It's Ireland's "finest medieval city", according to the Rough Guide, which enthuses about its "narrow, cheerful streets laced with carefully maintained buildings".
"The best preserved medieval town in Ireland," says Let's Go; "perhaps the most attractive large town in the country," chips in the Lonely Planet.
When travel writers visit Kilkenny, they don't just write a good review, they go into raptures. Strange then that it should take a Kilkenny man to stand up and declare, at a time when the city's reputation has never been higher, that Kilkenny has lost the plot.
John McGuinness, a Fianna Fail TD, stresses that he's not knocking his home city. He appreciates the qualities which have made Kilkenny an essential stopover for tourists in the south-east and a favourite weekend destination for hip young Dubliners.
But he claims that what most attracts tourists is authenticity, a belief that the place they're visiting is real and has a distinctive character. That's what made Kilkenny an attractive city in the first place, he says.
"We preserved it, maybe by accident, but generally speaking we preserved it for ourselves. So when people came to visit us they experienced the quality of life that we were enjoying and the manner in which we had looked after the city."
But the spirit of the city is being endangered by a process of "over-gentrification", he says, including inappropriate Victorian street furniture, false shop fronts, and brick roads which make Kilkenny city centre look like, well, any town or city centre you care to mention.
His view is supported by the Kilkenny Association of An Taisce, whose acting chairman, Susan Proud, says recent developments are eating away at the fabric of Kilkenny. "For example, the original shop fronts are being removed and pastiche Victorian fronts busily erected in their place, but the originals were so much more beautiful."
Not everyone agrees. Mr David Fitzgerald, incoming president of Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce, says that while individual points such as the choice of street furniture are a matter for debate, the overall reaction to the way the city is being developed has been very good.
The Kilkenny County Secretary, Philip O'Neill, also insists that the inner core of the city has maintained its character, as is demonstrated in the City Scope exhibition, which shows Kilkenny as it was in the 1640s.
"Many tourists view the City Scope before embarking on the walking tour of the city which is conducted by Tynan Tours, and many visitors remark on how much of the medieval city has remained intact," he says.
"Successive corporations have had progressive conservation and preservation policies which ensured the survival of the best of Kilkenny's heritage."
However, Ms Proud agrees with Mr McGuinness that while a fake, uncharacteristic look is being developed for Kilkenny, buildings which should be preserved are being lost to the city. He cites, as examples, the loss of two Georgian houses, with the exception of the facades, in Kieran Street, which were redeveloped by Dunnes Stores, and the destruction of the 160-year-old Tyler's Building in High Street by AIB.
Both companies acted within the planning laws, but Mr McGuinness is critical of their approach. Dunnes had planning permission from Kilkenny Corporation but turned down a request by the local Heritage Action Group that it retain the interiors of the buildings concerned. AIB, in successfully appealing to An Bord Pleanala, ignored the wishes of local councillors, he says.
A Dunnes Stores spokeswoman says the company always complies fully with the requirements of the planning authorities and did so in Kilkenny. AIB says it is sensitive to whatever environment it operates in, and in this case acted, as always, in accordance with the planning permission given.
Not only is Kilkenny's true heritage being forgotten, Mr McGuinness argues, but this generation is failing to leave its mark on the future. "We haven't even the courage to replace what is lost with new and radical architecture." Instead, inadequate copies are being erected.
Another bugbear is inappropriate PVC windows; while Kilkenny displays an apparent concern for preserving the past, these are becoming more and more common.
Mr McGuinness adds that some buildings can be "over-preserved" when they should be left as they are. To see how things should be done, he says, you can go to Kells, just outside the city, where the 12th-century Augustinian priory is "an example of an old building, untouched, being preserved, and adding huge value to the county of Kilkenny".
