A group of activists from March4Tipp has carried out a makeover on the front of the Irish House. Fed up with the inaction of Tipperary County Council and the building's owners, they decided to carry out some improvements themselves.
Using money they each contributed, they commmissioned Kevin Leahy signs to produce window and door covers to improve the appearance of the building, at least at street level.
Five cover sheets were produced, four for windows and a larger one for the centre door. Two of the images depict café scenes, reminiscent of the building's past as a café under the management of Noel and Alice McInerney. Two other window images depict school room scenes, harkening back to the building's past existence as a school.
Each window ledge is brightened by a window box and the building now has a spendid red front door, complete with a black cat sitting outside.
One of the March4Tipp activists said that they were fed up of waiting for the Council to force the building's owners to fix up the building. "It is a disgrace that a grand old building should be neglected like this" he said. The activists also cleaned the ground floor windows and the Padraic Pearse plaque on the front of the building.
The council wouldn't do anything
The building's owners wouldn't do anything
So we did