Sir, - Some of us in Sandymount are prepared to accept that the salvation of the old Presbyterian church on Tritonville Road is a lost cause, as explained by Rev Alan Martin (August 10th). The church lost its heart when it lost its worshipping congregation 20 years ago, and many of us remember seeing the rotten baulks of timber and the mouldering fabric of the building when the spire had to be removed in the late 1980s. It is reasonable to accept that the Presbyterian Church "cannot be expected to maintain a useless shell indefinitely". Maybe a well developed scheme of sheltered housing for the elderly, as proposed, could complement the site, and even be an improvement on the utilitarian dwellings that were built on the grounds of the manse in the 1970s and which did so little to enhance the aesthetics of the environment of the church.
What galls many of us in this area, however, is the fact that the Presbyterian Trust has allowed its church and hall to deteriorate visibly over the past decade, through the period of one lapsed planning permission and on into the next. Slates are slipping, glass is broken, stonework is chipping, and the gardens are unkempt. The church has changed from being one of Sandymount's venerable landmarks to a veritable eyesore. It was the local Tidy Town Committee volunteers who painted the iron railings some time ago to try to maintain some vestige of dignity for the old building.
The cavalry, in the shape of Frank McDonald, An Taisce, et al, are now galloping over the hill, full of righteous indignation about the threat to our architectural heritage. Too late. The die was cast for this piece of our heritage 20 years ago through a combination of age, nature, and the owners' deliberate neglect. The Presbyterian Trust, unwittingly or otherwise, has been acting like the speculative developers of the 1960s and 1970s who allowed sites to deteriorate to the state where the only merciful thing to do was to demolish and rebuild. It should now put this old church out of its misery without delay, redevelop the site sensitively, and have respect for the crucial and significant position it maintains as one of the gateways to Sandymount. - Yours, etc.,
Rodney Devitt, Tritonville Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4.