This week is European Heritage Week, but are we doing enough to preserve and protect our national treasures and landscape, asksSylvia Thompson
The word heritage has a static, unchangeable feel to it, as if what we have inherited is immutable, forever belonging to an often poorly understood past. Yet, every year since the early 1990s we celebrate this past in a week of activities that encourages us all to interact with our natural and built heritage and come away enriched by the experience.
But how significant is this week-long focus on our heritage? Does it reflect a genuine pride in our national treasures and, more importantly, a respect for their preservation and conservation? And, who decides what is, or should be, part of our heritage anyway?
Michael Starrett of the Heritage Council, Mary Bryan of the Irish Georgian Society and Ian Lumley from An Taisce are what we might call heritage stakeholders, each with a strong and influential agenda to push on heritage issues. It is easy therefore for them to agree that Heritage Week, which is part of the EU and Council of Europe initiative, European Heritage Days, is a positive awareness-raising exercise. However, press them further on what our heritage means to us and you'll find a divergence of views.
"Heritage Week is of vital significance for Ireland itself and in the context of Europe," says Starrett, chief executive of the State-funded Heritage Council. He points to the low awareness of heritage evident in the results of a survey carried out by the Heritage Council almost five years ago.
"We found that people had compartmentised 'heritage' and didn't see themselves as part of it. Since then we [in the Heritage Council\] have looked at the impact of landscape, forestry and agriculture [on heritage\] and this has helped people relate it to their everyday lives. Next year, we will repeat that survey and hope to see changes both at government level and in the general public's perception of heritage."
Mary Bryan, chief executive of the Irish Georgian Society, says: "The level of awareness that we need to care for the built heritage has vastly improved. There are still historic hang-ups, particularly that buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries are part of our colonial heritage and are not Irish but that attitude has generally disappeared and is gone from political thinking."
However, it takes more than changed attitudes to fix leaking roofs as the study by Dr Terence Dooley, A Future For Irish Historic Houses, launched today by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, points out. A study of 50 of Ireland's great houses, the report looks at their current status and identifies potential threats to their future.
Private and State-owned houses, such as Belvedere House outside Mullingar, Co Westmeath, Kylemore Abbey in Co Galway, Bantry House, Co Cork, Birr Castle, Co Offaly and Abbey Leix House in Co Laois are included.
The need to examine the case for a National Trust-type legislation, increased funding in line with the Planning Act 2000 Part IV and tax exemption for funds generated privately for conservation purposes are among the chief recommendations.
The Irish Georgian Society would also like to see better promotion of Ireland's historic houses. However Lumley, heritage officer with An Taisce, believes such promotion thwarts our sense of values and responsibility towards our heritage.
"Heritage is becoming more marginalised and packaged as a tourism product or something to do on a Sunday afternoon, while other individuals get on with the business of development," says Lumley. He also believes that new heritage structures, such as heritage officers in local authorities, the national architectural inventory (a county-by-county directory of all buildings, with details on their architectural significance) and even the Heritage Council itself are not having enough impact at local and national government level.
"They are a multiple disappointment," says Lumley, who also says that Council of Europe conventions on architecture, heritage, landscape and archaeology are not being complied with in this country because they don't have sufficient legal status.
An Taisce's involvement in appealing development plans which will put at risk buildings of historical merit is well documented. Lumley paints a bleak picture of how continued insensitive planning decisions made by local councillors still hold sway and that heritage officers don't have the clout to argue against them.
"Such [poor planning] decisions undermine the maintenance of a consistent national listings system," continues Lumley. "And although the repositioning of heritage within the Department of the Environment and Local Government (it was formerly with the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht) makes the situation more transparent, there is a lack of investment in resources and a reluctance to confront vested interests." Lumley believes that a heritage agency should be independent of government "because it will have to make decisions that go against government proposals".
The Heritage Council, although funded by the Department of Environment, is an independent agency, says Starrett, and he hopes that its role will be strengthened in a forthcoming review of the functions of the Heritage Council and the Office of Public Works.
Starrett believes that people will only become more responsible for their heritage if they are given a stronger role in decisions about local heritage issues. "There is a new paradigm across Europe which links the cultural with the natural heritage and involves local communities in the process. You can see strands of this thinking in the Fischler proposals of agricultural reform, in Teagasc's approach to looking at the impact of agriculture on the landscape and in how forestry is embracing ideas of sustainability." Starrett also points to the recent development of strategic policy committees at local government level which involve non-elected individuals in the decision-making about local issues, including those relating to heritage.
Funding local heritage projects through their grant schemes has undoubtedly been one of the most successful strands of the Heritage Council's work to date. Projects as diverse as re-roofing Longford House, a placename survey of Co Kerry, development of a waymarked walking route in the Burren and the creation of heritage fruit collections have received grants this year.
Such grant schemes not only provide much needed funds to local projects but they also foster pride in the maintenance and enhancement of the local environment and our natural, built or cultural heritage. Ultimately, it is much more likely to be a process such as this which will build on grassroots appreciation for heritage in its widest context.
Then maybe Heritage Week will become more of a home-team celebration of year-round interaction with our heritage rather than once-off outings to places we know we should know better.