with the Nenagh Castle project due to financial constraints. Local interest groups were advised of this."
Local campaigners are angry at the news and they insist this is first they have heard of it.
Nenagh businessman and chairman of the Nenagh Tourism, Marketing and Development Group, Mr Stephen Slattery, who has campaigned for the development of Nenagh Castle since 1995, said: "I am shocked that as chairman of the group I have to find out this news this way," he said.
The Department said €100,000 would be spent on the castle this year: €30,000 will be spent to improve access to and security at the castle and €70,000 is for refurbishment works on two derelict houses on Pearse Street, adjacent to the castle.
Plans for the development of these two buildings into a base for the Office of Public Works are going ahead, the spokeswoman stated.
Nenagh Town Council owns the premises at 35-36 Pearse Street but it is expected the legal transfer of these premises to the Department and the refurbishment will be completed by the end of the current year, according to the Department.
These scaled-down plans have been criticised by Mr Slattery who said there was no point spending a little money refurbishing the castle, if plans for proper access to the keep, incorporating a bridge or a ramp, were not going ahead.
"The castle is a unique example of an Anglo-Norman round keep in Ireland. It is used as an emblem for everything that is made in the town.
"Visitors to the town always ask those living near the castle how to get in to see the castle and why it is derelict.
"If it was developed as a tourist attraction, I am certain that it would be a viable one. We have nothing in the town from a tourist attraction point of view," he added.
He also expressed his disappointment that the offer from the Kennedy family, and in particular former US ambassador to Ireland Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, to donate a 668-year-old treaty scroll to the castle when it was refurbished would now be unable to go ahead.
The treaty between the Earl of Ormond and the O'Kennedy chieftains was signed on the site of the Ormonde castle in Nenagh.
Meanwhile, Mr Joe O'Connor, president of Nenagh Chamber of Commerce, has criticised Nenagh Town Council for failing to maintain the park around the castle, which he said had become a "haunt for undesirable behaviour".