Architect who described Castlebar as ‘depressing’ invited to visit Mayo county town 

A prominent architect has doubled down on comments where he described Castlebar as ‘depressing’.

Local county councillor Ger Deere has invited Hugh Wallace to visit the town after he took issue with comments made by Mr Wallace during a recent radio interview. 

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One to promote the next series of The Great House Revival, Mr Wallace hit out at the lack of people living in the town centre.

“People don’t live in Castlebar, over the shop. That horrendous car park behind Main Street…if there were 300 families living there, it would bring €12 million right into the city centre. We have to get our head around this and stop being snobs,” Mr Wallace said.

The well-known TV personality made his comments in reference to a letter from an anonymous author which appeared in the Connaught Telegraph criticising the state of Castlebar.

Cllr Deere hit back at Mr Wallace’s remarks, which he said gave the town ‘awful bad publicity’.

“I didn’t hear his comments, only second hand, this famous architect, Wallace. He said Castlebar was a depressing town, I thought it was so disingenuous of him,” Cllr Deere said at the monthly meeting of Castlebar Municipal District. 

The Fine Gael councillor acknowledged that the town had its problems but said Mr Wallace’s comments sent ‘an awful image’ of the town. 

“He picked out one spot in Castlebar and to say that that was depressing. Invite him down and let him have a look around and talk to people on the ground that are trying to make Castlebar a better place to live.” 

Replying to a request for comment from The Mayo News, Mr Wallace said he would be willing to visit Castlebar.

Mr Wallace doubled down on his comments about the main street being ‘depressing’ but said that he was ‘not negative’ about the town. 

“Shops are closed, they are boarded up, there’s nobody living over the shops. At night time there’s nobody on the main street,” Mr Wallace said when asked to clarify his comments regarding the town being ‘depressing’.

Mr Wallace described as ‘disgraceful’ a car park between Main Street and Chapel Street, which he said should be developed as a residential area. 

He also claimed that there ‘isn’t a vision’ for Castlebar at present. 

“Ballina in my opinion, has gone ahead of Castlebar. They are doing great public works, they’ve got the river. I believe that the chamber of Commerce in Ballina has sort of got their act together and there’s a sort of community spirit to drive the town on. I’d question does Castlebar have the same community spirit,” Mr Wallace remarked

“I definitely want to come down. Please understand I’m not negative about Castlebar, Castlebar has the opportunity, but for some reason hasn’t decided to take it. If you go and look at Clonakilty - which is not a dissimilar size to Castlebar - 20 years ago, that was the town to get through and get out of. But today it’s the town you want to stay in because it’s a half-day of shops of book shops of fashion [shops], of streets and bakeries and restaurants. That’s what Castlebar should be and it has every opportunity to do that, but for some reason, somebody switched the lights off on the Main Street in the town 25 years ago.”

Mr Wallace said the town centre in Castlebar ‘should be a thriving destination for the people of Mayo’ before elaborating on the actions taken to rejuvenate Clonakilty in Co Cork. 

“The chamber of commerce was really proactive and went to all the shops and said give us 100 quid and they got enough money to buy a mobile scaffold. Then they went to Cork County Council and they said will you give us the paint for free to do up the town. They did a deal with Cork County Council and a paint company to supply the paint. They also got the council to do up all the streets. All the streets were done up and there was seating put in and lighting. There was little node points so you could have a little coffee shop.”

Mr Wallace also said it was ‘not good enough’ that over €11 million had been allocated to town centre buildings under the Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF) in Castlebar which had yet to be developed. 

A €1.9 million URDF-funded Youth Resource Centre at Castlebar’s Old Post Office is due to go to construction shortly. 

“Somebody is responsible and should take responsibility. The great thing about Ireland is we moan about everything but don’t take responsibility,” he said. 

Mr Wallace concluded: “I look forward to being in Castlebar soon.”