By Andy Spearman

“There are no problem buildings, only problem owners"

A Heritage Officer with An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, has strongly criticised local property owners and Louth County Council for allowing many of Drogheda’s finest buildings to fall into dereliction.

Speaking on Sunday afternoon at a tour of Drogheda organised by a group of concerned citizens going by the name of the Drogheda Vacancy and Dereliction Task Force, Ian Lumley contrasted the condition that Drogheda has fallen into with that of other medieval towns including his hometown of Waterford.

“Waterford has made a virtue of its medieval street plan and buildings and now, along with Kilkenny, it is a place to be proud of” he said. “Drogheda on the other hand is a fiasco”.

“This dates back to the 1970’s because Drogheda Borough Council was absolutely useless in looking after the town” he said, “when the Drogheda Grammar School moved outside town, the buildings in Laurence Street were abandoned by whatever shyster bought them.”

The Georgian Society intervened at the time and Lumley was involved with a group that offered to inhabit and secure the buildings to prevent them from becoming empty. That request was spurned, and the Drogheda Grammar School was left as a derelict shell and was eventually illegally demolished.

“I would have thought lessons would have been learned, but I don’t see any sign of that” Lumley said. “The level of historic buildings in Drogheda being left to rot for decades is worse than in any other Irish town.

“All of the problems affecting buildings in Drogheda stem from the fact that they were allowed to become empty by negligent and incompetent owners” Lumley continued.

“There are no problem buildings, only problem owners and the worst thing an owner can do is to leave a building vacant.

“For a town of its size, Drogheda is way out of line and that is because Louth Count Council has been utterly negligent in taking the early intervention under the derelict Sites Act 1990.”

He gave as an example the building at 7 Palace Street (above) which has ivy growing over it and is boarded up and derelict for at least ten years but the Council only got round to putting a Derelict Sites Notice on it in March.

Mr. Lumley said he has offered to help in this situation, both personally and through organisations such as An Taisce and others who, he said, have brought buildings in much worse condition than those in Narrow West Street back to life.

He also said that he had tried to contact Niall Kelly, the owner of several buildings in Narrow West Street, but he never called back. “Any attempt to call Mr. Kelly or his structural engineer has not borne fruit.”

“The Council really need to get tough, what is now needed is serious use of the Planning Act if you have a protected property, Section 59 of the Planning Act confers an obligation on an owner to maintain it.

“I gather there is nobody here from the Chamber of Commerce. How can a town claim to have a chamber of commerce and allow this sort of situation to exist? I’m baffled!”

 The Mayor of Drogheda Councillor Michelle Hall, the only Councillor present, (pictured above pinning a rosette on the door of the Council's new Civic Offices in Fair Street which was the most improved building), said she is a teacher not a structural engineer but obviously the Councillors are aware of this situation.

Dom Gradwell, one of the organisers of the event, said there is a difference between property ownership and custodianship. “If you have the privilege of being the owner of a property, you have the responsibility to be a custodian of that property. It is part of our built heritage and that belongs to us all” he said.

Another of the tour’s stopping points was McPhails Bar in Laurence Street which was a hive of activity for many years but is now vacant, derelict, ugly and probably dangerous. It is owned by Eamon Waters who five years ago sold his waste management company, Panada, for €1.4bn.

“He has very deep pockets and he owns this building which is one of the oldest pubs in town and there’s a preservation order on both the interior and the outside although you’d never know it” Mr. Gradwell said.

“It closed just after the Fleadh and has been left to go to rack and ruin ever since. It won second place in our poll of most derelict sites so I’d like to present the award to Eamonn Waters who unfortunately is not here himself, so we’ll pin it to the door.”

At Laurence’s Gate the next speaker, Ann McVeigh, who was a driving force in the campaign to have it closed to traffic, reminded the 50 or so people present of the photo of a truck stuck under the gate.

“That picture went round the world and people got mobilised and, after a year of activism both in Drogheda and worldwide, in May of 2017, the local Councillors supported the closure of the Gate to traffic.

“Since then, the only thing that has happened is that the railings have disappeared and some planters have been installed. The best thing that happened was that for several years we had Music at the Gate which happened monthly and really highlighted Drogheda and the Gate.
“We are a heritage town and there should be funding for things like that, but it just doesn’t seem to come our way.

In 2023 Louth Council were reported to be advancing plans for a public realm at Laurence’s Gate, promising road resurfacing and realignment, lighting and street furniture and most importantly a performance space but none of that has progressed so far.

“I know the Heritage Council have not funded this so far so I can’t blame Louth County Council because they have put those plans out there, and they would like to enact them, but it seems we just can’t seem to mobilise people to make that happen.”