Cashel is a splendid centre for studying what we have in the way of architecture. It is also a good place for considering what is going to happen to it. To begin with the former job: //Holy Cross Abbey// between Cashel and Thurles is probably the finest existing example of the last great phase of native architecture. The historic reasons for the Irish come-back in the 15th century are largely connected with the York and Lancaster wars in England, but there was also a linguistic reason. Between 1350 and 1400 French ceased to be the language of the Norman ruling classes. REBUILT WITH GUSTO In England they fell back on English, but in Ireland, where there was little or no English, they fell back on the native language, and the English Lord Justice, Desmond, was also the most famous Irish poet of the period. Gradually, a national state began to emerge, and with it the two streams of literature and art—Irish and Norman-French—began to merge into a national art. In Holy Cross you will see this fully illustrated, for here a modest thirteenth century Cistercian abbey has had its east end magnificently rebuilt during the fifteenth century by Norman chiefs—the Butlers—and Irish abbots, like the O Conghail, whose name appears on the cloister. The delicacy and elegance of early Irish and Norman French work have largely disappeared, but in their place there is great boldness and gusto. NOTHING STINTED The sedilia is one of the masterpieces of Irish sculpture, and nothing was stinted on it, for even the narrow canopy above it is groined like a cathedral. This groining has also been applied to the little piscina beside it, and it is a characteristic trick of the masons who did the fine work both here and in Kilcooley, near Urlingford. The beautiful tomb between the two chapels on the south side is equally remarkable, and the vaulting and traceried windows give an unforgettable impression of luxury and taste. UNSIGHTLY HEADSTONES Now is the time to see Holy Cross, because after the eighteen months of clearing-up by the Office of Public Works, it looks better than it has done in my experience. Unfortunately, repairs have not gone far beyond clearing-up. No attempt has been made at a continuation of the reerection of the cloister arcade, and the interior of the church is still the same unsightly clutter of headstones and monuments. Since some of those commemorated have departed this life for well over two hundred years, it would hardly be unreasonable to expect that their headstones might be laid flat or ranged tidily along the walls. THIS CROSS IS AN OUTRAGE Worst of all, those ugly monuments miscalled “Celtic crosses” are still being erected. Having roused the fury of the Scullys by saying that their cross ruins the elevations of Cashel, I may as well madden the Ryans and Bourkes by saying that their cross which you are side by side with the massive and exquisite sedilia is an outrage. The Office of Public Works has legal power to stop all this casual unintentional vandalism, yet in one great church they let the west window be cemented up as a ball alley; in another they actually permit the ball alley to built in the sanctuary itself, while in Holy Cross, Jerpolnt and Knockmoy they allow the erection of ugly modern monuments side by side with great works of Irish art. There are welcome rumours that the pilgrimage of the Holy Cross will he resumed, but before a single pilgrim comes let us make the church worthy of the relic. AN ABSENCE OF POLICY By this time my readers have probably begun to come to some conclusions themselves about our national monuments, so I may as well express some of my own. For forty odd years the Office of Public Works have been drifting along in an aminble cloud of civil service memoranda. All the time they have been casually accumulating new buildings, including such masterpieces of historical architecture as “Michael Dwyer’s Cottage” and "Sean MacDermott’s Cottage,” until the number must now be running close to a thousand. HOW TO GET THERE It has taken a team of skllled men eighteen months to tidy up Holy Cross, and the same team is now at Kilcooley Abbey, a smaller building which is expected to take a year. Kilcooley in a hard place to get to; you leave the main Cork-Dublin road at Urlingford, drive two mile along the Killenaule road till you come to a big walled estate, drive up the main avenue through the plantation, and stop by the Protestant church. Then take the laneway between the church and the garden wall till you come to a gate and stile from which you will see the abbey. It is a fascinating small Cistercian abbey of the thirteenth century, which became still smaller in the fifteenth when the little nave arcade was built up and the aisles removed. It was restored by the masons who worked on Holy Cross, and contains a splendid east window and beautiful sedllia for the Abbot and his assistant, which show that the fifteenth century Irish had no respect for democracy, because the abbot's seat is decorated and vaulted inside, while the assistant abbot's has no decoration, and the vaulting is merely quadripartite. THIS SCREEN BAFFLES ME The most fascinating thing about the church is the screen in the south transept. As Dr. Leask confesses himself doubtful about it, I, as a mere literary man, can afford to admit that I cannot make head or tail of it. It is obviously of the school of Holy Cross; it has a groined canopy and a noble door, but the figure decoration gives me the impression that some eighteenth or nineteenth century magpie who made his nest in the monastery buildings collected every beautiful piece of carving he could find and stuck it in wherever a suitable space seemed to offer itself. WHAT CHANCE HAVE WE? But here is the snag. If it takes a team of skilled workers two and a half years merely to tidy up two monasteries, what chance have we of dealing properly with close on a thousand monuments? If you are interested, take the road from Cashel to Golden, turn left immediately beyond the Suir bridge, and follow the river for a mile or two till you come to //Athassel Priory//, You won't miss it. It covers four acres. WIRED OFF FROM PUBLIC For two years it has been as you can see it, casually wired off from visitors, with a small red notice board that says: "Dangerous Buildings. Keep Out." Dangerous buildings is an understatement. "Condemned buildings" would be more accurate. And yet, when sent Bernard Miles, the owner of the Mermaid Theatre, there two years ago, he went crazy over it. He had seen the finest buildings in England, but nothing that inspired him like Athassel. Some score or more years ago it was tidied up, and some beautiful tombs that had been lying flat were built into the walls, where they are now disintegrating rapidly. The lovliest of all, part of a tomb-chest, is unique in Ireland for its exquisite workmanship, and I think, but I do not know, that in a very short time everything will be buried and smashed in the collapse of tower and walls, and I see no possible way of averting the disaster. NO ONE TO DECIDE After all, assuming that the effort at Holy Cross, which took a year and a half, cost between five and ten thousand pounds, nothing short of a hundred thousand pounds and ten years' work would bring Athassel even up to the level of Holy Cross. I don't honestly think we could afford it, but we have no public body capable of planning ahead and deciding what can be saved and what must be abandoned. Sooner or later, either Donogh O'Malley's original well-thought-out scheme for an Independent Board of Custodians must be resurrected or else the work must be handed over to the Tourist Board or the Department of Local Government. MUST BE RUTHLESS Whichever it is, It must be ruthless: It must abandon hundreds of buildings that cannot be saved; It must remove hundreds of crosses, tombs, carved windows and doors that cannot be protected in their present position, and display them in local museums where they can. It must have an income of at least a quarter of a million, and it must be prepared to charge admission fees and employ proper caretakers. Can you imagine the people responsible for the present position doing any of these things? Sunday Independent, 1964-07-05, pp.10,11