TROUBLED LEGACY REHABILITATING THE PRISON
Essay 2: Pilot Project A pilot thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.Phil in Architecture & Urban Design 2017-8
This project originated primarily from the observation that architectural heritage in Northern Ireland is often contentious and argued over bitterly. Beginning by researching the divisive nature of sacred spaces in the province and the fact that large numbers of churches now face the possibility of falling into dereliction due to lack of attendance, the project has subsequently broadened into looking at the physical legacies of the Troubles, including secular buildings such as prisons and army barracks. It asks the question; what is the purpose of heritage as a resource if the goals to which that resource is to be expended cannot be agreed and are themselves the source of division within communities? This question of a contentious architectural legacy is made all the more critical by the understanding that spatial divisions in NI are often not as clear cut as the Belfast Peace Walls would suggest. The place of architecture within the various historic narratives which are woven about the recent past has been little studied, but it is clear that by their sheer visibility if nothing else, the buildings which participated in the Troubles feature in the construction of exclusive territories which are cognative rather than physical. Perhaps then architectural interventions within these buildings using novel and participatory programmes can begin to reform their image and help mend divisions in a society still traumatised by the damage wrought in thirty years of civil strife.
Sangar, Crossmaglen RUC Station, South Armagh From Barracks by Jonathan Olley
After Belfast and [London]Derry, Co. Armagh saw the third highest incidence of fatalities during the thirty years of the Troubles, due in large part to its location on the border with the Republic of Ireland. The recent vote to take the UK out of the EU once again casts the spectre of a militarily controlled border.
An Island Divided But where are boundaries drawn?
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.1 Monasticism Examining the importance of boundaries in the construction of sacred spaces, this triptych explores a potential future where people of faith continually exclude themselves from secular society, creating a new monastic movement
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.2 Pedagogy
.3 Iconoclasm
This triptych examines the observed consequences of religiously instructive schools in Northern Ireland and asks what options exist for making a more inclusive educational system in the future
What might happen if the people of Northern Ireland categorically rejected religion and all its trappings as a source of division? Could community rituals arise which centre around the visible destruction of the old order? And what might happen to those who endure in their belief - do they become a persecuted minority in a newly divided society?
CATHOLIC / IRISH-MEDIUM PRIMARY CATHOLIC / IRISH-MEDIUM SECONDARY STATE / ANGLICAN PRIMARY STATE / ANGLICAN SECONDARY INTEGRATED PRIMARY CATHOLIC SCHOOL FEEDER PATH STATE SCHOOL FEEDER PATH
CATHOLIC SACRED SITE ANGLICAN SACRED SITE DISSENTER SACRED SITE
ARTERIAL ROUTE CAPILLARY ROUTE POPULATION CENTRE
The Archdiocese of Armagh Beyond the parish, how does religiosity affect patterns of movement and territory? A segregated school system is a clear source of separation - is it possible that it can be repurposed into a mechanism for salving the enduring trauma of the Troubles?
A Collegiate Connection Armagh is one of the five most segregated towns in Northern Ireland, and yet its territorial boundaries are not easily visible to the outsider. Taking Archbishop Robinson’s proposal for a collegiate university based in the town as a starting point, a series of public and educational programmes are proposed in and around the hilltop locations of the town’s main civic buildings. These structures represent the only part of the Archbishop’s scheme to be built. Noting the historic significance of high points as centres for communication in Ireland, it is intended that the proposed web of nodal buildings will act perpendicularly across the divided territory of Armagh, creating connections and helping to push back against the insidious nature of invisible segregation.
.1 Armagh Religious affiliation of residents and key sites for intervention marked
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Looking up at the peace wall in Belfast
UVF Mural, East Belfast
Author Unknown Flickr
From Belast Photographic Tours
Unionist Flags, Belfast
Youths build Twelfth July Bonfire
Twelfth July Bonfire - LanarkWay
By Drew University Irish Studies 2013 Flickr
From Bonfires of Belfast by David Schalliol 2016
Shankill Road Bonfire (LanarkWay) 11/07/12 YouTubeVideo
Belfast Territory is appropriated and marked out by conspicuous symbols of religious and political allegiance, such as murals, flags, bonfires etc. Where opposing enclaves meet, physical barriers, the ironically named Peace Walls, are often found separating communities and clearly defining and controlling patterns of spatial use.
Castle Street, Armagh
Mall Armagh
http://arktosart.com/
Mark McKeown 2012 Flickr
Observed patterns of spatial segregation in cities
Cathedral Hill, Armagh
Armagh Cathedral
Cathedral Close, Armagh
Unknown Pinterest
By Daniel Fagan 2016 Flickr
Stock Photo Alamy
Observed patterns of spatial segregation in rural areas
Armagh Perhaps owing to its small population and prevalence of protected historic fabric, Armagh is notably free from the typical symbolism of territorial ownership seen elsewhere in Northern Ireland. However, it still exhibits ‘high levels of segregation’ *, begging the question of how space which is divided mentally rather than physically can become shared.
Michael Poole and Paul Doherty. Ethnic Residential Segregation in Northern Ireland. (Coleraine: University of Ulster. 1996) pp.240-1 Table 9.1 *
Armagh Founded ~100BCE Armagh may have been founded around 100BCE after the fall of the nearby Iron Age fort of Emain Macha.
Monastic Settlement ~800CE - 1540CE With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Irish monasteries become major centres of learning in Europe. During this time, Armagh grows around a series of monastic enclosures and is referred to as a ‘university’ by contemporary scholars.
Monastic Armagh c.850
First Recorded Proposal for University at Armagh 1583CE Proposals for the founding of universities at Armagh and Limerick which, if implemented, would have predated the founding of Trinity College Dublin by nine years. Trinity College,The University of Dublin Founded 1592
Royal School Armagh Incorporated 1608CE By decree of the privy council to James I, “ there should be one free school, at least, appointed in every county, for the education of youths in learning and religion”. The Royal School, Armagh Founded 1608
Renewed interest in a University at Armagh 1787CE A provision for the sum of £5000 in the will of Lord Rokeby is intended to allow for the foundation of a university. This does not come to pass. Military Interest 1796CE In a letter to Maj. Gen Hutchinson, Thomas Pelham encourages the consideration that a university in Armagh might take the form of a military academy.
Buttevant Barracks, Co. Cork Built c.1815
A Second Chance 1845CE Interest in the proposal again rises, however the mooted university is ultimately founded in the rising population centre of Belfast, becoming the Queen’s University.
Ulster’s Second University 1955CE Queen’s University, Belfast Founded 1849
While it can probably never be known what a university in Armagh might have looked like, an idea of its possible articulation can be gleaned schemes which were contemporaneous and which in many cases won out against the numerous proposals for higher education in the town.
In a controversial move, the Lockwood report recommends the construction of the new University of Ulster in the town of Coleraine, beating out contending cities Armagh and [London]Derry. A University, Albeit Briefly 1990-2004CE
McKinstry, R. The Buildings of Armagh. Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1992.
The Queen’s University opens a satellite campus in the old infirmary in Armagh. It closes in 2004.
A City of ‘Saints & Scholars’
Future Moves 2009CE The Armagh city masterplan states its intention to ‘attract university level education back to Armagh.’
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1969 - 14 August John Gallagher (30)
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1972 - 29 March Ruby Johnston (35) 1972 - 07 August Geoffrey Knipe (24) 1973 - 07 April James McGerrigan (17) 1973 - 09 April Anthony Hughes (20) 1973 - 28 August Kenneth Hill (25) 1975 - 22 August Thomas Morris (22) John McGleenan (45) Patrick Hughes (30) 1976 - 09 April Michael Sweeney (73)
1972 - 15 December Frederick Greeves (40) 1972 - 18 December William Johnston (48) 1973 - 13 August William McIlveen (36) 1975 - 15 August Norman Kerr (28) 1976 - 26 October Joseph Wilson (55)
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1979 - 02 June David Stinson (32) Alan Dunne (36) 1979 - 02 August Paul Reece (18) Richard Furminger (19) 1979 - 31 July George Walsh (51) 1981 - 10 November Charles Neville (56) 1982 - 24 January Anthony Harker (21) 1982 - 25 October Peter Corrigan (47) 1982 - 12 December Rodney Carroll (22) Seamus Grew (31) 1983 - 30 July Martin Malone (18) 1983 - 08 November Adrian Carrol (24) 1985 - 15 December Patrick Kerr (37) 1986 - 01 January Michael Williams (24) James McCandless (39) 1987 - 22 March Kevin Duffy (20)
1979 - 19 April Agnes Wallace (40)
1980 - 28 December Hugh McGinn (40) 1981 - 23 April John Robinson (38) 1982 - 10 November Charles Spence (44) 1982 - 27 November John Martin (34) 1982 - 19 December Austin Smith (44) 1983 - 21 February Gordon Wilson (29) 1983 - 09 March James Hogg (23) 1983 - 06 September John Wasson (61) 1983 - 14 November Charles Armstrong (54) 1984 - 03 March Herbert Burrows (37)
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A Traumatised City
1989 - 17 November David Halligan (57) 1990 - 22 January Derek Monteith (35) 1990 - 28 March George Starrett (58) 1991 - 01 March Roger Love (20) Paul Sutcliffe (32) 1991 - 13 May Robert Orr (56) 1992 - 18 April Brendan McWilliams (50) 1994 - 18 May Shane McArdle (17) Gavin McShane (17)
1990 - 24 July Joshua Willis (35) William Hanson (37) David Sterritt (34) Sister Catherine Dunne (37)
1993 - 9 February Michael Beswick (21) 1994 - 21 May Reginald McCollum (19)
Catholic Civilian Fatality PIRA / IRA / INLA Member Fatality
Source: CAIN - Combat Archive on the Internet: Ulster University
Protestant Civilian Fatality RUC / Prison Service Member Fatality British Army / Ulster Defence Regiment Fatality
The Scalar Classroom Using John Summerson’s concept of the ‘aedicule’ as the core module of Gothic Architecture, this proposal inhabits the Neo-Gothic nave of St Patrick’s RC Cathedral with a classroom which reduces the imposing and dominant scale of the building, making it more accessible to a child’s dimensions. This the question of inclusivity becomes one of proportions, not religious identity.
Site as Existing
The Peripatetic City Education requires connection. An observed barrier of trees and steep hill between the publicly accessible Armagh Planetarium and academic Observatory provided the base condition for this proposed intervention which links these divided educational facilities with a series of classrooms which wrap and wander around a route up the hill.
Northern Ireland Education Statistics * Source: www.thedetail.tv ** Source: Department for Infrastructure, ‘Publication of method of travel to/from school by pupils in Northern Ireland 2015/2016’ 2017 [accessed online from: www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk] *** Source: Jennifer Hamilton et al. Segregated Lives, p.54
Mental Maps As seen, territory in Armagh is divided but the barriers are invisible and cognative. Understanding how children construct and navigate within these mental maps is key to any proposal which attempts to create shared space in a town like this. The observed ability for spaces to be inhabited concurrently by opposing groups with a minimum of interaction poses very real design challenges.
Map Data from: Roulston, S. & Young, O., “GPS tracking of some Northern Ireland students – patterns of shared and separated space: divided we stand?”, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 22:3, 2013 pp. 241-258
SITE
The Spatial Consequences of Segregated Education
Armagh Gaol in 2017 From Armagh Gaol by Abandoned N.I. (annonymous)
Site: HM Prison Armagh Key to understanding how mental maps of territory are constructed is the physical legacy of the Troubles. Few buildings are as emblematic of the violence or as contentious a heritage asset than the province’s prisons; such as the former women’s gaol in Armagh. The prison has been derelict since 1986 and with current proposals to turn the building into a hotel having stalled, there is a real risk that this important legacy building will soon become unsalvageable and its reconcillatory potential lost.
The History of Armagh Gaol
1780 - 1819 Armagh Gaol is built to the designs of architects Thomas Cooley & William Murray 1798 The United Irishmen Rebellion fails to end British rule in Ireland 1800 The Acts of Union are passed by Parliament formally incorporating Ireland into the United Kingdom
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1845-52 The Great Famine (an Gorta Mór) results in an approximate decline of 20-25% in Ireland’s population
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1852 C-Wing constructed to design of William Murray 1866 Last date of public executions in Gaol Square
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1916 The Easter Rising in Dublin during WWI 1919-21 The Irish War of Independence 1921 The Government of Ireland Act (1920) comes into effect, partitioning the island between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State
Armagh Gaol from Above http://www.armaghgaoltours.com/
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1967-72 The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement campaigns to end discrimination towards Catholics in access to housing and services
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Daphne Scroggie Prison Guard 00:31
1846 B-Wing constructed to design of William Murray
approx. 1969-98 Period of violence later known as ‘The Troubles’ 1981 Second hunger strike at the Maze prison leads to the death by starvation of 10 inmates
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1998 The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is signed and overwhelmingly ratified by referendum marking the formal end of the Troubles
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Jaqui Upton Loyalist Prisoner
1904 Joseph Free becomes the last prisoner executed at Armagh Gaol 1920 Armagh Gaol becomes woman’s prison
1973-5 33 Republican women are interned without trial in Armagh Gaol during this period 1979 Prison guard, Agnes Wallace is killed and three colleagues injured outside the prison by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) 1986 HM Prison Armagh closes 2009 Major redevelopment plans proposing the transformation of the gaol into a boutique hotel are announced 2013 Armagh Gaol hotel project receives planning permission 2017 The developer, Trevor Osborne Property Group threatens to abandon the proposed scheme if the required £23 million funding package cannot be secured by the end of this calendar year.
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Jenny Meegan & Patricia Jess Open University Lecturers
Josie Dowds Republican Prisoner
Sources: Film Stills From TheWomen of Armagh Gaol by The Prisons Memory Archive
http://www.armaghgaoltours.com/ McKinstry, R.The Buildings of Armagh. Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1992.
Letterfrack Industrial School c.1970
Letterfrack Furniture College
From ‘The Child Abuse Commission’ Chapter 8
From O’Donnell + Tuomey
The New and the Old in Section From Archiseek
Entrance shifted to gable end to reduce oppressive symmetry From O’Donnell + Tuomey
Precedent: Letterfack Furniture College O’Donnell + Tuomey [2001] This project also finds itself dealing with a piece of architecture intimately bound up with a legacy many would prefer to see forgotten. Exploring the potentials of bold and decisive architectural intervention in sites of pain and shame, this scheme is doubly noteworthy in that it also suggests that participatory and educational programmes might be key to performing this sort of architectural exorcism.
“THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS provided an unpaid workforce for local farms and businesses. During the course of construction of the Furniture College this boy-size iron boot heel was uncovered on the site: an everyday object, an echo of the hard times of child labour.�
THE FURNITURE COLLEGE attempts to rehabilitate the contentious site of the former industrial school through a combination of interventions in the existing fabric [in grey] in order to exorcise the troublesome memories contained within its walls and a carefully composed series of new buildings [in white] which house the workshops, allowing the building a second chance at a pedagogical role.
Humanising Furniture At an early stage in the scheme’s development, it was examined how best to humanise and make usable the oppressive and monotonously regular sequence of spaces within the cell blocks. By variously opening spaces up to the inside and outside and by making connections between cells a more complex spatial order was attempted. The ‘furniture’ of the additions inserted into these spaces was explored as a way of returning this institutional building back to scale of the individual.
Boundary & Threshold The prison site is interesting because of the clearly defined hierarchy of its internal spaces - serving as a counterpoint to the observed ambiguity to territory in Armagh. Movement perpendicular to any boundary inevitably creates a threshold condition and this affords the architect multiple opportunities to bring occupants together around these constricted points.
Proposal for a Bi-Communal School within HM Prison Armagh
Restrictions and Boundaries repurposed for interaction
Rehabilitating the Prison This is a project which seeks to address the issue of contentious physical legacies of civil conflict in Northern Ireland by transforming them into venues for productive exchange and debate. Identifying education as one possible mechanism by which these buildings can be transformed, this project seeks to explore the potential of novel and participatory architectural programmes as a way of breaking the deadlocked debates over the future of contentious heritage which often results in them falling derelict. Taking the view that adversarial relationships between communities in NI are not going to disappear in the near future, the architectural form of the intervention seeks to create spaces where argument and productive debate are encouraged and even deliberately engineered, so that the subtle straightjacket of polite conversation might be overcome and vital topics about the role of the past be discussed more freely.
How shared spaces which are open to agonic exchange can be created
What is the right class size to encourage integration? Lessons from contact theory and acquired tolerances.
Thick Walls & Gates The prison is constructed from a series of bounded spaces which nest within one another. The outermost boundary, which separates the prison from the town offers a key area for potential mixing between communities and between students, parents, teachers and the public at large. The provision of an outdoor market and event space is intended to slow transit through this zone and afford the maximum potential for productive interactions.
A Place for Agon The proposal takes the position that debate and argument could be a vital part of an educational programme which helps to reunite communities divided by civil strife. Additionally, by giving voice to dissenting opinions, it counteracts one of the main criticisms levelled at integrated education in NI: namely that intentionally homogenises difference. This commitment to the benefits of agonic exchange is implemented in the plan by placing a debating chamber at the heart of the complex.
Breaking Institutional Monotony Aside from being a conspicuous and divisive reminder of the Troubles in the heart of Armagh, Foucault notes that all prisons are to some degree places of shame for societies, as their oppressive regularity and architectural articulation are deliberately intended to ‘break’ those interred within. The proposed library and dining room in Cell Block B attempts to reduce this formal repetition through selective demolition and insertion to make a space much more conducive to interaction between occupants.
'Ruins on the Irish border are still active things, the loose ends of unfinished history, still too meaningful to settle into the background. Knowing this, the army decided to erase the sangars completely; leaving them there might have fuelled resentments for another century.' Garrett Carr - The Rule of the Land
Demolition of buildings such as HMP Armagh has been tried before and found wanting. It is contended that these sites offer a much richer potential to reinterpret the conflict productively; potential which is lost if the sites themselves are erased. Dealing with divisive heritage buildings in the immediate aftermath of conflict is difficult, as the trauma of those experiences takes a long time to fade far enough in communal memory for them to be effectively reinterpreted. Buildings however will not stand derelict for long. The Northern Irish climate demands that intervention be swift or else the decision will be rendered moot. Previously, this has been used by local authorities as a way of dodging the difficult questions which arise when discussing the future of sites of pain and shame. Perhaps then the architectural requirements of the present should be seen as a stopgap measure of sorts. This is not to say that ambitions should be limited or that a contemporary proposal requires any less care and attention on the part of the designer, but rather by understanding and accepting that these buildings will not remain static and that a degree of flux is inevitable, such a project can position itself to be maximally effective in the present while also shaping and provisioning the following steps in the evolution of these sites.
A Chinook helicopter removes part of the British Army’s observation post on Glasdrumman Hill, Armagh, 29 January 2002, following the IRA’s announcement of 23 October 2001 that it would decommission its weapons. From MINISTRY OF DEFENCE HQ LAND COMMAND by British Army official photographer Brownbridge, P (Sgt) Accessed from ImperialWar Museums