'Trees growing out of it': Ex-garda station in Limerick city left facing a big rebuild

A FORMER garda barracks, which the mayor bought to use as a fashion hub, will need to be dismantled and put back together brick by brick.

The garda station at Mary Street, which closed to the public in 2012, has been identified by Mayor John Moran in his plans to regenerate vast swathes of King’s Island.

But in what the first citizen described as an “expensive bump in the road,” inspections of the structure have identified problems.

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Mayor Moran explained how last year, when engineers tried to put a roof on top of the building, they found the top floor in such a poor state, it needed to be taken down to make it safe.

“There were trees growing out of it,” he said.

As it’s a protected structure, built around 1900, it cannot be razed to the ground. So, the executive mayor has said: “What we are going to have to do now is significantly dismantle the building brick by brick and put it back together again.”

He admits it will delay the opening of the fashion hub by 18 months, but adds he is happy to plough more of his mayoral funding in to make the project a reality.

Initially, the historic front of the building would have been worked on first, followed by the rear, which includes an open space, where a glass box is earmarked to allow for catwalk shows.

It will also be home to Limerick’s Museum of Fashion.

Now, Mayor Moran says the two will be developed in tandem.

“The advantage is the funds for the front section were always anticipated to come from the mayoral fund. It just means we will need to use more of it now because of the deterioration of the building. It’s unfortunate in that sense, it shouldn’t have happened. But it has, and you now have to fix the problem,” he said.

Since the garda station ceased operating 13 years ago, the building has been out of use.

“It’s another one of those legacy issues we have because people didn’t have money or plans for the building and left it there,” Mayor Moran commented.

“It’s an expensive bump in the road and a legacy problem. But it’s one we have to deal with. It’s no different to if you bought a building and thought it was structurally sound and found out it wasn’t,” he added.

The directly elected mayor told the Limerick Leader he remains fully committed to the idea of a fashion hub, and works continue behind the scenes to bring it to fruition.

Last year, details of the first collection in the museum element of the building were announced.

They are to be Limerick Lace, currently in display at the Jim Kemmy Museum in Henry Street, and the Sybil Connolly collection at the Hunt Museum.

It’s envisaged the fashion incubator will give Limerick and the region’s brightest fashion design talent a space for collaboration to develop their businesses and showcase their creations.

Limerick fashion queen Celia Holman Lee is part of a steering committee to drive the project forward.

She is being joined by Nina Means, the director of a similar fashion incubator located in Limerick’s sister city of Austin, Texas.