Re: Re: The Irish Town – Dying At The Crossroads?

I know you’re all talking sense here, but I just glaze over when people start talking economics and social order.

What infuriates me most about the state of Irish towns is the wishy washy planning approach to ‘Main Street’. They’ll cheerfully grant planning permission for three & four storey apartment blocks in hybrid modern/vernacular housing estates on the outskirts of town, but when it comes to the decimated original Main Street, ”conservation” considerations dictate you have to match the nearest gutter line!

a 19th century painting of High Street, Kilmallock showing the ruins of mostly 16th century structures.

Four hundred years ago the ‘Main Street’ of an Irish town had scale and status. Imposing stone town houses juxtaposed with vernacular cottages, urbanism in the making, now they’re lucky to have a plastic Londis and a set-back ‘Community Hall’.

The failure of planning in Irish towns is not just about the suburban type sprawl and the stupid zonings, it about allowing weakness to creep into the centre and a lack of belief in urbanism.