Former parochial house to be restored to its former glory

An assurance that the former Slane parochial house will be restored to “conservation standards” has been given to the organiser of a petition calling for the building to be restored to its former glory.

Peter Whelan, who organised the petition said he had been contacted by a representative of the developers of the listed building and has been assured that the building will be restored to its former beauty, with work beginning this year.

“We discussed the concerns of the Slane residents regarding the length of time that this building has been left in a very ugly state. The developers assured me that the listed Georgian building will be restored to conservation standards and eventually will become a state of the art heritage centre .”

Mr Whelan, the Aontú representative for Slane, was told that the Georgian building will have three coats of lime rendering and pointing.

“After this the hoarding and scaffolding can come down.

“ I have been told this rendering and pointing should take place within a few months and then the scaffolding and hoarding will come down.

“I will continue to keep in constant communication with both the developers and the Slane Historical Society to make sure the development is brought to fruition,” he said.

“I would like to thank everyone who took the time to sign the petition, and again I want to assure the people of Slane that I will keep in contact with the developers to ensure the work is carried out”.

Mr Whelan started the petition as scaffolding has been left up on the building, untouched for many years.

“Hoarding on the building was damaged recently, which could cause a health hazard to the general public walking by.”

“The parochial house in Slane is one of four landmark Georgian buildings at the square in Slane heritage village. The people of Slane want the developers to bring this building back to its former beauty as outlined in their planning approval . The scaffolding and hoarding is now up for many years and as well as being an eyesore it is a danger to pedestrians and traffic.

“These four buildings are famous nationally and internationally, with many tourists coming to Slane to see them as well as other heritage sites in the area. There have been many other buildings in Slane bought up and left to deteriorate, and we want to send a strong message to both Meath County Council and the developers that we will not tolerate this kind of reckless ruination of our beautiful village,” he said.

The house was built for the local Protestant Minister with work starting in 1767. It was later taken over by the Catholic Church.

The four Georgian houses which form the square in Slane were the result of forward planning by a local landowner.

While visiting Versailles in France, William Bourton Conyngham of Slane Castle, admired a square with four Georgian houses, one on each corner and decided to sketch them to capture his vision for Slane village.

The four three storey houses, larger in size and scale than the other buildings in the village, face diagonally to the centre of the crossroads, and the end of the terraces forming the village streets, have their gable ends designed in each case with a pair of blind arches. This was done for appearance only. The arches could have had no practical function.

The four houses were not all built at the same time, nor by the same person. The first to be built, on the north west corner, was an inn. The site on the north east corner was given on 13th August 1767 to Henry Fisher by Viscount Conyngham, stipulating that a house was to be built within five years to the same plan as the new inn lately built opposite this site ‘in the circle laid out in the Towne of Slane’.

All four houses were built in due course on a similar plan.

There are many tales told of the persons by and for whom these four houses were built, but they may be dismissed as mostly fiction.

The most popular, as told by some tour guides, is that they were built for four Conyngham sisters who were not on speaking terms. In fact there never were four such ladies. Another story is that they were built for the representatives of religion, medicine, law and order, but this too can be scotched, although in fact in the latter part of the nineteenth century they were indeed occupied by the priest, the doctor, the magistrate and the constabulary.