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OVER 650 HISTORIC buildings across Ireland are to receive state funding to facilitate restoration, repairs, and conservation.
A total of €8.1m will be disseminated to the buildings under the Built Heritage Investment Scheme 2025 (BHIS). The sum includes €1.25 in support for thatched buildings.
The buildings in question include “modest traditional homes” and “landmark public buildings”.
Minister of State for Nature, Heritage, and Biodiversity, Christopher O’Sullivan, yesterday announced the list of projects to be awarded the funding. The full list can be viewed here.
Funding is dedicated to each county council. Dublin City Council has 103 properties receiving grants from BHIS, amounting to over €1.1 million. Kerry County Council has 34 properties receiving funding amounting to over €236,000. Cork County Council has 18 buildings receiving funding totalling €441,000.
Leitrim County Council is receiving the least amount of funding under the scheme. Four buildings are receiving funding of €108,000.
A number of churches, bars, and even Dublin Zoo have been allocated funding.
McDaid’s Bar on 3 Harry Street, Dublin 2, has been allocated €20,250 in funding to restore the shopfronts in place in the bar.
Famously a beacon for much of Ireland’s literary talent, the pub was frequented by Irish poet and writer Brendan Behan and novelist Patrick Kavanagh.
The pub is reputed to have once housed the Dublin City Morgue and was later converted into a chapel for the Moravian Brethren.
In Kilkenny, St Mary’s Cathedral on James Street has been allocated €7,000 for works on its external walls.
The building’s construction began in 1843 and finished in 1857. The cost of the building is said to have been roughly £25,000 at the time.
The former Grehan’s music shop in Boyle, Co Roscommon, has been awarded €26,000 for the conservation of the shopfront and historic glass in the building.
It was built around the year 1870.
An appraisal by the National Built Heritage Service said of the building: “B. Grehan’s is part of an attractive, nineteenth-century terrace, situated on the Main Street leading from King House.
“It has a number of architecturally-interesting features such as its entrance door, sash windows, timber shopfront and stone outbuildings. Its form, proportion and detailing make this a notable building on Main Street, leading directly into the centre of Boyle.”
In addition to the funding provided under BHIS, owners and custodians will themselves commit an estimated €29.5m to these projects from private sources, the department said.
€1.25m of the €8.1m in total funding will be allocated to thatched buildings. This consists of €600,000 from the dedicated Historic Thatched Buildings stream, and an additional €650,000 awarded from the main stream of the BHIS.
Subject to funding, both the Built Heritage Investment Scheme and the Historic Thatched Buildings Scheme will be open to new applications this July for projects for completion next year.
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