Heritage group plans to revisit Fr Mathew Hall issue

There seemed to be a general consensus from those present at the public meeting on the Fr Mathew Hall development that if public pressure forced the councillors to do a u-turn on the one-way system, the same could be achieved for Fr Mathew Hall. Approximately 50 people attended the meeting in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, which was organised by the Athlone Architectural Heritage Group. While there were some positive comments regarding the plans, the majority of people were quite vocal in their opposition of the planned development and the proposal to house an art gallery in the building, with most people in favour of moving the tourist office into Fr Mathew Hall. Cathal O"Kelly gave a brief presentation on the building at the start of the meeting before a discussion, ranging from the possibility of establishing a Count John McCormack Museum to the need for toilets and the vandalism of the building, was held. Mr O"Kelly said a growing number of people in the town were becoming concerned about the cultural heritage of Athlone, which had led to the establishment of the Athlone Architectural Heritage Group. He pointed out that there would be a number of benefits to locating the tourist office in Fr Mathew Hall, such as ease of access, having toilet facilities tourists could use, the location of Fr Mathew Hall beside the town"s main tourist attraction. It could also only help that the Bridge of Athlone was the most important crossing point on the Shannon and that Fr Mathew Hall was associated with Count John McCormack. He said it was the position of the Athlone Architectural Heritage Group that the building should be included in the record of protected structures, that the proposed development would be a mutilation of the existing design and that it was out of character with surrounding architecture. The group would like to see the tourist office with a cafe and meeting rooms located in the Fr Mathew Hall. Mr O"Kelly added that the group was in favour of having an art gallery in the town, but not in Fr Mathew Hall and said the pigmentation of the paintings couldn"t stand a lot of natural light and so the amount of glass in the design was inappropriate. 'We"re not against an art gallery but there"s no need to butcher Fr Mathew Hall,' he said. Mr O"Kelly added that the group had carried out a survey of 48 businesses in the town asking them if they felt the tourist office should be open all year round and if they felt Fr Mathew Hall should be used as a tourist office. All businesses surveyed responded yes to both questions. After a short break the meeting was opened to the floor for questions or comments. Chairman of the Athlone branch of the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind Michael Duffy was the first to speak, pointing out that the tourist office in its present location in the castle was inaccessible for blind and visually impaired people who use guide dogs and also for children with autism who use guide dogs and he thought the tourist office and an art gallery could be accommodated in Fr Mathew Hall. Other comments from the floor included the need for the people and businesses of the town to get together and promote tourism and provide facilities such as a year-round tourist office, public toilets and other facilities to entice visitors to stay in the town. Jimmy O"Connor, who had been integral to the Save the Fr Mathew Hall campaign, addressed the crowd, saying the plan was a violation of the building. He added that he was not happy about the plans to cut down trees on the promenade and said the people of Athlone owned Fr Mathew Hall and the promenade. Mick Meade, who was chairing the meeting, pointed out that the group proposed that the art gallery could be located in Court Devenish House, which has recently come on the market and would be available for this purpose for €1.5m. Senator Nicky McFadden said when she was on the council she had tried to have Fr Mathew Hall added to the list of protected structures. She said there had been talk of knocking it and she believed this glass structure was better than knocking the building. She added that there had been toilets in this location before and they had to be closed because they weren"t looked after. 'I am fully supportive of the path you have taken and I agree that the tourist office is in a completely unacceptable place,' she said. In relation to the concerns that the glass would let in too much natural light and damage the paintings, Finian Coughlan said it was possible to get light-sensitive glass, which had been done in other art galleries in the country. He said the proposed glass structure mirrored the Radisson SAS Hotel across the river and this wasn"t the worst idea in the world. Some members of the audience also raised concerns about the addition of boardwalks and said they could lead to anti-social behaviour in the area. As the discussion topics began to wander slightly, one audience member said it was important the group didn"t lose its focus and had come here to show their support Fr Mathew Hall. He said this decision was too difficult to be left on the shoulders of politicians and proposed that the group took a vote to reject the decision to disturb Fr Mathew Hall. Labour"s Cllr Ray Lennon then addressed the meeting, saying he had put down a motion at the recent Athlone Town Council meeting on the issue and had been ruled out of order by Mayor Egbert Moran. He said he felt the council should consider putting tourist services and other facilities in Fr Mathew Hall. He said an art gallery on its own would not make money and was not economically viable. Cllr Lennon added that €3.2m was too much money to spend on such a project in these times and suggested that the council contact architecture students at the college to see what they would propose for the building. Senator Nicky McFadden said she had approached Fáilte Ireland previously about relocating the tourist office and there was no way they would do it. The group then asked for a show of hands from those in favour of retaining a refurbished Fr Mathew Hall and the promenade as it was and also separately from those in favour of asking Athlone Town Council to revoke its decision. While chair of the meeting Mick Meade said there was unanimous support from those present on both issues, in this reporter"s view this was not quite the case and while they were in the minority, some people in the room were not in favour of these proposals. The group then pointed out that it had copies of submissions opposing the plans for those wishing to sign them and send them to the council. Fine Gael election candidate Gabrielle McFadden said everyone should flood the council with the letter, saying 'we did it with the one-way system, we can do it for our hall'.