Towers of strength face a retirement of abandonment and collapse

JUST as paintings “go into a wall” over time, as their owners become so used to them that they hardly notice them any more, so a once-dominant feature of the Irish coastline has become almost invisible.

It’s the Martello tower.

The only places where Martello towers still present a blunt, stark and unmistakable profile are the island sites, where they still stand free of other buildings. In sharp contrast, many of the towers on land have been overtaken, surrounded and diminished in locational importance by the encroachment of railway bridges, blocks of apartments, schools and shops.