OPINION: Why this building is the best thing to happen to Naas for quite a while
The opening of a public building is one of those events that tend to be greeted with a mundane nod of approval - grand, yep, sure why not like.
The unveiling of the new library in Naas was announced by Kildare County Council in a press release earlier this year, just as weather warnings were being issued about Storm Isha, which was then zipping fairly lively towards our western shores.
If you’d given it more thought at the time you might have surmised that the storm may not be a good omen for the new library.
The news about the library opening arrived via a press release from KCC.
Communications from public bodies like KCC come with all the information you need but are devoid of hullabaloo.
The Department of Agriculture, for example, puts out many releases annually and one informs us that the annual goat and sheep census is about to get underway with all goat/sheep keepers obliged to provide details of their flocks. No kidding.
Those among the 48,000 keepers are reminded that payments under the Sheep Improvement Scheme could be delayed. The rest of us just wonder how or why sheep might be improved at all.
The state’s agencies will never be found awhoopin’ or ahollerin’, no matter how good the news.
KCC’s communication about the library was headlined to the effect that the doors are open.
By contrast another communication was also winging its way into the inbox at the same time.
This missive from the Love Island: All Stars television show makers was “for immediate release”.
It was much more gung ho.
It told us “Liberty and Mitch call it a day”, “Mitch makes a move on Georgia H”.
And Liberty was quoted “obviously I did like you (and) that whole situation has hurt” with Mitch replying “nothing would make me happier than a guy to walk through this door and pull you straight away.”
Kildare County Council had a bit of a head start with the library project. Naas town hall is the town's prettiest building anyway.
But the library has brought some new life to its core and it's an example of top level public service.
The project was imaginative and the result is both an architectural success and a huge benefit to the community.
And well it might you could say after some €6m of public money was lobbed in its direction. But public money isn’t always well spent.
Like, just about every residence in the State has a water meter. Water meters that nobody reads.
And as for the new children’s hospital; oh Lordy, Lordy, Lordy.
If you want to know how much it’s going to cost just think of a number, quadruple it and add as many zeroes as you like and you’ll be close enough.
The library is more than the sum of its parts; it’s a magnificent building that’s been upcycled into a thing of beauty.
It’s a vitally important public service in the middle of the town and a powerful counterpoint to some other premises in the town which are in need of a little lovin' - some of them State-owned.
It’s a focal point for the local residents and it’s hard to think of a more appropriate use for the building, which has housed civic offices and was once a prison.
If anything, it looks better on a winter’s night when it’s all lit up and reassuring.
You’d have to say it’s the smartest and most aesthetic development to take place in Naas for many a long year.