There may be light at the end of the tunnel for the Mitchelstown convent building, as it was announced at a council meeting this week that the council are now pursuing legal action with the owner to try to get the convent made safer.

At Monday’s Northern Area meeting in Mallow, councillors were told that Cork County Council have set out works that need to be carried out on the convent site and that they are ‘now going through the formal legal channels to resolve the matter’.

This was welcomed by Cllr O’Flynn who called for an update on progress. He said that it is a beautiful building that has been damaged and it should be protected and looked after, while repairs are also very important from a health and safety point of view.

Chairman of Mitchelstown Heritage Society, Andrew Dineen welcomed the news, but he added that the legal process will be quite long and involved and so, while the legal side of things is continuing, he is calling on the council to take temporary measures to make the building weather tight and to block the entrances, so that no further damage is caused and people can’t gain access to the site.

He added that it would be ‘an awful shame’ if the building was to fall into further dereliction and fall asunder while the legal process was ongoing.

Andrew said that this is the action they have been calling for, for more than two years now and he is glad that the council finally delivered on what the heritage society has been looking for.

“It’s a step in the right direciton, but we have to ensure now that the work is carried out. We don’t want to get bogged down by the courts while the convent falls down around us,” he said.

He pointed out that they have been working on a solution for the convent for some time, jointly with the county council.

Andrew said that a temporary arrangement could mean damage to the convent could be limited and added that  access needs to be blocked, as there have already been two fires at the gate lodge so far this year.

He said that the society will continue to keep the pressure on so that the work is carried out, and in the meantime, he is hopeful that all of this will mean that the building can be saved for some future use in years to come.