TIPPERARY COUNTY COUNCIL has granted billionaire businessman John Magnier permission to demolish historic farm buildings at Parkville in Clonmel, despite the recommendations of both An Taisce and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

The horse racing magnate purchased the farm at auction last year for €2.425m, or almost €38,000 per acre. A company connected to Magnier’s Coolmore Stud, Melclon Unlimited, subsequently applied to demolish a derelict building complex that has stood on the farm for hundreds of years and return the land to pasture, citing health and safety concerns.

In submissions to Tipperary County Council, both An Taisce and the Department noted the historical and cultural value of the vernacular buildings to the area’s heritage and recommended their potential restoration be explored.

The Department recommended the planning authority request “a detailed assessment of the farm complex to establish its architectural interest and its contribution to the historic built environment and to assess its potential for reuse in whole or in part” carried out by “appropriately qualified and competent persons”.

The vernacular farm buildings were described as “unique” by stonemason and conservator Tom Pollard, who has expressed interest in working on a plan to renovate the complex.

The Department’s submission noted that Tipperary’s county developmental plan states it will “seek the sympathetic restoration, appropriate re-use and maintenance of buildings/features which are considered to be of local and vernacular architectural importance”.

However, planning documents show the council only requested a bat survey.

That survey, carried out in winter, found no evidence of bat roosting, but stated “to conclusively determine the absence of bat fauna, a dawn and dusk survey must be completed during the active season”, in summer.

The failure to request an architectural survey was noted in subsequent submissions by both An Taisce and the Department.

As well as the farm buildings, other historic features of the farm include an eighteenth-century ore furnace, a rare relic of the early Industrial Revolution in Ireland.

Notices placed on the gate at Parkville in relation to the application to demolish the yard say that it is on health and safety grounds.

However, the move has caused controversy for several reasons, leading to a number of different local groups coming together to protest late last year.

The demolition plans have been opposed by Save Parkville Farm, a coalition of local farmers, historians and environmental groups, many with long-standing objections to Coolmore’s land management and farming practices.

The group have written several letters to Magnier objecting to the demolition and requesting a meeting, and held a protest outside Parkville last October, but have received no response to date.

Speaking for the campaign, Dr Alan Moore of Hedgerows Ireland pledged to appeal the decision to An Bord Pleanála and to continue to seek a meeting with Magnier.

“We believe that the farm and its buildings have great potential and could be a fantastic feature with many uses which could benefit the local community and complement some other good work done by Coolmore in Tipperary.”

The campaign was spearheaded by John Hurley, whose family farmed Parkville for almost fifty years prior to the sale.

Speaking to The Journal, Hurley said the campaign “will be a marathon, not a sprint” and expressed hope the demolition may yet be averted.

“It makes me wonder why have a county development plan that recommends preserving our local heritage and then grants permission to destroy it. Any other country would bend over backwards to preserve it.”