Dublin's College Green, directly in front of Trinity College and flanking the former Parliament House, is the city's "great archeological set-piece", an international conference was told yesterday.
The conference on public transport and urban citizenship was, however, told by a range of speakers that instead of being a focal point for the city, College Green was choked by traffic.
While the conference considered best - and worst - urban transport planning from around the world, a number of speakers homed in on Dublin city centre and College Green in particular to illustrate the problems caused by urban traffic. The Irish Times environment editor Frank McDonald suggested that the trees should be removed from College Green as they were "huge clouds of darkness" obscuring the architecture of the city's "great archaeological set-piece".
In an address that was critical of traffic congestion in College Green and Dame Street, Mr McDonald denounced the practice whereby the city council was "renting out space on the footpaths" to restaurants.
This was, he said, leaving pedestrians with very little space on a narrow street.
Delegates arriving at the conference were given an inkling of what College Green might look like without the traffic or the trees.
An animated illustration showed pedestrians milling about on a wide car-free plaza, as a Luas tram went over and back in the background.
Dublin Transportation Office director John Henry said he believed there was recognition that quality of life in Dublin had fallen due to congestion and there was an acceptance that we "must do something about it quick".
Dublin has first started to go wrong when it got rid of the trams in the 1950s and '60s "because we couldn't afford them and because it was thought buses would be cheaper".
Mr Henry said this appeared acceptable when the city was building suburbs at Crumlin and Clontarf, but the city "did not stop" and urban sprawl had now spread across the greater Dublin area.