Whatever about the Skibberreen Eagle keeping its eye on the Tzar, the proposal to re-face Cork County Hall, the state's tallest building, in a new glass skin has not gone unnoticed in faraway Uganda.
Even An Bord Pleanβla must have been surprised to receive an appeal against the scheme from Diarmuid Philip Curtin, an Irish architect working in Kampala.
Curtin included a declaration of interest: the late Patrick McSweeney, who designed the 16-storey County Hall while Cork county architect in the 1960s, was his maternal uncle. The nephew maintains it is a unique building, which stands as a "gatepost" between the city and county, and its integrity would be compromised by replacing the concrete tracery of the facades.
Curtin is delighted with support from An Taisce and DOCOMOMO, an international organisation dedicated to preserving monuments of the Modern Movement, who have which has also lodged appeals against the plan. "It was getting a bit lonely running this from Kampala, and it's good to know that people in Tiger Ireland have not completely given up.".