The potential to develop a “consolidated library facility” for Armagh is back on the cards – a full decade after it appeared to be a done deal.
It was in April 2016 that Armagh I reported that the Armagh Public Library and Irish and Local Studies Library could be amalgamated as part of a £3.3m revamp of the St Patrick’s Trian site.
Now it has emerged that the “potential” for such a move in Armagh is listed in a new five-year plan by Libraries NI.
First hints that the library could be living on ‘borrowed’ time and the relocation from Market Square was even a possibility came during a recent meeting of ABC Council.
Officials from Armagh Observatory and Planetarium had been attending to detail and seek support for a complete redevelopment of their College Hill site, with an estimated figure for that project given at around £50m.
The Department for Communities is providing funding to help take the AOP’s out-of-this-world vision for a centre of global excellence through to planning stage.
But it was a throwaway remark by a senior official from DfC that aroused curiosity.
Ian Greenaway said the next two years would be “incredibly important” for the Observatory and Planetarium as it worked to develop what a new-look site on College Hill might entail.
“This is actually the period in which we all have a chance to shape what will be on that site,” he explained. “As just one example, the public library – which is also part of a sponsored body under the Department for Communities – we know it’s not fit for purpose in the current wonderful building in Market Square… Could that, or could that not, go into the Planetarium site? So there’s all of these discussions we need to have and how to fit with the (future planned development of the) Gaol.”
Mr Greenaway’s words were certainly not written in stone in relation to library provision.
But the suggestion that the possibility existed to move the library warranted further questions.
Was it the Department for Communities view as a whole that the building – a focal point on Market Square – was no longer up to the job – or ‘fit-for-purpose’ to quote the official – for its role as public library?
A spokesperson for the Department confirmed that the library was indeed on its radar, albeit it very early days.
They told Armagh I : “The Libraries NI Asset Management Plan 2025-30 identifies the potential development of a consolidated library facility for Armagh City.”
But the spokesperson added: “Any work in this area is exploratory only and would involve identifying a suitable location, in discussion with the local council and relevant partners, including Armagh Observatory and Planetarium.
“No decisions have been taken on relocation or future provision.”
Both the Public Library and Irish and Local Studies Library had previously been mooted to be uprooted under an all-singing, all-dancing Libraries NI business plan.
That was exactly 10 years ago this week, when it was reported the branch library move would leave the Market Street building, leased by the Education Authority, largely empty, bar the AmmA Centre on its upper floor. There was expected to be considerable efforts to have a tenant ready to move in, with the opportunity to possibly open it to the private sector.
St Patrick’s Trian was the front-runner for those plans and refurbishment of the largely empty building would cost in the region of £3.3m.
Plans were at an advanced stage before the merger of the local councils, with Armagh City and District Council having then entered the pre-qualification questionnaire stage of the project.
Over a year earlier, in February 2015, it was reported that St Patrick’s Trian was to be completely transformed into a community ‘hub’, which was to have included the provision of a library and offices.
Now, a decade later, the conversation of relocating the library certainly has not gone away.
The big question now, of course, is when – or even if – this might happen.
