There seemed to be little original left of Clonmel’s courthouse until a survey by a conservation architect
THE MAIN Guard in Clonmel was in such a sorry state 20 years ago that it seemed to be quite literally falling apart. Now though, following a €3 million restoration scheme, one of Ireland’s most important 17th-century buildings stands proudly once again.
Built in 1675 by order of James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde, as a courthouse for the Palatinate (kingdom within a kingdom) of Co Tipperary, it witnessed the renewal of royal charters for towns and even the adoption of rules for the conduct of duelling.
Comprising a large chamber above an open arcade, with a staircase and suboffices to the rear, it was rendered redundant by a new courthouse in 1810 and sold off for subdivision into shops – with additional floors and windows inserted for its new use.
There appeared to be so little left of the original building that architectural historians were dubious that any of it had survived these radical alterations. A survey however showed there was more to the Main Guard than met the eye and much of it was still there.
Carried out by conservation architect Margaret Quinlan, who had grown up in Clonmel and had seen the building gradually deteriorate, the survey discovered 17th-century arches, round columns and carved capitals – some recycled from a nearby Cistercian abbey.
This led the Main Guard to be scheduled as a National Monument, like all other pre-1700 buildings. Unlike them though, it was one of the earliest neo- classical buildings in Ireland – a decade older than the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, also commissioned by Ormonde.
“It was a totally transitional building, reusing medieval stone to provide a courthouse for the Palatinate, a feudal institution,” Quinlan says. “Even the Duke of Ormonde’s coat of arms was carved on the back of a Cistercian capital from Inishlounaght.”
The pair of coats of arms, which had been “used for target practice by young lads with catapults from time immemorial”, have been taken down from the main facade for conservation and later display; they will be replaced by accurate, 3-D laser-carved copies.
Quinlan’s painstaking work on the Main Guard has been recognised by her peers with the award last month of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland’s silver medal for conservation, due to her “dedication and perseverance in restoring and conserving [it]”.
For years, the pivotally located building at the head of O’Connell Street was surrounded by a hoarding painted to masquerade as shopfronts. It had been acquired by Clonmel Corporation in 1986 for £300,000, largely due to fears that it might otherwise collapse.
“The building was a total puzzle because of its appearance, as it seemed very malformed,” Quinlan recalls. The front wall, topped by a pediment, was bulging. A round column was found behind the wall of Cooney’s pub on the site, followed by arches and other remnants. “Once I had discovered original material from the 17th century, the local authority was quite supportive,” she says.
After it was designated as a National Monument in 1994, Clonmel Borough Council “handed it over quite graciously to the Office of Public Works”.
Working with National Monuments architect Aighleann O’Shaughnessy and the late Michael Punch, a structural engineer, Quinlan managed to stabilise the building by reinstating its original arcade and floor levels using steel-reinforced timber beams and filling in the basement.
The arcade was largely rebuilt using newly quarried sandstone and architraves around the reinstated first-floor windows in new limestone, although the distorted levels of their original sills were retained – to the irritation of some who thought they should be straightened.
As part of the project, the OPW purchased and demolished two infill buildings alongside to reinstate the Main Guard’s pre- eminent position; one of these has been replaced by a tourist office, set back from the building line, with ancillary accommodation on its upper floors.
All modern interventions within the restored building are clearly expressed, including painted steel joists, stainless steel handrails and timber-tread stairs, which are free-standing rather than attached to the exposed stone walls – in another mark of respect for the past.
Hundreds of pieces of salvaged stonework, some bearing the mason’s mark of the Cistercians, are stored in a square three-storey block to the rear. In future years, depending on the availability of further funding, this could become a museum and/or an art gallery.
An exhibition in the main chamber, which contains vestiges of heraldic symbols, illustrates the 337-year-old building as a “historical document in itself”, as detailed in Quinlan’s thesis for a master’s degree in conservation at UCD, and the challenges she faced in conserving it.
The rediscovery of this 17th- century courthouse through meticulous research and investigation of the fabric, the dilemmas posed by its conservation, the approach to repair and the design of new parts make it an object lesson in conservation theory and practice.
Topped by its restored cupola and gilded clock telling the time once again, the Main Guard now serves as both a visitor centre and a venue for recitals, lectures and other cultural events. The open arcade, which is echoed by Kilkenny’s Tholsel (1761), is also used for public events.
A preference by the borough council that it should be enclosed for security reasons was resisted by the architect in favour of merely installing CCTV cameras. However the project has generated such pride in Clonmel’s architectural heritage that there has been no trouble.
