Phoenix: War damage?

There is a preserved, heavily pockmarked with war damage, brick wall in Munich, Germany, which serves as a reminder of the damage the city suffered in WW ll. Locals call the wall “Wunden der Erinnerung”, the wounds of memory. 

Munich, like all urban areas in Bavaria, is a fabulous city. The very idea of dereliction there is funny and hardly imaginable. If memory serves, Waterford was bombarded in 1650 or thereabouts when Cromwell and his merry men fired across the river, there being no bridge at the time. One of his cannonballs is still stuck in the upper reaches of Reginald’s Tower. The last time Waterford city was subject to war-time bombardment was during the Civil War in 1922 when the republican side occupied the city and raised the opening span of the old Redmond Bridge, effectively isolating us. 

Free State troops set up an artillery position on Mount Misery behind the Ardree Hotel and bombarded the city with high explosive shells for several days. The artillery barracks, where St Carthage’s Avenue now is, was destroyed and the GPO on Custom House Quay also suffered several direct hits. 

The GPO was repaired and the artillery Barracks (near Cannon Street) was redeveloped as council housing.

We haven’t had a shooting war here in the recent past, but we have tangible wounds to our urban fabric: derelict, undeveloped and poorly maintained properties across the city. Some remind you of Dublin’s Smithfield in 1965 when “The Spy who came in from the Cold”, based on John le Carre’s eponymous novel, was filmed there. The director found in Dublin, a site resembling a post WW ll, war-damaged city. 

Since then, Dublin has changed beyond belief and Smithfield is a trendy, centre city complex of offices and apartments. Our capital city still has blackspots and ugly sites. There is no excuse for them, there or here. They are, as David McWilliams wrote, a sign of too much rather than too little money. His economic argument being that if owners of derelict property are short of cash, they would sell it.

Last week was really balmy and it was a pleasure to walk around our city. It looks well. While national recognition for Waterford has never been high, it has improved immensely over the past two decades. Much remains to be done but we are making ground. 

We lag our once peer cities largely because of Government’s continuing unwillingness to make the investments here across any state metric that have gone to the other three regional cities, Cork, Limerick and Galway. The latter two cities have each had at least 1,000 new FDI jobs every year for the past five years (IDA stats). 

The economic boost such development gave to those places is incomprehensible to us. Do ask our political representatives about the disparity. 

Meanwhile, in our chicken and egg situation, risk-averse, disinterested property owners sit on empty sites or run-down property in the hope of an eventual speculative gain. Many of these sites are like wounds on our urban landscape. They unfairly continue to undermine the city’s appearance and economic potential.

The Ardree hotel has rotted for more than two decades. Its owner seems to have no intention of doing anything with it. In any other country it would be confiscated at peppercorn cost by the state. 

The surface car park in Exchange Street, of unknown ownership, reflects 20 years of ugliness. The dreadful yard at the rear of the PO sorting office. The remains of the Power Seeds' building on the Dunmore Road looking like a relic from WW ll overnight bombing with gaunt steel roof trusses poking skywards. It has been derelict for 20 years. 

Has anyone any influence with the owners? 

Shefflin’s in Manor Street? The Yellow House on the Cork Road, directly opposite the superb new Glassworks development? Browne’s Lane, Stephen Street, New Street, Back Lane? 

The proliferation of vape shops in the city centre, part of an international trend, is concerning, but as a serious people in a serious city our local councillors must scream from the high heavens about such neglect. We simply cannot afford this stuff. 

Our council is not immune from criticism either. While it cannot be the developer or purchaser of last resort, the Parade Quay redevelopment of council property is 12 years waiting for the off! 

A proposed new development in Hanover Street on the Munster Express site has vanished into the air. It is instructive that of the three properties grant-aided for refurbishment in recent government announcements, the one in Mary Street, Dungarvan (a worthwhile project) is first off the blocks with a “call for tenders” notice on the e-tenders website. Rumour has it that the redevelopment of the beautiful 18 Lady Lane will proceed this year. What a boost that would be.

There were great hopes of some boutique hotels opening in the city centre. One at 44 The Quay didn’t proceed. One at the Maryland site on The Mall opposite the Bishop’s Palace awaits a commencement notice. 

The one at the old Ulster Bank on Custom House Quay is deeply dispiriting. This magnificent building’s ground floor, five bay, arched window design, mirrors the early 18th century (1713) Exchange (hence Exchange Street), which previously occupied the site. Work started and then halted. It now has a single broken window on an upper floor. What did the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani (and Nobel laureate Robert Reich) say before he decamped to Trump? “A single broken window left unrepaired signals that nobody cares.”

On a brighter note, it’s wonderful to see scaffolding erected on the GPO as the building will be reroofed. There have been many complaints over the years that the OPW rarely does anything with state property in Waterford city. In recent times the entire remains of Greyfriars Abbey have been clad in scaffolding as the OPW repoints and repairs the stonework on that 13th-century edifice. This is vital work. Fáilte Ireland speak of a tourism “Attraction of Scale“ for Waterford. Tramore had Celtworld. Surely, no more of that please. The redevelopment, refurbishment and reinstatement of significant properties and sites in the historic city must form the coherent basis of any new attraction.