A landmark site that could have become a northside campus for UCC is now a regular drinking den and dumping ground.
It is four years since the HSE was first warned that hoodlums were destroying the former Our Lady’s Hospital complex on Lee Road.
Photographs sent to the Evening Echo by Cork heritage campaigner Jim Fahy show the destruction at the former mental hospital continues.
Now the HSE has admitted the site is too dangerous to patrol on foot for security guards.
Four years ago Bernard Allen, the former local TD and Minister for Sport, called for the HSE to either sell off the land or find another use for it.
“What was at one time an asset is now a liability for the HSE and the State. Something could have been done with this place four years ago. But that opportunity has passed now. I remember in the mid 1990s when UCC was offered this site along with €40 million to invest in it, so they could have a second campus. However, the university rejected the offer, which was a shame,” he said.
Garda sources have said they are aware of the anti-social behaviour at the property.
Heritage campaigners Jim Fahy and Max McCarthy are now calling on people to help them find a way of protecting the site.