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Former Irish Times environment editor was in many ways the living embodiment of the capital
3 MIN READ Sir, – We have lost Dublin’s single greatest champion in the passing of Frank McDonald. (“Frank McDonald, former environment editor of It’s hard to come to terms with a Dublin without Frank.
He was, in so many ways, the living embodiment of our capital – brimming with enthusiasm for its history and identity, reflecting its infectious and affable charm, with an added dose of sophistication. Frank was the trailblazing inspiration for countless younger people to get involved Dublin’s conservation and development, this writer included. He was the touchstone for almost everyone in the architecture, planning and conservation worlds, where a giant void has now opened up.
To his immense credit, planning – that most neglected of professions – was always at the heart of Frank’s focus. He recognised from an early point the immense power of the process and its potential to be harnessed as a tool against the public interest. Right up to his last days, Frank was justly incensed at the recent dismantling of Ireland’s planning process, and the kowtowing to institutional property lobbying in reducing hard-won housing standards and coherent urban design principles.
Frank was far from a Luddite: he was a well-travelled, progressive and pragmatic urban dweller – always seeking international reference points to advance a better future for Dublin. Patient records are a vital part of our history. Destroying them is wrongIn his passing, policymakers must take stock of Frank’s immense achievements, of which we have all been beneficiaries, and focus on adequately resourcing the State’s planning sector to manage a rapidly changing Ireland.
It is also an imperative that Frank’s outstanding legacy to Dublin is marked by the city in a fitting memorial. Frank McDonald was one of the most principled people in Irish public life. It is thanks to him that so much of historic Dublin, our vital patrimony, still stands for our appreciation today. Defending the public estate and civic values went to the core of his being.
– Yours, etc,In late August 1987 Frank McDonald and I sat in the sun on the steps outside my home, plotting what Irish Times readers could do to wake everyone up to growing marine litter and pollution issues. Frank’s editor was not raring to give it a go as a contribution to European Year of the Environment, but we persuaded him and the Irish Times printed a page of questions, inviting readers to bring these to their shore and record what they saw.
Then they were to post the paper back to help produce an island wide shore audit. It was a risk taken by Frank as young reporter and The Irish Times which gave birth to Coastwatch. In a few days’ time, it will be our 40th shore survey and I hope that volunteers going out will think of him our cofounder.
As the survey became an annual event and grew across Europe, Frank always took an interest as first results were emerging and we schemed how to turn information into action or how to expose and halt unsustainable practice. I can still see his googly eyes light up as we looked over surveyor comments of illegal dumps being eaten by the sea.
“Ah, that’s brutal,” he would say. – Yours etc,Sir, – Frank McDonald made an enormous contributions to public understanding of good planning and architecture, he understood the power of public participation, he was never afraid to exercise his constitutional right to judicial review, challenging the legal validity rather than the practical merits of a decision made by a public authority, corporate entity or board in planning and environmental matters and he understood the costs and risks involved.
His contribution made a difference, many buildings particularly in Dublin are still standing because he spoke up and made the case for their protection. – Yours etc,I knew Frank McDonald in our student days in UCD, 1967-1970. Frank was a student activist and a leader in the students’ representative council. He gave voice to the need for political change and social justice, especially around poverty and the distribution of wealth.
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