From the organisers of the Natural Stone Show

 

 

 
Market Intelligence

Cork masons fight on against imported stone
, By Eric Bignell

This footpath in Dublin’s famous Glasnevin cemetery uses Kilkenny flamed limestone, Wicklow granite and Castleisland limestone. Masons in Cork say these and other Irish stones should be used across their country.

Stonemasons in Cork, Ireland, are stepping up their fight against the use of imported stones by photographing and highlighting cases where imported stones have been used instead of local stones – and there are plenty of them.

They have also highlighted and photographed where the local stones have been used to show that they are still available and can be used – stones such as Kilkenny and Aherla limestones and Wicklow granite.

They have produced two small books of examples of projects that have used local and imported stone in order to win the support of the public and politicians.

In the previous issue of NSS we reported on a march by Cork Masons Historical Society in opposition to the proposed replacement of local stone in Cork’s historic quays with concrete and imported stone.

The masons complain that quarries in Ireland that produced some of the country’s distinctive stones (they cite the marbled stone from Castleisland in Kerry) are being forced to close.

One victory they highlight is the use of Lecarrow limestone from Roscommon to clad the new court house.

The rooftop extension to Cork College of Commerce also used a local limestone, won from a quarry at Carrigacrumptop. But it was extracted by Stone Developments before the company was taken over by Brachot-Hermant in 2014 and the masons say Brachot is not pursuing an interest in quarrying this stone.

They say buildings that define Cork are now surrounded by acres of Chinese granite – Cork Savings Bank, for example, and the city’s main post office. “Our civil servants thought it a good idea to surround it with Chinese granite,” say the masons.

Even City Hall is now surrounded by Chinese granite. The masons describe City Hall as “one of the most beautiful buildings in Europe” thanks to the architecture of Alfred Edwin Jones and the Cork limestone from Littleisland just outside the city from which it is built.

The masons complain that the use of imported materials is not only damaging the local economy, it is also depriving the city of those distinctive materials that help to define it.