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Kilkenny, Ireland, Autumn 2008 —
The area between the Market Cross Shopping Centre and the only major section of the medieval city wall is neglected by the city, the county, Market Cross, the supermarket Superquinn, and the landlord property owners of the apartments located above.
The byzantine confusion of property ownership in the area leaves one of Kilkenny's most important monuments in a condition of neglect, given over to kids who litter, spit, and leave graffiti of no expressive creativity.
The narrow passageway, owned by the city, is surrounded by properties owned by a rake of "interested" parties — none interested except in the legal, vested sense.
Market Cross manages the shopping center as a whole. Superquinn supermarket owns the back doors at ground level. A group of eight landlords own the apartments one level up — and are bereft of a management company since 2001. The nuns at Presentation Convent oversee the mosoleum that is attached to the wall. The wall itself, I believe, is property of the county... or the Heritage Counsel... or God knows who-else.
In the classic style of humans thinking "surely somebody will do something," none of them do anything.
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