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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
October-November 43
Dreary Drogheda:
two doors, one test
71 and 72 Narrow
West Street are the
line Louth County
Council must hold
By Michael Smith
B
y any honest reckoning, Drogheda
has become a national centre of
dereliction. The town’s once-
golden quarter mile – from Trinity
Street through Narrow West
Street and West Street to Laurence’s Gate – is
a case study in decay. The April edition of
Village stated: This great town needs to
hammer the delinquents who allow buildings
to become derelict: ‘Harry McArdle, Neil Kelly,
Colin McManus, Mel Kilraine, Leonard
Kinsella, Eamon Waters and…Louth County
Council’.
But the crisis now crystallises at two
adjoining addresses: 71 and 72 Narrow West
Street. How the Council handles these doors
will signal whether it means to rescue the
historic core or write o its oldest street.
A short hisory of gre own
le down
Drogheda’s bones are medieval: an Anglo-
Norman walled town on the Boyne, with
Laurence’s Gate among Ireland’s finest
surviving barbicans. For centuries the port
and mills powered grain, linen, brewing and
shipping, stitching a tight fabric of 17th–19th-
century streets and yards. More recently,
de-industrialisation, port decline, and a Celtic
Tiger land-grab. The bust left vacancy;
austerity and weak enforcement let rot take
hold in the enviable, compact historic centre.
The progoniss in his cse
sudy
Mynah Properties owns No. 71 Narrow West
Street, now under a Sanitary Services Act
notice.
Neil Kelly owns No. 72 (a Protected
Structure) and multiple Narrow West Street
properties; owner of Donaghy’s Mill (on the
Derelict Sites Register since 2024 after long
vacancy and a 2019 fire).
What 71 mens for 72
The notice at 71 is not a licence to swing a
wrecking ball. Any works, including partial
demolition, must retain lateral support and
must not endanger 72. That is not a favour to
heritage; it is a legal duty. Available
photographs indicate the rear elevation and
roof of 72 are sound; the upper front elevation
shows cracking apparently linked to slippage
of the bressummer beam that carries the
upper floors. No. 72 sits in an Architectural
Conservation Area and within the medieval
walled-town archaeological constraint zone;
probable pre-1700 fabric means
archaeological oversight is required. An
Taisce has already contacted the owner of 72
and his solicitor regarding these obligations
and copied the matter to National Monuments
authorities. In short: 72 can be protected if 71
is handled lawfully and carefully.
Felly Kelly
Neil Kelly is no stranger to controversy over
prominent derelict sites. Donaghy’s Mill
burned in 2019 and lingered for years before
finally hitting the Derelict Sites Register in
2024. On Narrow West Street, properties
associated with Kelly have remained inert
despite periodic promises. Village has long
argued that fire regulations should be applied
flexibly to enable safe restoration and reuse
of older buildings but a bigger story is
systemic: rules are allowed to gather dust
because of ignorance, inertia and casual Irish
deference to the rights of property, while
buildings fail. With 71 and 72, the Council has
the chance to act proactively in the public
interest. There is little sign its confused
agents are up to the task.
Three initiatives are required. First, stop
risky works at 71 until a conservation-grade
method is agreed. Second, stabilise 72. Third,
enforce dereliction law street-wide and keep
the record public.
Louth Couny Council should
Immediately:
•
Seek a court order restraining demolition or
intrusive works at 71 until a conservation
method is approved.
•
Demand a Method and Temporary Works
Statement for 71 by a chartered structural
engineer with conservation expertise, at
the developer’s expense. It must show how
lateral support to 72 will be maintained;
specify temporary works (needling/façade
retention); install vibration, movement and
crack-width monitoring on 72 with trigger
levels and automatic stop-work; and
provide an indemnity and remediation
bond sized to a credible worst case.
•
Serve a notice on 72 requiring immediate
stabilisation of vulnerable façade elements
and formal appointment of a conservation-
qualified engineer.
Within 60 days:
•
Enforce the Derelict Sites Act across Narrow
West Street: inspect, register qualifying
properties, and levy accordingly.
• Run a compliance sweep to identify similar
“protected-structure adjacency” risks in
the town centre and timetable fixes.
•
Adopt a Protected-Structure Interface
Protocol for Drogheda: conservation
engineering sign-o, live monitoring and
bonding as standard, and automatic
referral for court action wherever risk is
identified.
Drogheda’s centre did not decline by
accident. It declined because owners deferred
maintenance and public bodies persuaded
themselves that nothing more could be done.
Something can be done now. The risk to 72 is
foreseeable and therefore preventable. The
Council’s duty is clear: stabilise 72, restrain
71 until conservation-grade controls are in
place, and enforce dereliction law with
consistency. Hold this line and Narrow West
Street can still be the start of a recovery. Fail
again and we will be writing the obituary of
another protected building – and another
once-great town centre that was warned in
time.
71 nd 72 Nrrow West St. Protected 72 retins
interiors nd originl front wll with gbled profile
lter Georginised to flt prpet — similr to this
demolished house from Dublin’s Leeson St (inset)
POLITICS
