I’ve just passed a 'roundy' birthday (well actually 70) and had a successful party to celebrate what I’m told is the new 50! Several An Taisce friends were there, including two former chairpersons who served a combined eight years.

Passing this milestone leads to thoughts of my future life, and yes – mortality. In this regard, making a will in good time has always been advised. For various reasons, we put it off to some future day which may never arise. As a long-standing member of An Taisce, I have decided to give a legacy to the organisation. I need to give something back for all the good things I’ve enjoyed in our national trust and the ongoing work that staff and volunteers do to conserve Ireland’s built and natural heritage.

When I reminisce on my life in An Taisce over 40 years the following pop up in my thoughts:

• Life in the Dublin City Association (DCA) of An Taisce where we organised many enjoyable and social events. For example, I helped organise a 50th Anniversary talk by photographer Jacqueline O’Brien (Australian wife of the horse trainer Vincent O’Brien), who did all the fantastic photography for the trilogy of books on Irish heritage: Ancient Ireland, Dublin - A Grand Tour and Great Irish Houses & Castles (last 2 written by Desmond Guinness). See picture above. Not only did she enthral us with her work, but gave us £50 for our funds — £1 for every year of our existence! 
• Our stance on one-off houses in the 1990’s and the turn of the century. Under chair Michael Smith and others, we strongly resisted the spread of bungalow blitz and other non-urban based housing. We got pilloried from many quarters, but our position has been vindicated as in the best interest of town & village life and sustainability.
• We in the DCA in the 1990’s did great work in the Grove, one of An Taisce’s properties in Dublin. It was given to us by Kathleen Goodfellow in perpetuity for use as a bird sanctuary. It was in a bad state and needed renovation. We put in a pond and restored the fine entrance gates. I secured £2,000 for this from my stock brokers BCP whose offices were directly across the road from the gates!
• Ian Lumley has been a great asset for An Taisce over the years. He was a fearless defender of our built heritage and a scourge of county councils for their often poor record on planning and conservation. His presentations to Council were stimulating and informative. He was instrumental in forming our Buildings at Risk register – see a previous blog on the subject: Ireland's heritage: Vigilance on the Built Environment | An Taisce - The National Trust For Ireland I hope the path he trod will continue into the future, and a legacy to An Taisce will help this.
• I was proud to be Treasurer of An Taisce for several years during the 2000’s and for a second brief period in 2019/20. I was pleased to stand up and give an account of our finances to Council meetings in Tailors’ Hall. We had tough funding issues then and legacies would have helped greatly!
• During the Celtic Tiger years up to the financial crash in 2007/8, An Taisce planning activity prevented €500 million of undesirable development from taking place! This was a great service to the nation.
• The AGM in 2019 in Tailors Hall before Covid. It was a very dramatic and memorable meeting for many reasons. There were some big decisions facing the organisation at the time. I came in a good second in the voting for Council membership in a sizeable field.
• In recent years, An Taisce have allowed my other organisation Keep Ireland Open (KIO) www.keepirelandopen.org to have their committee meetings and AGM’s in Tailors’ Hall and Foster Place, and free of charge! As treasurer of KIO, this is much appreciated.
• Writing blogs for An Taisce since 2022 has been very enjoyable – this epistle is no. 16. It’s great to cover all the environment issues of interest to An Taisce members and hopefully with a sense of humour. I wish to thank Phil Kearney for giving me the inspiration to sharpen my pen, on one of our heritage walks.

Looking back, it’s a shame we don’t have an active DCA in our capital city. I cut my teeth there, before moving on to help the national organisation. It was good for my social life and I made friends there. Mother Redcap’s pub in Back Lane was a great place to go to after meetings in Tailors’ Hall. It’s a pity that the building has been derelict for many years. With funds from members’ wills, hopefully some rejuvenation could take place in Dublin.

As you know from my An Taisce blogs, I’m very concerned about climate change and I’m pleased that we have moved significantly into this area of advocacy, especially under the chairmanship of Phil Kearney. I was an early member of the organisation’s climate committee (ATCC) and was surrounded by a lot of experts on climate change, including our former president Professor John Sweeney. It is the most active policy committee and hopefully others will follow its success. I found a niche in Influencing, to encourage famous people to talk about climate change. I nearly got Christy Moore to come out on the subject!

All in all, An Taisce is very worthy of support in our wills. Knowing that the good work will be continued after we are gone is reassuring. We need to give more funds to good causes to help society and the environment. So get out pen and paper and then contact your solicitor!

Eric Conroy