Trim's Yellow Steeple is so-called because the stone work of its eastern facade reflects a pale yellow light upon the town's Porchfields early each morning. While this daily illumination of the tower floating above the town on a grassy hillcrest tells the townspeople little about the day to come, it is a reassuring, warming gesture that night has once more passed and that day has begun. It is an ephemeral moment in the daily cycle, but due to the tower's age and prominence, it has taken on a timeless quality. One aspect of Ireland's architectural heritage which has captivated me since childhood has been the response of buildings to light, to the diurnal (Yellow Steeple) and annual processions (Newgrange), and the unique sense of shelter felt when we inhabit lithic volumes which time and weather have hollowed out, allowing the elements to be experienced in a new way.
Growing up in a provincial town with a rich cultural and historical heritage has given me a sense of how people move through; of how a town's population changes daily. The urban setting endures population shifts on various timescales – the visitor whose sojourn is fleeting is as much a part of the story of the town as the family who have called it home for decades. In essence, the commerce of a town and the draw of a town for the wealth of its heritage are inextricably linked. This is the making of an urban society. The history of a place also has a material element – the structures which define the townscape remain, but unfortunately for many towns, archaeologists and historians will remove whatever they can carry away.
Recent excavations in Irish towns have uncovered countless artefacts from the middle ages back to the bronze age. All that is unearthed about the history of a place is taken away from it, analysed, and subsequently held in a centralised national museum. In less favourable circumstances, artefacts are stored, for having the misfortune of being deemed unworthy of display in the overcrowded museum. The people of Kells have striven for decades to have the Book of Kells returned from Trinity College Library, with little success. Similarly, the National Museum of Ireland holds revered artefacts from Ardagh, Tara and Derrynaflan.
While the recovered metalworks and writings are taken away, towns are conferred honorary titles, becoming a “Heritage Town” or “World Heritage Site”, the latter thus far lacking in Ireland, despite strong candidates. While the built fabric of a town tells one side of its heritage, the finer details are sometimes hundreds of miles away, in a museum which relates to the visitor nothing of the place from which the artefact originated. A disconnected history of a place is created. In fact, this transplantation of historical artefacts bears the hallmarks of imperialist conquests, albeit on a smaller scale – pillaging the country's lesser urban centres and creating a composite but disingenuous image of Ireland in a congested microcosmic tourist trap. Arjen Mulder writes:
“...the clearer the past becomes in form, the more shapeless the present gets... The maxim that he who does not remember the past is condemned to repeat his mistakes has a new counterpart here: he who knows only the past is condemned to endlessly repeat the same tale of loss”.
My vision for restoring heritage towns in the fullest material sense does not propose radical reconstructive intervention. Instead, it seeks to create a place which serves numerous collectives to whom that place means something. It should benefit the people of the town and its hinterland, those who have lived there and might seek to reconnect with their hometown, and casual visitors who might use this place to learn about the town on arrival. It is a place where connections are created, revived and maintained.
Such a place could educate visitors and locals alike about the history of the town. It could be a place where the lives of present urban dwellers are discussed and where the history of tomorrow could be compiled and kept. The building's purpose would be to act as a portal to the town, a meeting place for past and present, and where the collective memory could flourish.
“In the matter of monumental restoration, the intelligent thing is to convert complicated problems into simple ones. Why? Because antiquity is not an abstract entity. What is ancient is precisely the succession of times and spaces throughout time… my intervention was just one of many”. – Eduardo Souto de Moura
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