Almost exactly five years ago, in early May 2019, Scouting Ireland announced that it was closing its centre at Mount Melleray, County Waterford. According to a report carried at the time in the local Dungarvan Gazette, a spokesperson for the organisation said of the closure, ‘This decision, which is a precautionary measure, has been taken after a planned health and safety audit identified a number of actions which should be taken to improve the building’s overall safety.’ As the publication noted, the centre, which had been operating for the previous four decades, had been a popular location for camps and other activities for groups throughout the south-east of the country. Scouting Ireland’s spokesperson said the audit’s recommendations ‘will now be considered in full before the building reopens.’ Five years later, the building – in fact a long terrace incorporating six substantial buildings – remains closed.
A group of Cistercian monks first arrived in this part of County Waterford in May 1832, having come from the monastery of Melleray in Brittany. Initially the monks, many of whom were of Irish origin and were led by Waterford-born Fr Vincent Ryan, had moved to County Kerry but the land there proved unsuitable and so they looked for an alternative location. They were then offered 600 acres by Sir Richard Keane of nearby Cappoquin House, and so moved there, the new monastery’s foundation stone being laid in 1833. Two years later, the place was officially designated an abbey and in remembrance of their former home in France, the monks called it Mount Melleray: members of the order, albeit not very many of them, remain living in the same location to the present day. Within just over a decade of their arrival, the monks opened a school, initially for local boys but demand for places quickly grew and so they expanded their facilities: in June 1845, the foundation was laid of what originally was called the classical school. At the time, students not from the locality had to stay with local families (only those approved by the school principal) but further building work allowed for the establishment of dormitory and other facilities, on land owned by the monastery but not directly attached to it. As mentioned above, these properties which date from the mid-19th century consist of a series of six blocks, of two storeys over basement. Mostly of red sandstone ashlar with cut limestone window and doorcases, the largest of the blocks is of seven bays, the smallest of two. Constructed on a sloping site, they are interconnected, running from north-west to south-east and concluding just before the gates into the grounds of the abbey. At the top end and again linked to the other structures, is a Gothic Revival chapel, also dating from the same period. All of these buildings were occupied and used by students attending Mount Melleray school until it closed down in 1974.
Five years after the school at Mount Melleray closed, the monks came to an agreement with the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) that it would take over responsibility for this collection of buildings. To mark the golden jubilee of its foundation, in 1977 the CBSI had already held an international jamboree in the grounds of Mount Melleray with some 10,000 attendees, so the organisation already had associations with the place, which was in need of fresh purpose once the students had left. Thereafter, it was used by the CBSI and, after this body merged with the Scout Association of Ireland in 2004, by the newly-created Scouting Ireland. Not least thanks to its substantial premises, the Mount Melleray venue became an important centre for activities; in 1996 a National Scout Archives and Museum was opened here. With accommodation for several hundred people and ample surrounding grounds available for use as campsites, it is easy to see why the venue proved so popular and why its closure was so widely mourned. A Scouting Ireland newsletter produced in October 2019, a few months after Mount Melleray shut its doors, noted that estimated costs for repairs to the property, upgrades to meet building regulations and conservation of a protected structure were more than €1.2 million. The same document recorded that the organisation was then in discussions with both the local authority and the monastery – from which it has held the buildings on lease – ‘to explore what the challenges are and possible options to meet these challenges.’ As yet, those discussions have not produced any results, and after five years of neglect, this range of substantial buildings is showing widespread evidence of neglect, not least slates coming off the roof in several places, thereby allowing water ingress. As is so often the case in Ireland, failure to address a problem speedily will mean the solution – if one is ever found – will be more costly and time-consuming than ought to have been the case. This is an extravagant and foolhardy waste of a property with considerable potential.