Galway Arts Centre, located in a historic building renovated last year at a cost of £500,000, has had to close its art gallery to the public because of a noxious smell.
The smell - not unlike that of sewage - became apparent shortly after the building reopened last October.
The arts centre, in Lady Gregory's former town house now owned by Galway Corporation, was closed for most of 1998 due to refurbishment. It involved an extension of the gallery space and the addition of new workshops. The centre also houses the Cuirt Literary Festival.
The centre reopened with an exhibition by the Portadown-born painter Charles Lamb (18931964). But celebrations had barely ended when problems began, due to the dreadful smell in the building's ground-floor gallery and because the expanded building required extra electricity, causing frequent power failure.
The electrical problems were solved just after Christmas, according to the centre's acting executive director, Ms Trish Fitzpatrick. However, the smell persisted.
Galway Corporation and Glenman, the building company which renovated the building , have spent the last month trying to find the source of the smell, says Ms Fitzpatrick said.
"This is an old building and because of the electricity problems they thought it might have been due to damp. But after a meeting last Friday attended by the builders, the architect, corporation representatives and staff from the centre, they decided to close it and carry out repair work on the ground floor."
Arts centre staff members were unable to continue working in that area because of the smell, a corporation representative, Mr Michael Burke, said. "They did try to keep going with the windows open but at night-time when the centre was locked the smell built up and was noxious. We've had men working on the building since last week and have had to close downstairs to identify the source of the smell and resolve the problem."
Mr Burke explained that the corporation was reluctant to dig up the floorboards because they are made of pitch pine, but decided there was no alternative.
Classes, workshops and lectures scheduled for the coming week will continue on the arts centre's other floors. However, the exhibition area will remain closed until the smell is gone.