The efforts to save Ireland's traditional farm buildings
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The poet Patrick Kavanagh, who understood Irish rural people, their lifestyle and landscapes more than most, was always attuned to the fact that great events can happen in the simplest places.
One of those places was his own family farmhouse at Inniskeen in Monaghan, a detached two-storey house with a pitched slate roof and two flat-roofed porches.
It was the inspiration for Kavanagh’s poems such as The Great Hunger and A Christmas Childhood and as well as the setting for his books The Green Fool and Tarry Flynn.
There are still many houses of similar structure in townlands across the land. Constructed by local builders, they provide a direct link to the farming methods of previous generations.
Materials and craftsmanship used in the buildings, gates and walls are a testament to the ingenuity of our forebears in making the most of the available resources. They had to adapt in order to survive.
Dwelling houses, cow, turf and potato sheds, hay barns, dairies, stables, small hen houses, piggeries and other buildings are all part of that heritage and a direct link to the farming methods of previous generations.
Many of these structures, which gave a distinctive character to the countrywide have disappeared over 50 years with changing lifestyles and the modernisation of farming, driven by new technology.
However, a striking number of them have survived and there is now an increasing focus on their restoration. Some have obvious potential reuse in rural tourism, craft making, self-catering holiday accommodation and other activities including small scale cheese making, engineering, furniture making and car maintenance.
Traditional Buildings on Irish Farms published in 2005 by the Heritage Council and Teagasc outlined the significance of their heritage from the ‘Big House’ farm to small farmyards and how practices have changed over the years.
It also provided insights into how to protect Ireland’s farm heritage for the future and offers guidelines for the repair and maintenance of traditional buildings and farmyards.
The book pointed out that the everyday farm heritage generally does not have as many champions and consequently is much more vulnerable to decay, disuse, dismissal, or perhaps ill-advised alteration. The historical value of these buildings is steadily being lost.
“Ireland’s landscape is enriched by its heritage of farm-houses and outbuildings, its field patterns and the nature of the boundaries that divide them.
“The landscape of Ireland is predominantly an agricultural one, and farmers have been its guardians. In times past, the occupants of traditional farmhouses and their associated farmsteads were often also their builders.
“They made clever use of materials available locally and they built in accordance with a language of construction that was shared by their community,” it stated.
Tom O’Dwyer, a former Teagasc and Heritage Council chairman, outlined in a foreword to the book how the adaptability of those traditional buildings has matched the social progress found across much of the country.
“The former cowshed may have become a shelter for cut timber. And with the move to central heating the timber store has now given way to a garage for the ride-on lawnmower.
“All the while the building itself has remained reasonably intact. A secure roof and dry walls have ensured its survival through varied uses, and it remains, often, as the only built structure on the farm, which goes back through generations before,” he wrote.
Last week, a memorandum of understanding in relation to the built vernacular heritage of the island of Ireland was signed by ministers from both jurisdictions — Malcolm Noonan, and Deirdre Hargey.
Minister Noonan said rural houses, farm buildings and farmyard features that comprise our vernacular heritage are a common cultural legacy that connect us to the past, but they are also a vital part of a sustainable rural future.
He said he and Minister Hargey want to take an all-island approach to advance the understanding and nurturing of this valuable cultural and social asset.
The signing of the memorandum follows renewed focus on the preservation of vernacular heritage, through ‘A Living Tradition,” a three-year strategy to create greater understanding and appreciation of vernacular heritage.
Minister Hargey said: “In these times of climate change, reusing buildings makes sense and I commend this joint publication that highlights the fragility and value of this cultural layer of our common heritage.
“It’s important moving forward that we realise the value of these buildings and share best practice in how to care for this key part of our heritage."
Meanwhile, details of this year’s annual grants scheme in the Republic for the conservation and repair of traditional farm buildings and related structures for farmers in the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) have been announced.
Managed by the Heritage Council, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, it aims to ensure these buildings and other related structures that contribute to the character of the landscape and are of significant heritage value are conserved for active agricultural use.
The scheme has a €1.25m budget this year. Some 70-80 projects are expected to be supported. Available grants range between €4,000 and €25,000.
February 22 is the closing date for the receipt of online applications.
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said the initiative continues to make an essential contribution to our rural heritage, traditional skills base and in supporting farmers in the preservation and enhancement of biodiversity.
Heritage Council chief executive Virginia Teehan said if it was not for the level of care that is taken by those working on the scheme, a Civil War diary hidden in a jam-jar in the gable wall of a building in Co Mayo would never have been discovered recently.
