Letter to the Editor: What of the old infirmary?

(Editor, Meath Chronicle)

Dear Sir - There has been much written in your newspaper about the collapse of the roof of the former St Patrick’s Classical School study hall, a building of significant architectural importance which has been in the ownership of the Meath local authority since 2005, and which has been allowed fall into dereliction and disrepair, despite all the supposed appreciation of our past heritage that is being espoused at present.

That this should happen under the eye of the local authority is astounding and nothing short of scandalous.

If this can happen to a building in private ownership, I wonder what precautions are in place to protect buildings in private ownership. (Although not even those in public ownership are safe – Meath County Council will never live down the decision to demolish the birthplace of Sir Francis Beaufort in Navan).

I refer specifically to a towering building over the bottom of the town not far from the old St Pat’s, and that is the former county infirmary, which I understand to be no longer in public ownership.

The Navan and District Historical Site tells me that: "For over 200 years the County Infirmary ministered to the sick in Navan and the surrounding districts, a record which few other such institutions can surpass."

It continues: "The gentlemen in the neighbourhood of Navan, from their observation of the various calamities and miseries the poor undergo, for want of proper and timely assistance in their several maladies and disorders, did propose to found a County Hospital. Accordingly, a subscription was opened at an Assembly at Navan, the first of October 1753; and soon after the Foundation of a County Hospital was laid on a convenient and healthy situation, on an eminence at the entrance into the town."

"At first it contained only 10 beds, and 87 out-patients receiving treatment in the opening year. But in 1768 the Corporation granted a rood of ground at a peppercorn rent for an extension to 20 beds, the Portreeve becoming an ex offico member of the Board of Governors. ... In 1866 considerable reconstruction was done at a cost of £790 by Messrs Curry and Flood."

A century ago, this institution was looking after victims of the Great Flu epidemic, and before that, policemen that were wounded in the Battle of Ashbourne in 1916 were treated there.

This prominent building has played a huge role in the life of Navan for centuries, let us hope that it is not allowed go the way of its neighbouring structure, or so many others that have been allowed to decay beyond saving in the past.

Yours,

Mary Reid,

Bective,

Navan.