AN TAISCE HAS told Dublin City Council that the building where James Joyce’s The Dead was set “is of too great a cultural heritage importance for conversion to multiple apartments”.

That is according to An Taisce’s Dublin City Planning Officer Kevin Duff as part of an An Taisce’s objection concerning plans by Brimwood UC to convert the property at 15 Usher’s Island in Dublin 8 into 10 apartments.

In An Taisce’s submission, Duff has told the Council the return of “this nationally-important house” to functioning use, and “the arresting of any further deterioration in its fabric, is urgently needed”.

He adds, however, that the proposal for residential use as ten private apartments would be wholly appropriate.

He said: “Refusal is therefore recommended in order to find a way forward and secure the future of this key cultural building of Dublin, bearing in mind for example the successful and award-winning museum and cultural attraction developed by the City Council at large Georgian townhouse 14 Henrietta Street.”

Duff states: “No 15 Usher’s Island is one of the most significant townhouses to survive on the Dublin Quays, both because of its location and context; it is like a Merrion Square-quality house on the Quays, and as one of the few surviving quayside houses to retain its front-door and basement arrangement.”

He said that the proposal for conversion to a high number – 10 – of apartments would be “wholly inappropriate and destructive to its architectural and cultural character.”

Duff has told the Council that 15 Usher’s Island is of international cultural significance because of its location of the setting of the James Joyce short story, The Dead.

He said: “The proposal is in serious conflict with established policy and provisions for the maintenance of the special character of protected structures.”

Duff describes 15 Usher’s Island as “a handsome three-bay house of the late-Georgian period, with four-storey redbrick elevation over raised basement, and columned stone doorcase. The interior retains a good degree of refined early-19th century detail. It is a Protected Structure and is located within a designated Conservation Area.”

In a planning report lodged with Dublin City Council by planning consultant, Kevin Hughes on behalf of Brimwood points out that the use of the building as residential is more suited than a tourist hostel for which the previous permission was granted.

He contends that it is not feasible to return the building to one singular house, however the provision of 10 apartments is considered appropriate.

Hughes states that the applicant and design team “are aware of the significance of the building and have gone to great lengths to protect and improve the historic fabric of the building”.

A decision is due on the application next month.