Sir, - Frank McDonald (April 14th) is rightly critical of the replacement of wood by plastic in doors and windows in the historic core of Kinsale. But it is important to put this in context. Kinsale was among the first towns in Ireland to use a revolving fund to generate restoration; to infill derelict sites as a matter of policy, often using the materials on site (and here I disagree with Frank's critique as to its quality - in the main it has avoided the preciousness of pastiche, and the sterility of concrete modernism); to pioneer living in the town; to promote the ideal of modest scale in pubs, businesses, and building heights; to integrate business and residential activities; to maintain its medieval streetscape; to promote the idea of public-private-community partnership.
Most unusually for Ireland, in Kinsale reality has preceded rhetoric. Every one of these ideas has been given practical effect in the town over the past 20 years, while in Dublin and elsewhere they have recently been seized upon as if they were somehow novel insights, and given modish titles such as "Agenda 21", "living over the shop" and "green buildings", all lavished with largesse by the European and Irish taxpayer. The town pioneered the idea of getting on with it without benefit of favourable tax designation, special grant, or State company statute; the public subvention gravy train never stopped at Kinsale.
Frank McDonald's article is a useful antidote to complacency, and the challenges which he notes - increased traffic, pressure for ever larger developments, etc. - are immense. But if any community in Ireland deserves credit for what has been achieved in the past, and has the capacity to respond effectively to the challenges of the future, it is Kinsale. - Yours, etc.,
Frank J. Convery
UCD Environmental Institute, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.