Contesting conservation-planning: insights from Ireland since independence

ABSTRACT

Where conservation evolves in contentious political contexts, it can be framed by competing priorities reflecting collective remembering, cultural politics and identities intertwined with the symbolic representation of the built environment. Ireland provides a unique lens to examine these themes as the only western European country to experience colonial domination, which forms a key aspect of the context for the evolution of conservation policy and practice. The aim of this paper is to chart the shifting representations of built heritage in Ireland, and their relevance in the emergence of conservation and heritage policy, set in the context of broader social, political and economic change over time. This is achieved, firstly, by a review of secondary source material to identify key events, eras and trends. Discourses of heritage are then examined in debates of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), identifying tensions around the emergence of conservation in a historic environment largely associated with colonial power and identity. These shifting discourses are then related to policy evolution, particularly the late adoption of a legislative framework for conservation (in 1999). Finally, conclusions are developed to identify wider lessons from the production of urban conservation priorities in the context of contested heritage.

KEYWORDS:

• Ireland
• post-colonial
• conservation-planning
• built heritage
• discourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Arthur Parkinson is Assistant Professor of Planning and Urban Design, Programme Director of the MSc Urban Design & Planning at the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, and conservation architect. His research interests relate to built heritage policy, conservation planning, and urban design.

Mark Scott is Professor of Planning at the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin. His main research interests relate to rural planning and development, urban greenspace, and planning and built heritage. He is an editor of the journal, Planning Theory & Practice.

Declan Redmond is Associate Professor of Housing and Planning and Director of Graduate Studies at the School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy, University College Dublin. His principal research interests revolve around housing and planning, urban regeneration, the politics and governance of planning, and conservation policy and practice.

ORCID

Arthur Parkinson https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8307-8425

Mark Scott https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8053-5720

Declan Redmond http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3004-5018

Notes

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2 Johnson, “Cast in Stone”; Devine-Wright and Lyons, “Remembering Pasts”; Whelan, “Monuments”; Whelan, “The Construction and Destruction”; Whelan, Reinventing Modern Dublin; Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin.

3 Guinness, Georgian Dublin; Kearns, Georgian Dublin; McDonald, The Destruction of Dublin; Tovey, “Environmentalism in Ireland”; Hanna, Modern Dublin; Daly, Sixties Ireland; Negussie, “The Evolution of Urban Conservation”; Negussie, “What Is Worth Conserving.”

4 Pendlebury, “Conservation Values”; Pendlebury and Strange, “Centenary Paper.”

5 Graham, Heritage Conservation; Devine-Wright and Lyons, “Remembering pasts”; Negussie, “What is worth conserving”; Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin; Bielenberg, “Exodus.”

6 Wodak, “Critical Discourse Analysis at the End of the 20th Century”; Wodak, “Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory, and Methodology”; Wodak, “Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse-Historical Approach”; Reisigl, The discourse-historical approach.

7 Wodak, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse-Historical Approach, 3.

8 Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis; Parkinson et al., “Defining.”

9 Glendinning, The Conservation Movement.

10 Pendlebury, Conservation in the Age of Consensus.

11 Tait and While, “Ontology and the Conservation of Built Heritage,” 721.

12 Parkinson et al., “Defining.”

13 Van der Toorn Vrijthoff, A Sustainable Future.

14 Pendlebury, Conservation in the Age of Consensus.

15 Kalman, Heritage Planning.

16 Larkham, “The Place of Urban Conservation.”

17 Pendlebury, Conservation in the Age of Consensus.

18 Albers, “Urban Development.”

19 Larkham, “The Place of Urban Conservation.”

20 Taylor, Urban Planning Theory Since 1945.

21 Pendlebury, Conservation in the Age of Consensus.

22 Van der Toorn Vrijthoff, A Sustainable Future.

23 English Heritage, The Heritage Dividend.

24 Pendlebury, Conservation in the Age of Consensus.

25 Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin.

26 Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland.

27 Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin; Moore-Cherry and Whelan, Heritage, Memory.

28 Pendlebury, Heritage and Policy.

29 Schwarz, Mission Impossible, 17.

30 Parkinson et al., “Revalorizing.”

31 Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin, 8.

32 Scott et al., “Active citizenship and local representational politics.”

33 Komito, Personalism and brokerage; Peillon et al., Civic Engagement; Scott et al., “Active citizenship, civil society.”

34 Curtin and Varley, Changing Patterns.

35 Ibid., 16.

36 Government of the United Kingdom, Irish Church Act 1869.

37 Ibid., s.25.

38 Mawhinney, Environmental Conservation, 87; Government of the United Kingdom, Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882.

39 Government of the United Kingdom, Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.

40 Madden, Social Inclusion, 391.

41 Government of the United Kingdom, Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, Part I, 19(1).

42 Mawhinney, Environmental Conservation, 87.

43 Ibid., 89.

44 Ibid., 88.

45 Johnson, “Cast in Stone.”

46 Whelan, “The Construction and Destruction”; Whelan, “Monuments”; Whelan, Reinventing Modern Dublin.

47 Kincaid, “Memory and the City.”

48 MacBride. Cited in Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin, 74.

49 Kenny, The Oxford History, 38–9; D'Arcy, “The Potato in Ireland's.”

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51 Clark, Everyday Violence.

52 Bew, Land and the National Question; Kane, Constructing.

53 Dooley, Decline.

54 Dooley, A Future for Irish Historic Houses?

55 Ferriter, A Nation.

56 Moore, Seanad Debates, 28 March 1923, Vol.1, No.17, Col.718–719.

57 Fraser, John Bull's; Prunty, Dublin slums; McManus, Dublin.

58 Kincaid, Postcolonial Dublin.

59 O’Malley, Dáil Debates, 14 June 1955, Vol.151, No.8, Col.056.

60 Hunt, Ten Cities.

61 Hanna, Modern Dublin.

62 Stanford, Seanad Debates, 24 November 1954, Vol.44, No.3, Col.230–231; Barry, Dáil Committee, 3 May 1956, Vol.156, No.11, Col.403.

63 McQuillan, Dáil Committee, 3 May 1956, Vol.156, No.11, Col.380.

64 Byrne, Dáil Debates, 16 June 1970, Vol. 247, No. 8, Col.138–143.

65 Bennett, Seanad Debates, 13 December 1932, Vol.16, No.7, Col.409.

66 Bourke, Dáil Debates, 24 October 1929, Vol.32, No.2, Col.244.

67 Smith, Uses of Heritage; Parkinson et al., “Defining.”

68 Government of Ireland, National Monuments Act 1930, Part IV, s.21(2).

69 Government of Ireland, Town and Regional Planning Act 1934, Second Schedule, Part III.

70 Mawhinney, Environmental Conservation; Bannon, Irish Planning.

71 Government of Ireland, Town and Regional Planning Act 1934, Second Schedule, Part III.

72 Mawhinney, Environmental Conservation.

73 Negussie, Chapter 8: Ireland.

74 Dolan, Dáil Debates, 28 May 1974, Vol.273, No.1, Col.109–110; Haughey, Dáil Debates, 29 June 1976, Vol. 291 No. 13, Col.860–862.

75 Hanna, Modern Dublin, 66.

76 Ibid., 49–50.

77 Costello, Dáil Debates, 2 July 1957, Vol. 163 No. 4, Col. 405.

78 Tovey, “Environmentalism in Ireland.”

79 Negussie, “What Is Worth Conserving,” 207.

80 Costello, Dáil Debates, 24 April 1951, Vol.125, No.9, Col.288.

81 Corless, From Clery's.

82 Hayes, Seanad Debates, 10 June 1952, Vol. 40, No. 20, Col.329.

83 Aalen, Buildings.

84 Lenehan, Dáil Debates, 11 July 1962, Vol.196, No.12, Col.2123.

85 Dillon, Dáil Debates, 26 July 1961, Vol.191, No.11, Col.881; Burke, Seanad Debates, 2 August 1961, Vol.54, No.16, Col.596; Ryan, Dáil Debates, 29 October 1963, Vol.205, No.3, Col.431; Dockrell, Dáil Debates, 5 November 1963, Vol.205, No.6, Col.932.

86 Lenehan, Dáil Debates, 29 October 1963, Vol.205, No.3, Col.496; Browne, Dáil Debates, 3 November 1964, Vol.212, No.1, Col.154; Lemass, Dáil Debates, 3 November 1964, Vol.212, No.1, Col.154.

87 Burke, Dáil Debates, 11 November 1964, Vol.212, No.5.

88 Dockrell, Dáil Debates, 4 November 1964, Vol.212, No.2, Col.308.

89 Childers, Dáil Debates, 4 November 1964, Vol.212, No.2, Col.318.

90 FitzGerald, Dáil Debates, 16 July 1969, Vol.241, No.5, Col.787.

91 Boland, Dáil Debates, 28 February 1968, Vol.232, No.13, Col.2011.

92 Martin, Politics, Public Protest and the Law, 47–8.

93 Lambert, Seanad Debates, 7 December 1978, Vol.90, No.7, Col.647.

94 Bourke, Dáil Debates, 24 October 1929, Vol.32, No.2, Col.244.

95 FitzGerald, Planning in Ireland.

96 Bannon, Irish Planning, 125.

97 Ibid., 128.

98 Ibid., 148.

99 Ibid., 129.

100 Government of Ireland, Bunreacht na hÉireann: Constitution of Ireland, Article 43.

101 Government of Ireland, Local Government (Planning and Development) Act 1963, Third Schedule, Part IV, s.5.

102 Ibid., Part III, s.19.

103 Ibid., Third Schedule, Part IV, s.5.

104 Blaney, Dáil Debates, 23 November 1965, Vol. 219, No.1, Col.54.

105 Mawhinney, Environmental Conservation.

106 West, Seanad Debates, 1 July 1982, Vol.98, No.7, Col.708.

107 Haughey, Dáil Debates, 14 October 1987, Vol.374, No.1, Col.4.

108 Kincaid, “Memory and the City,” 23.

109 Norris, Seanad Debates, 19 January 1989, Vol.121, No.16, Col.1775; 17 April 1991, Vol.128, No.7, Col.787.

110 Norris, Seanad Debates, 19 January 1989, Vol.121, No.16, Col.1775.

111 Macpherson, The Children.

112 Sinn Fein, Morgan - Lissadell House.

113 Higgins, Dáil Debates, 12 December 1996, Vol.472, No.8, Col.608.

114 Council of Europe, Convention … Ratifications.

115 Barry, Dáil Debates, 12 December 1996, Vol.472, No.8, Col.617.

116 Fine Gael, A Government of Renewal.

117 Negussie, Chapter 8: Ireland.

118 DACG, Strengthening the Protection.

119 Hamond, Industrial Heritage Survey.

120 Government of Ireland, Architectural Heritage … Act 1999.

121 Government of Ireland, Heritage Act 1995, Part II, s.6.

122 Government of Ireland, Planning and Development Act 2000.

123 Julie Martin Associates in association with Alison Farmer Associates, Landscape Character Assessment.

124 MacRory and Kirwan, Chapter 8: Ireland; Negussie, Chapter 8: Ireland; Ó Dúlaing and Matthews, Chapter 22; Stubbs et al., Architectural conservation.

125 DAHG, Architectural Heritage.

126 Norris, Seanad Debates, 3 March 1999, Vol.158, No.9, Col.555–576.

127 O'Keeffe, Landscape and Memory; Moore-Cherry and O'Corrain, “Contextualising the urban legacies.”

128 McManus, “Heritage and Tourism.”

129 Loci et al., Abbeyleix Sustainable Communities.

130 English Heritage, The Heritage Dividend; Pendlebury et al., “The Conservation of English”; Pendlebury, “Conservation Values.”

131 Heritage Council, Place as Resource. Heritage Council, Heritage as an Engine. DAHG, Deenihan initiates.

132 Parkinson et al., “Competing discourses”.

133 Smith, Uses of Heritage. Pendlebury, “Conservation Values.”

134 Schofield, Being Autocentric.

135 Carolan, Government Accused; Carolan, Moore Street “battlefield”; DAHG, Statement from Minister Humphreys.

136 Sorensen, “Taking Path Dependence.”