Fate of Mitchelstown’s FCA Hall hangs with OPW
Cork County Council have declined an offer by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to either purchase or take on a leasehold the old FCA Hall in Mitchelstown. In order to keep the building for the use of the people in the town, the next step is for Mitchelstown Community Council to request the OPW to lease it directly to the community group.
In April of this year, Cllr Deirdre O’Brien on behalf of Mitchelstown Community Council (MCC) wrote to the Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform for support on the project. The relevant Department then approached the OPW, who advised that the appropriate course of action would be for Cork County Council to purchase the building, and offered it for sale to the local authority. The building was independently valued at €90,000 in January 2021.
However, it is understood that Cork County Council conducted a structural report on the building, and a figure of €250,000 was quoted to meet building regulations, on top of the purchase price, making the acquisition of the building unfeasible.
OPTIONS
MCC are now seeking for the OPW to agree to lease the building directly to the community group for use in the town.
If the OPW do not or cannot agree to leasing it directly to MCC, the building will first be offered to other Government Departments and state bodies. If no alternative state or public use is identified for the property, then the “other disposal options will be considered, as appropriate.” i.e. the property will be offered up for sale on the private market.
The FCA Hall is on the site of the remains of the old military barracks, and the remainder of the building that can be seen behind the old FCA Hall, the walls, date from the 1800s. These remains are in the Record of Monuments and Places, and so any development on the site would be subject to certain conditions and permission from the relevant Department.
The former military barracks was leased in 1825 to the Principal Officers of his Majesty’s Ordnance “to hold forever”. In 1944 the whole estate (the ‘fee simple’) was handed over to the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland. It was occupied by the Department of Defence from 1934 until October 2014, when it was handed back to the OPW.
The barracks was burnt down in 1922, and demolished in the 1940s, but the perimeter walls remain largely intact.