Housing use mooted for historic local building

A fire-damaged building on the grounds of the Marist College in Athlone could be converted into social or affordable housing.

The possible change of use at the Our Lady's Hermitage building (above) was mentioned in a planning application submitted to Westmeath County Council shortly before Christmas.
The Marist Brothers have applied for permission to repair the damage caused to the building which resulted from a major fire in March 2018.
The plans involve the reconstruction of floors and the roof of the building, which is a protected structure. Some of the walls 
are also due to be repaired, while it's proposed that new timber windows would be fitted.
While the current planning application relates solely to the repair of the building, the application refers to its potential for
its use as housing at some stage in the future.
A letter from Clondalkin-based architect Peter Ging, which was included as part of the planning application, stated that it was proposed to repair the building by "restoring the external fabric and restoring the interior to a limited extent, leaving it suitable for conversion to a new use."
Mr Ging then refers to "a proposal to convert the entire former boarding school, of which this building forms part, to housing units by the housing agency Tuath."
Tuath, a member of the Irish Council for Social Housing, is a voluntary housing association founded almost 20 years ago.
The planning application states that the building was constructed around 1860 and was converted into a school around 1900. In 1943, it was incorporated into Our Lady's Hermitage Boarding school.
In more recent decades, it has served as a drug and alcohol treatment centre, and as a premises for the town's Gaelscoil, however these uses were not mentioned in the planning application.
"When the present Marist College was opened in 1970, the building was redundant and has been unused since then," the planning application stated.
It added that the building "had deteriorated badly internally" in recent years. It's believed that people were accessing the building in the hours leading up to the fire which damaged approximately one-third of the premises in March 2018.
The council is due to make a decision on the planning application to repair the fire damage by February 20 next.