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AUSTIN CURRIE HAS been remembered for his “fearless, immense courage” and as a giant of the civil rights movement.
A service was held at St Malachy’s Church in his native Edendork, Co Tyrone, on Saturday for the former SDLP and Fine Gael politician, following a ceremony in Co Kildare on Friday.
Archbishop Eamon Martin, former SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell, long serving members Joe Hendron and Denis Haughey, MLAs Justin McNulty and Daniel McCrossan, Tyrone County Board chairman Michael Kerr, along with Currie’s local GAA team Edendork St Malachy’s, were among those to pay their respects.
Tributes have been paid across Ireland to Currie, 82, who was one of the key figures in the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland who also helped to found the nationalist SDLP party and was elected to parliament on both sides of the Irish border.
His daughter Estelle said: “What a force for change you have been, what a force for good.
“The youngest member of the Stormont parliament, a civil rights leader, a founding member of the SDLP, elected Teachta Dala (TD) for Dublin West, and still only 50 years old when asked to represent Fine Gael in the 1990 presidential election.
“I don’t think we can call him an underachiever.
“Then as a minister of state, the first to represent children’s rights, and the only one to serve in government in both the north and the south.
“There have been so many tributes paid since Tuesday, the finest, fearless, immense courage, a true giant of civil rights and constitutional politics.
“Daddy was always a hero to us. And now we know he was a hero to so many others too.”
Currie died in his sleep at his home in Derrymullen, Co Kildare, on Tuesday.
He was born in Co Tyrone, the eldest of 11 children.
Currie’s decision to squat at a council house in Caledon in June 1968 is widely seen as the beginning of the civil rights movement, which challenged inequality and discrimination against Catholics.
His daughter said that at that moment, her father “felt a very strong sense of injustice”.
She added: “He felt they tried everything else. The civil rights movement was the most successful political action in Ireland.
“For daddy, it was the defining moment.”
She recalled how her father was often at risk of his life, sleeping with a gun by his bed and checking his car for bombs before doing the morning school run.
“Daddy reached the great old age of 82,” she added. “He died peacefully in his own bed. If you’d said that to him, aged 30, he wouldn’t have believed it.”
Gifts presented at the funeral service included a poster from the civil rights march in Derry on October 5, 1968, a garden tool, GAA jerseys for Tyrone and Edendork, a remote control – reflecting his love of news and media – and a copy of his book, All Hell Will Break Loose.
The funeral concluded with a performance of We Shall Overcome, a song that became synonymous with Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement.
Currie was laid to rest in the cemetery adjoining St Malachy’s Church.
He created the SDLP along with John Hume and Gerry Fitt in 1970.
In 1989, he won a seat in Dublin West for Fine Gael and pursued a career as TD and minister in the Republic until he retired in 2002.
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What a shame its let go to ruins..
The Dept of Posts and Telegraphs were located there up to the 90′s , it’s a magnificent building and deserves to be restored which would give lots of employment , perhaps it could become a nursing home , we need to build more of them too, let’s do it now ,,we know people are living longer and staying in hospitals for months because of the lack of nursing homes . It can’t all be about the EU bureaucrats , don’t we have even one politico with foresight ?
I’d say the museum of dublin would look awesome there
Not actually an ideal place for a nursing home. It would require lifts to be built in it and the heating costs alone would be immense.
As its a listed building some of the requirements to make it compliant with HIQA may not be permissible.
Lovely idea, but unfortunately the practicalities get in the way.
Yea I suppose as a nursing home it would always look a shambles.
1916 museum
I did my interview for the Post office, aged 16, in the gatehouse of this building (inside the gate on the right) in May 1977. The building was magnificent then. Every surface polished and period features abound. Shame to see what happened to it. It was reputed to have been the first residence in Dublin to have had a proper bathroom installed. All postage stamps for the entire country were stored and despatched from there. The stamp room, as it was called was like a prison, as once you went into work in it, you were more or less locked in because of the high value of the stamps. I believe postal orders and the like were also stored there. It was actually the headquarters of the Post office stores branch, when the Postal and engineering side of the company were all one and Government run. Hope someone can restore it to it’s former glory. The Ghosts have been having the run of the place for too long now. I am still with the company in it’s current form (EIR)
What an amazing building. Such a shame it’s left to rot. Many of Dublins georgian buildings are in a very bad state. Neglected.
Amen.
There are millions of square metres of vacant rotting buildings and sites in Dublin’s city centre.
Derelict deathtraps for kids, squatters and animals.
Housing crisis my arse.
Why arent these sites being used for residential development instead of building poorly located rubbish in the suburbs with no transport links?
“Why arent these sites being used for residential development”
Yes, let’s destroy our historic city to build some more rabbit hutches for the great unwashed.
The film ‘In America’ was shot inside
Amazing building it would be wonderful to see it brought back to life and cared for.
A total shame on Dublin City Council for allowing this wonderful , interesting and rare building to get to this state – it started to deteriorate decades ago and the past owners like IMRO , An Post etc should have been made up-keep this so very historical Georgian building. Yes it is now privately owned but special Grants has got to be available to bring it back from the brink of collapse . Same applies to the magnificent buildings on Henretta Street. The Dep of Environment , An Tasce and the Georgian Society must all row behind these superb buildings of our Georgian past – so move now , not wait till they collapse !
I believe Bank of Ireland are ultimately responsible right now , yes there are some liquidation issues but for the sake of a rare and valuable piece of Irish Architecture we must go beyond the courts and provide funds to restore this fine property. Bank of Ireland were helped by the Irish People , it’s their turn now to own up and restore this magnificent house .
It belonged to Post Office Engineering Branch, then Telecom Eireann, now Eircom, not An Post. It should never have left public ownership.
The State never seems to bother about lesser listed buildings, it’s as if the attitude is if we don’t bother about hem they’ll go away.
We need a system whereby such building are returned to the state if been allowed to dilapidate.
what a stunning building. Would be great to see it fully restored.
Dublin is actually quite a beautiful city, with some unique architecture. Its a city we should be proud of. Looking after our architectural heritage is not a waste of money.
Caring for our heritage, increases tourism and in turn creates further jobs & revenue.
Thanks
Been wondering about the place ever since I first drove past it. Hope the new ower does restore it. Looks MARVELOUS inside be nice to see it open maybe one day a week to the public.
fabulous building , i was fortunate enough to work in 2 Georgian manor houses when i first came to ireland 16 years ago,one was a hotel the other housed a restaurant, both were in ‘private’ ownership and sadly both were in a pretty awful state, the ‘repairs ‘ that had been carried out where shoddy to say the least ,poor quality materials and very little knowledge or skill in carrying out the repairs, just the cheapest job and a lick of paint to cover up the damage. i actually saw the ‘workmen’ use an old 4×3 fence post that was half rotten to repair a floor joist that had collapsed , also saw hardboard panels ,silicone’d in place over original Georgian panel doors and laminate flooring (second hand ) put over a parquet floor and sealed down with adhesive and brass carpet edgings. one of these magnificent houses was so badly eroded underneath that the whole place needed serious underpinning and structural engineering carrying out ,instead the owner ‘got some lads’ to put up scaffolding and acro props to support the ground floor. i have since left the hotel trade and taken a degree in building and architecture, when i told my tutors what i had seen they were horrified. Ireland really needs an institution like the national trust in the u.k that would take proper care of these heritage buildings , or at least (if it was in private hands) ensure that any work carried out was done properly and sympathetically, sadly as we all know, this would never be the case , some well connected public servant or political suck up would get the job and make a complete mess of it . oh well ! the thought was nice while it lasted !
When it was built you could see all the way down to the liffey and beyond. Beautiful building that deserves our attention.
Reminds us when Georgian houses were deliberately left to rot on Fitzwilliam St just prior to when the ESB head office was built.
http://www.thejournal.ie/esb-georgian-mile-fitzwilliam-street-1258526-Jan2014/
For more about Aldborough House, please see: http://theirishaesthete.com/2014/01/13/a-thundering-disgrace/
15 nov. Thanks for the link. It could be beautiful again.
This is as stunning a building as it is important. Dublin is very lucky with with it’s architecture, unlike most European cities it avoided the destruction of war but the excesses of the Corporation in the sixties and seventies counterbalanced this some extent. There were some pretty unsympathetic developments in the City over that period. Dublin owes it to itself to save this and turn it into a wonderful public space – a museum, gallery – whatever. Just don’t let it be.
As Fergal said earlier, the House was used as a location for the Jim Sheridan film ” In America”. It was ideal as the interior was exactly like the interior of a brownstone building in New York. The films designer had a metal cage put in that was like one of the old lifts from years ago. The stone staircase was sent to torture the crew as we carried all the heavy equipment upstairs everyday “Grand old Duke” style. It was an amazing building to work in and an amazing movie to work on. Hopefully someone will take charge and save this beautiful place.
Just looking over some of this guy’s work. He should stick to the architecture end his portfolio is very good.
This is a beautiful building too.
His architectural work is very nice but his portraiture work is stunning. Thanks for sharing.
For more about Aldborough House and its history, please see: http://theirishaesthete.com/2014/01/13/a-thundering-disgrace/
Very interesting article – thank u for posting it
It’s potentially a beautiful building and hopefully the new owner can restore it. It’s amazing how many people don’t even know it’s there considering it’s opposite the 5 lamps it should nearly be a landmark.
It’s a listed building but has no grounds other than what’s on front of it so it’s use could be limited to offices.
There is a SUPERB article on this place on comeheretome.com. check it out.
Sad to see such a beautiful building go to rack and ruin.
Lots of potential if you have the time and imagination and of course the money
A Topaz Garage out the front ?
What a shame to see it decay like this.Check out what a community can do when they pull together visit http://www.Camdenfortmeagher.ie also on FB
It looks exactly like Joe keelings(owner of keelings fruit and veg) house in swords I wonder if they where build by the same family? ?
Mount Vernon in Cork is in a similar state.
As Oscar Wilde so aptly put it, we know the price of everything and the value of nothing. In the 1920s many of the great houses were burn by the IRA, many more were abandoned and left go to ruin in a cultural vandalism of Irish nationalism.Ironically the Bolshevik’s restored their great Russian country house heritage twice, once after the October Revolution and again after the German invasion of WWII.We can only bail out banks, bust builders and bondholders.
In the 1940s the gardens were cut away from the house and used to build the flats called St Mary’s Mansions. The gardens were also beautiful. A man was murdered in them two weeks ago.
It’s a crying shame to see these beautiful buildings go to rack & ruin, so many have gone that way, due mainly to death duties, and then they have to find the money to finance the up keep. A lot of the cities in the UK have seen old buildings being torn down and these glass monstrosities put in there place. They have got no art to them like, the grafted gorgons or other lovely designs that old mason’s have taken time & love chiselling the stone. Councils should hang their heads in shame at these decisions they have made, this also goes for the men in grey suits, as they only look at the bottom line.
Has so much potential to be beautiful again. Houses like this fascinate me. But I prefer to be fascinated from *outside* the house. Would I go inside? Not. Feckin. Way
It’s always sad when you see such wonderful old building go to rack and ruin, we have lost so many over the years, usually because of death duties and then the up keep. Then we get these glass monstrosities in there places, which I think isn’t in keeping with the surroundings, shame on the councils, it’s always the men in grey suits that don’t care.
Terrible waste. Here is an article about the building from We Are Dublin:
http://www.wearedublin.ie/#/the-demise-of-aldborough-house/
I dont like it, think it looks drab I prefer modern.
was your mothers maiden name Stein? first name Phyllis ?
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