Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Historic and Archaeological Heritage Bill 2023. I welcome the Bill because it is hugely important that we preserve our historic and archaeological monuments. The legislation makes it compulsory for the State to tighten the laws and regulations to make sure that our historical artefacts and buildings are protected for future generations.

I want to speak about the courthouse in Kanturk, which has not been used as a courthouse since 2010. I sit on a local committee and we have done a lot of work over the last two years to try to preserve it. It is a fascinating building. We have a very good, energetic committee that has done an awful lot of research over the past two years but unfortunately, the sad fact is that the building and the history therein is decaying before our eyes. It was built in the early 1820s.

It was designed by the Pain Brothers. It is the only completely intact building designed by them on the island of Ireland and in Scotland, Wales and England. It has huge historical significance. Day-to-day court cases are heard there but also such people as Daniel O'Connell addressed meetings there as did John Twiss who was recently pardoned by Uachtarán na hÉireann. Throughout the past 200 years a raft of history took place there and needs to be protected. It is also a fine building.

The Bridewell Jail at the side of it is of huge significance also. There is graffiti going back to the time of the War of Independence and the Civil War. That is in danger of decaying before our eyes. I have seen the building many times over the past year or so and it certainly has decayed. Here we are talking about putting legislation before the Dáil and the Seanad and onto the Statute books to protect our history. There was a question-mark about the ownership of this building, as with many of the buildings that were given back 200 years ago by the landlord but were never registered by the State. It was signed and certified only as late as 2004 by the then Minister, Michael McDowell. It is owned by the State, by the Courts Service. I pay tribute to the Courts Service because it put tarpaulin on the Bridewell and tried to preserve it. A major piece of work needs to be done. We are looking at a building in State ownership which is decaying before our eyes. We are talking about bringing in this legislation, the spirit of which would be to ensure that individuals, companies or developers will not bulldoze our heritage and architecture. Yet, here we have a building in State ownership with huge history involved in it. The committee that looked at it gathered details of a wealth of history and many people who attended it. Each time they visit further documentation is brought to light. It was also the seat of justice within the Duhallow region. That in itself has a huge amount of history.

We engaged with Cork County Council which met us onsite a week or two ago. The heritage officer has looked at it. Everybody who comes to our building says it is hugely important. The reality is it will take a huge amount of money to preserve it. However, if we do not preserve it in the short term, the graffiti there that was signed by people who founded this State, that was mentioned in other speeches, during the War of Independence and the Civil War, will be lost. There are fantastic drawings of the battleships of the British Empire back in the Great War of 1914-1918. We put it on Facebook. We took shots of the writing. People as far away as America traced their ancestors to it. It was hugely important to them.

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