In 2003, when the preservation of Trim Castle in Co Meath won an award from the pan-European heritage organisation Europa Nostra, it seemed to be a sign that this country was finally achieving a mature and civilised appreciation of its own history, writes Fintan O'Toole.
The castle, with its relatively intact keep, curtain walls and gatehouses, all built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, is one of the most important complexes of Norman buildings in Europe. Looming over the Boyne and the surrounding landscape, it bears potent witness to the raw power and technological mastery of a force that shaped the development of modern Europe, and in particular of these islands.
And then, quite suddenly, this monument to Irish history became a monument to Irish misgovernment. Having spent €4.5 million of public (mostly EU) money on restoring the castle, the State then facilitated its effective defacement by the placement of a four-storey hotel and car-park right next to it. Frank McDonald has covered the story superbly in this newspaper, and now the first report from the Centre for Public Inquiry takes it further. The report reveals, among other things, that two years after receiving a major European award, the State's handling of Trim Castle is now the subject of an EU Commission investigation. The way a proud achievement has been turned into a shameful episode is a grim example of the abysmal quality of governance in Ireland.
The land on which the hotel is being built, just yards from the castle wall, used to belong to a local woman, Sheila Kealey, and to the Sisters of Mercy. Ms Kealey wanted to build a small coffee shop on her plot but was told by Trim Town Council that she would never get planning permission for a commercial development so close to the castle. She therefore sold it to the county council. The nuns' plot was bought by the council in 1997, using a €63,000 grant from the State. Both plots were to be used for a car-park which was regarded as a central part of the development of the castle as a public attraction.
In April 2001, however, the council put an ad in the Meath Chronicle inviting expressions of interest in the site from developers. It also established an advisory panel to make recommendations on these proposals. This unelected panel then decided to support a proposal from a local developer for a 68-bed hotel on the site. Before the town council was told of this recommendation, however, the developer was informed in writing that his proposal had been accepted. The elected representatives were then warned that they could face possible litigation if they did not approve the sale of the land. Some are quoted in the CPI report to the effect that they voted to approve the sale purely because of this threat.
There is no suggestion of anything underhand in all of this. What is clear, however, is that a mind-boggling decision to put a large, ugly hotel right beside a major national monument was taken in a way that lacked both transparency and democratic accountability.
These local failures were then replicated at national level. Dúchas, the State heritage service, made it clear both to the developers and to the then minister for the environment, Martin Cullen, that the hotel proposal was simply "inappropriate in this highly sensitive historic location adjacent to Trim Castle, a national monument in State care". Martin Cullen rejected this advice, however, and opted instead to support a scaled-back version of the hotel. His personal adviser amended a proposed letter from Dúchas to Trim Council, removing references to the "inappropriate" nature of the development and demands for a "radical redesign". The minister's office prevented Dúchas from lodging an objection to the development.
After planning permission was granted, senior officials in the Department of the Environment, including the chief archaeologist Brian Duffy, wanted to appeal it to An Bord Pleanála. They were prevented from doing so by the minister. It was a mark of the absurdity of the process that the only objection actually lodged with An Bord Pleanála came from one of its own inspectors, Brian Kelly, who was outraged by the proposal. He, however, came under pressure from the developers who accused him of a conflict of interest and of acting like a "mother hen" fussing over heritage issues, and he withdrew his objection.
Martin Cullen publicly defended his refusal to allow Dúchas to object by claiming that he had achieved a scaling-back of the hotel. In fact, the end result of the whole fiasco was that the hotel was actually scaled-up, from 58 to 68 bedrooms, with an additional 54 car-parking spaces.
A public, internationally heralded policy of preserving and protecting one of the most important historical monuments in the country clashed with the interests of a local developer and the local developer won hands down. That is the way this place has always worked and our heritage of indifference and crassness is in safe hands.