New civic trust will look at taking ownership of Athy’s historic buildings
Seamus Taaffe, cllr Mark Leigh, cllr Veralouise Behan, Clem Roche and Michael Donovan, who will be part of Athy Civic Trust.
After a number of months of negotiations, the Athy Civic Trust was inaugurated last week (24 September), and will consist of the five local councillors, with Seamus Taaffe as secretary and Clem Roche as the chair.
“It will be based around a limited company to start, and then we will apply for charitable status, and then we can begin compiling reports into the built heritage of the town,” said Seamus Taaffe.
In last week’s , his father Frank highlighted what is central to this trust. ‘Our town is very much defined not only by its people, but also by its built heritage and there are many buildings which we pass on a daily basis without a second thought, such as Woodstock Castle, White Castle, the town hall, the Dominican Church and the Model School,’ he wrote.
Picking up on this point, Seamus expanded: “It would be one thing to acquire White’s Castle, but for what purpose? Town hall? Museum? Art gallery?
“There’s no doubt it’s an iconic building,” he said. “But the purpose of this trust is to decide how would the people of Athy like to use it. People would love to get access to a place that everybody walks past,” he said.
“Public access would be a very big thing, but we don’t want to go off bald-headed to acquire the castle, but would look to get into negotiations with the owner. She is very conscious of its iconic position in the town, and it would be nice to link up with her ideas,” said Seamus.
“It has caused great interest for the possibility of public access. Most people in Athy have never seen inside.
“There was a brief window about 15 or 20 years ago when [Bray-based property developer] Gabriel Dooley had plans for it that didn’t come to fruition. He did a lot to protect the castle and was very good to allow access over the course of a few weekends.
“We wouldn’t be focusing just on White’s Castle, but also on the town hall, as well as the Shackleton Museum where the work there will be finished in spring next year, to be open for June,” Seamus revealed.
