‘IT SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO CLOSE... WE WILL BE LOSING A PHENOMENAL ASSET’
THIS year marks 220 years since the 1798 Rebellion, something of monumental importance to Enniscorthy given the prominence of Vinegar Hill. While a major programme of events is planned to celebrate the milestone, at last week’s County Council meeting, the majority of members voted in favour of the sale of the National 1798 Centre.
Opened in 1998, the centre was to be a jewel in the crown of Enniscorthy tourism, however, enthusiasm appeared to dwindle and the numbers of visitors to the centre dropped off. The current proposal was to sell the centre for a sum of €325,000 to Mr John Stafford of Slaney Farms who intends to transform the building into a micro distillery, something which the council hopes will attract visitors to the town itself.
While the 1798 Centre will remain open for the coming tourism season, it will close its doors at its conclusion. Initially it had been touted that the centre may be re-homed within the confines of the Athenaeum temporarily, but last week Council CEO Tom Enright poured cold water on these suggestions and said that the most likely scenario would be that all of the exhibits from the centre would be put into storage for a couple of years until a new home for the centre is found.
The favoured destination was the current Castle Nightclub as part of a new multi-million tourism strategy for the town. However, with owner PJ Doyle insisting that the building is not for sale and that he intends to re-open, there are major doubts hanging over the project and it could take years to get over the line.
This has provoked the fury of Cllr Johnny Mythen who believes that any sale of the 1798 Centre should be postponed until an appropriate new home is found.
‘Mr Doyle says he’s not going to sell and it appears that the whole tourism thing hinges on his area,’ said Cllr Mythen. ‘ The way things are going it could be up to six years before they manage to re-open any kind of 1798 Centre. I feel like we’re going to lose this valuable asset to the town and the county.’
While it had been stated that numbers had dwindled at the centre, Cllr Mythen feels that Enniscorthy’s 1798 package never got the same push as the likes of the 1916 connection and Enniscorthy Castle. He says he is perfectly happy for the micro-brewery to be established in the town, but not at the expense of the 1798 offering.
‘I have no objection to the micro-brewery,’ he said. ‘But it’s not Guinness’. It’s not going to have that much footfall. I think we’re putting the cart before the horse. We shouldn’t be sacrificing one project for the other. Putting the 1798 exhibits into storage should not be an option. I want to see it saved. I don’t want to see it lost in transport.’
Cllr Mythen pointed to recent archaeological finds on Vinegar Hill from 1798 and said that Enniscorthy is in no way taking full advantage of the distinct history right on its own doorstep. He says with the bypass now coming online next year, there’s a real chance to make the likes of Vinegar Hill and the 1798 Centre a destination for people coming off the motorway, but instead it looks set to be put into storage for an open-ended period of time. He worries that once it’s packed up, the 1798 offering will never see the light of day again.
‘It should not be allowed to close,’ he stressed. ‘We will be losing a phenomenal tourism and historical asset.’
Cllr Mythen has created an online petition, ‘Don’t Close the Gate on 1798’, against the closure of the centre, which has already amassed over 620 signatures and he vows to keep fighting to ensure Enniscorthy continues to offer a tourism package built around the town’s famed 1798 history.