Lasting legacy of Fota campaign

THE Irish Heritage Trust is to be congratulated on its thorough restoration of Fota House on Fota Island, Cork, and on securing most of the collection of Irish paintings and furniture I assembled during the 1970s.

They were displayed at Fota for public enjoyment between 1982 and 1991 before the house fell into disrepair and the land was put up for sale by my landlord. Since then Limerick University provided an excellent home for the paintings. Sadly, an important group of paintings has been excluded from the gift to the Irish Heritage Trust.

The role of the Government’s enlightened tax credit scheme for gifts of national importance to institutions such as the Irish Heritage Trust was vital to the return of the collection.

I hope therefore that when people see what has been acquired in perpetuity for Fota, they will feel they got good value for their money. I hope also that the missing paintings from the collection will rejoin the others and fill the gap that has been created.

The all-important role played by the Fota Foundation in Fota’s recent history also should not be forgotten. It was founded by a group of concerned Cork people in 1987 to rescue as much of the island as possible from the grossly inappropriate development then proposed and to preserve it for public enjoyment. As a result of its campaign, supported by many hundreds of people from all walks of life, we have been spared a hotel in the arboretum; the house being used as the foyer of the hotel and time-share bungalows within sight of the hall door. As well as that, unauthorised tree-felling in the arboretum was curtailed.

Finally the campaign secured public access in perpetuity to the house, the arboretum and 70 acres of parkland.

With the reopening of Fota House last Friday by the Taoiseach, the achievements of the Fota Foundation should now also be celebrated and its members and supporters should be thanked for their work and generosity.

It is the objective of the Irish Heritage Trust to preserve the area excluded from development on Fota Island for public enjoyment forever. Without the ground-breaking work of the Fota Foundation and the consequent formation of the Fota Trust, everything that is now being preserved by the Irish Heritage Trust would, in all probability, have been lost forever.

Richard Wood

Rockrohan

Carrigrohane

Co Cork