The gigantic umbrellas meant to shelter Meeting House Square are broken and their future unclear

The four massive retractable umbrellas in Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square were down on Saturday afternoon.

They hadn’t been open for a while.

“What umbrellas?” said one of the market traders jokingly, as he packed away his stall just after 2pm.

Before Covid-19 arrived in Ireland in 2020, the council “would open them every week for us”, said Stephen McNally, of McNally’s Family Farm. In the winter of 2022, the council opened them as well, said McNally. 

Anytime it rained, the cover of the four upturned umbrellas created a beautiful atmosphere in the square below, he said, while guiding a customer over to one of the last squashes they had in stock.

But, whenever it has rained in more recent years, the square becomes a ghost town, he says. “Customers just immediately leave.”

The umbrellas, each 21 metres tall, were damaged during routine maintenance in May 2023, a council spokesperson said on Thursday. They did not say by who.

The umbrellas have not been deployed since, as the council has been unable to repair the umbrellas, because the only contractor with the expertise to bring them back into use has dropped out of negotiations, the spokesperson said.

So the council is undertaking a review to determine the future of the umbrellas, they said.

Broken arms

The “rainscreens” at Meeting House Square were commissioned by the Temple Bar Cultural Trust to mark the 20th anniversary of Temple Bar’s urban regeneration, according to Seán Harrington Architects, the firm that designed them.

They cost €2.7 million, 30 percent over what had been budgeted, according to an Irish Times report from August 2014.

They weren’t warmly received by all locals, with the Temple Bar Residents Association writing in a submission for the council’s 2022 to 2028 development plan that the umbrellas damaged the Meeting House Square’s stone-paved surface “and relationship with the sky”.

The umbrellas remained operational for many years, according to a spokesperson for MDT-tex, a German-Swiss firm, which supplied the rainscreens, they said.

This, they said, was “despite very limited and, in some cases, insufficient maintenance”.

They were designed to remain in operation “for many decades”, the spokesperson said. “[P]rovided that it is serviced correctly and in line with technical requirements over its lifetime.”

After a few years in which they functioned well, traders started to notice that they were being used less, says Stephen McNally. “We started hearing there was a problem with them. This was before Covid. Like 2019.”

Broken brolly

During the winter months, most of the market stalls are kept going by their regulars, McNally said on Saturday as he and his partner wrapped up for the day. “They tide us through until the summer vegetables come in.”

A lot of stalls have been struggling here in recent years, he says. “New stalls come in here, last two or three weeks, and then they are gone.”

The umbrellas should be playing a key role during this season, drawing in customers who would otherwise be deterred by the bad weather, he says “This should be a place they are coming into because this is a place with giant umbrellas.”

In December however, their only function had been to prop up a light installation as part of the council’s Winter Lights.

Traders in the market were last given an update on the status of the umbrellas around 12 months ago, says Declan Cassidy of Gourmet Grub Bakery.

They were told a piece was being shipped to a company in Europe, which had been contracted to repair the broken parts, he said on Sunday, “and maintain the umbrellas going forward”.

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council wouldn’t confirm the name of the contractor in question.

But they said no decision has been made on the future of the umbrellas. “We are currently carrying out a full review assisted by technical staff in Dublin City Council.” 

A spokesperson for MDT-tex said, as the manufacturer, they are “in principle” willing to support, advise on, and carry out appropriate service or repair measures.

Any such works would be dependent on approval and budgetary decisions by the council, they said. “Without such authorisations, even technically necessary measures cannot be carried out.”

When asked if the council had engaged them to carry out works, the spokesperson said any required measures are “still pending formal instruction” and have not been commissioned. “Accordingly, no such work has been executed so far.”

While the council is currently deliberating on what to do with the rainscreens, independent Councillor Mannix Flynn says doing any more repairs is going to add to the costs of an already expensive installation.

If the council wants to bring life back into the area, they should focus on re-opening the shuttered Eden Restaurant on the square, he said over the phone on Saturday. “I would rather see the money being put in there rather than spending on brollies that don’t work.”

It’s probably time to get rid of them, he says. “I want these brollies gone, out of the equation and a redesign done.”