Pages 10 & 11

10 U.C.D. and the Future

in such a proposal is the capital cost involved (but see Section III D below).
However, it costs nothing to take a decision and to make a plan which could
be gradually implemented enabling other interests to formulate long-term plans.

One might consider in turn various possibilities for U.C.D. if any one of
the following Government offices were to be moved:

(a) External Affairs from St. Stephen's Green, South
(b) The Office of Public Works from St. Stephen's Green, East, and
Earlsfort Terrace.
(c) The Department of Agriculture from Upper Merrion Street.
(d) The Land Commission and adjacent offices from Upper Merrion Street.

(a) External Affairs: These buildings adjoin property already held by the
College on St. Stephen's Green and might become the administrative centre
for the College. Iveagh House might provide an official residence for the
President of U.C.D.

(b) Office of Public Works: Nos. 50 & 51 St. Stephen's Green (once
the home of the College of Science, before the Merrion Street block was built)
might form a fine administrative centre for the College and act as a link between
Merrion Street and Earlsfort Terrace. The houses occupied by the Office of
Public Works in Earlsfort Terrace would prove a welcome addition to the
College property, presenting a frontage of 220' along Hatch Street.

(c) Department of Agriculture: The removal of certain Government
offices from the main Merrion Street block would go a long way to providing
for all needs of the science departments already housed there. The removal
of all Government offices and the transfer of the Engineering faculty to a new
site would provide more than enough space for all the needs of Chemistry,
Botany, Zoology and Geology at present located in that building.

(d) The Land Commission and Adjacent Offices: The Land Commission
and the offices of the Comptroller and Auditor General occupy a number of
Georgian houses in Upper Merrion Street. On the west side they have a total
frontage of 450', the depth ranging from 85' through 140' to 300'. The evacuation
of these houses would also help the College. The existing Government and
Science buildings on the west side of Merrion Street were built on the site of
a similar Georgian terrace acquired for the purpose by compulsion about 1903.

We understand that the work of the Land Commission is gradually decreasing.
Could not these houses be made available to the College as the Land Commission
staff gradually shrinks?

Further there are grounds for believing that many of the Georgian houses
are drawing towards the end of their useful lives. Some are so far gone as to
be in need of extensive repair amounting to complete reconstruction, or replacement -
witness the fact that two Georgian houses occupied by Government
offices in Kildare Place had to be pulled down in recent years because of their
dangerous condition. Much of Georgian Dublin in this general area must, sooner
or later, be completely reconstructed or replaced, irrespective of any plans for
U.C.D.

Dublin's University Area 11

A Comprehensive Plan Needed

We urge that serious consideration be given to the idea that any reconstruction
or replacement in the area should take place in the interests of higher
education, and of the universities in particular, in the furtherance of a plan to
preserve the general area for cultural and educational purposes.

The question of U.C.D. requirements, whether they are to be fulfilled by
expansion from the present site or by complete removal to ouside the central
city area cannot be considered in isolation. The question involves essentially a
problem of town planning in a most important area of the capital.

An overall detailed development plan for the area should be prepared
without delay by a suitable planning authority, armed with the necessary powers
to see that the plan is implemented as circumstances and the degree of national
prosperity permit.

As a minimum there should be retained in this area the universities, the
Institute for Advanced Studies, the College of Art, the National Library, and
the National Museum, or at least its Division of Irish Antiquities and the
botanical, zoological and geological collections. To remove any one of these
collections from the area to, say, Kilmainham, whilst transferring U.C.D. to
the Stillorgan Road, would be unjustifiable.

The alternative to a long-term plan is the gradual disintegration of the area.
The conflicting pressures within it will lead in time to many of the institutions
concerned leaving the district one by one. If the ideal of the planners of this
complex of cultural and educational buildings is to be preserved, action now is
imperative.

Mr. de Valera's Views

We are happy to note that His Ecellency, President de Valera, speaking
as Chancellor of the National University, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee
Celebrations a year ago and some six months after the Commission had presented
its first interim Report (which contained their recommendations in
respect of U.C.D.) expressed himself in the following terms (we quote from
the "Irish Press," 4th December, 1958);

"Once he had had the idea that the portion of the city running from
Hatch Street and Earlsfort Terrace down to Pearse Street, including
Kildare Street and Merrion Street, might become the cultural centre
of the city.

They had there the great libraries -- the National Library; the library
in Kildare Street of the Academy, and the National Gallery of Art, and
the National Museum.

As a temporary measure the Parliament was brought into that area.
It was intended to be temporary at the time, and he had the hope that
with the College of Science at hand they might be able to use that area
to meet some of the pressing needs of U.C.D., so that the whole area,
including Trinity College, with its magnificent library, would become
the cultural centre of the city. Financial and other difficulties arose and
that had become an impossible dream.