Restoring the glory of our villages

THE Celtic Tiger helped destroy the character of many old villages, but efforts are underway to preserve what’s left and again make villages attractive places in which to live.

New housing estates, the building of one-off houses on approaches to villages, modern shopping developments, canopied petrol stations and garages which are far better suited to major towns and cities, not to mention plastic and gaudy lighting, have utterly changed certain villages.

Other villages have been turned into dormer towns from which people commute, whilst villages in scenic areas have been over-developed with tax-driven holiday homes, some becoming ghost estates.

On the other hand, villages in remote areas have gone into serious decline and are under threat from neglect and population loss. They have seen the closure of shops, pubs, creameries, garda stations, even schools, and are finding it difficult to field hurling or football teams.

But there is still hope. Whilst the clock cannot be turned back, it is possible to work on old features of villages, such as rivers, river bank walks, bridges, squares, historic landmarks and traditional shopfronts.

The Heritage Council has announced a new scheme, called a village design statement (VDS), which is a planning tool that seeks to involve local communities in setting out how they want their villages to develop in the future.

Lessons can be learned from mistakes made during the economic boom. One is that the development of villages has to be more carefully planned, in contrast to the ad hoc developments of the last 15 to 20 years when scarcely any thought was given to where houses, shops and recreational amenities should be located in such settlements.

Nor did the powers-that-be give much thought to consequent demands for extra water and sewerage works, school buildings, shops, roads and other necessary services. Now, such places are trying to coping with the lack of future planning a few years ago.

Julianstown in Meath has been chosen by the Heritage Council for a pilot VDS which takes into account what is good and unique about the village and is drawing on best design practice on how to develop the village. Residents have begun to play a key role in the future of their own place.

Julianstown, which has a population of 600, is surrounded by the larger towns of Drogheda and Bettystown and has become a route to avoid road tolls. Though a place with its own heritage and distinctiveness, it has the same problems as many other villages.

It suffers from traffic problems, derelict buildings at its core, poorly-sited development on its fringes, lack of amenities for cyclists and walkers, children unable to walk or cycle to school and the lack of small shops and a facility as basic as a café where people might meet.

Athea, in west Limerick, also has a VDS. It is a classic rural village with the standard range of shops, pubs, a church and school. A river is always an advantage when it comes to making a village beautiful and the Galey flows through Athea, offering loads of possibilities. Athea also has a square where fairs and markets were held, whilst Hurley’s Arch is a place where locals like to meet for a chat. Indeed, something many planners refer to when they look at villages is the need for a central point where people can meet, with a square being an obvious one.

One of Ireland’s most beautiful villages, Sneem, in Co Kerry, has both a north and a south square.

The squares in Sneem are well-maintained green spaces on which monuments have been erected. Sneem won the Tidy Towns competition, in the 1980s, and the locals are striving to keep up the high standards set back then.

There is a cluster of villages on both sides of the Cork/Kerry border. Knocknagree is built around an old fair field, which had lain unused for decades after fairs ended in the 1960s. However, work on this green area has turned it into an attractive feature, also providing extra parking. Old fair greens can have huge potential and can become focal points and amenities for village communities.

Kiskeam, a short distance from Knocknagree, is a village that has also seen worthwhile improvements to its streetscape in recent years.

It looks as if Charles Kickham’s old catch-cry about ‘the honour and glory of the little village’ has a new resonance.