A rare survivor in an Irish country town: an 18th century shopfront in Fethard, County Tipperary. Dating from c.1770, it features handsome fluted columns with Corinthian capitals on either side of the main windows at the centre of which is the shop entrance with double doors. A separate entrance to the right provides access to the upper storeys. Sadly the building is now disused and being permitted to fall into irreparable disrepair, a great loss to the architectural heritage of the town, and indeed the country.
How very dispiriting. Surely someone can step forward to save this place?
http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/images/survey_specific/fullsize/22110032_4.jpg
Nothing appears to have been done since the above photo was taken except for some strange reason the windows have now been divided into panels , which is probably what they were origionallly .
There is no easy solution here as the shop windows are completely impractical for what is now a private house .The shopfront could be restored and removed to a new location but as this is a listed building the council cannot allow any change . So we will have the usual standoff where nothing will be done and the decay will accelerate to a point where it becomes completely impractical to repair or restore .
So beautiful and so sad.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154750448902775&l=150820c675
We were very proud of this beautiful shop front and now so very very sad.
More information and photos of this building are available on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage website: http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=TS®no=22110032
I would like to send you an updated photo of this shop front.