Council Briefs: Goodbye to Cearnóg Christine Buckley, expanding Richmond Park, improving Benmadigan green, and more

Goodbye to Cearnóg Christine Buckley

The council backed away from its plan to name an Inchicore square after Christine Buckley, at a meeting of the South Central Area Committee last Wednesday.

As a child, Buckley was incarcerated in St Vincent’s Industrial School in Inchicore.

She grew up to be a nurse, and an advocate for survivors of childhood abuse in religious and state-supported institutions. She died in 2014.

The council, with support of her husband, Donal Buckley, had proposed naming a plaza for her at a planned new housing complex on the site of the former St Michael’s Estate.

The council got planning permission last year to build 578 public homes on the site, off Emmet Road, between Richmond Barracks and Tyrone Place.

In July, the South Central Area Committee agreed to call this new development An Droichid Órga (or, in English, Goldenbridge).

Cearnóg Christine Buckley was to be within this new development, just near the entrance to what was St Vincent’s Industrial School, where she was incarcerated.

In line with a council policy brought in at the end of 2022 that new housing estates and apartment complexes be named in Irish, the names were in Irish, with English translations.

A council spokesperson said in July that the names for the new Inchicore development were done and dusted, ““there are no further steps in the process”.

However, it turned out that Donal Buckley’s support did not reflect the views of the entire family. So Christine Buckley’s name is being removed from the cearnóg.

“A member of a particular family wasn’t comfortable with the name being used, and that’s why it’s been withdrawn,” Labour Councillor Darragh Moriarty said at the meeting last Wednesday.

At last Wednesday’s meeting, council managers proposed renaming that plaza Cearnóg Uí Chonaill (O’Connell Square).

Councillors accepted the new name. But some weren’t happy with how the whole thing had gone down.

“I think it’s just hopefully a lesson to us all that we do tread more carefully,” said Moriarty, the Labour councillor.

“I appreciate that some sort of due diligence had been carried out in advance of bringing it to this committee, but clearly not enough, given it now having to be withdrawn,” he said.

Expanding Richmond Park

The council’s efforts to buy properties along Emmet Road in Inchicore to clear the way for a planned expansion of Richmond Park continue.

“Can you confirm the current status in relation to DCC purchase of property surrounding Richmond Park?” asked Labour Councillor Darragh Moriarty, in a written question to council managers.

In the summer of 2023, a council spokesperson had said that the council had already bought the building at 119 Emmet Road, a two-storey red-brick that until late last year housed the Clean-Well Washeteria laundrette. As well as 133 Emmet Road.

The response Moriarty got from council managers in September was that “To date DCC has acquired three properties, No. 119/119a, No.133, No.131 and a fourth property is at contract stage.” So that’s one more: number 131.

“The Council is continuing to engage with the remaining property owners with a view to acquiring those properties by agreement,” the response said.

Behind the council’s interest in the strip on this Inchicore thoroughfare is an ambitious plan to grow the football stadium behind, the home ground of St Patrick’s Athletic FC.

The council has asked St Patrick’s Athletic FC to provide more information to the council, “including a more detailed design and confirmation of the approach to the funding of the stadium project”, the response to Moriarty said.

“The Club will also be expected to commence pre-planning discussions,” it said.

Improving a Drimnagh green

Residents around the green on Benmadigan Road in Drimnagh have done a lot of work “to make it a much more attractive space for all the local people to use”, Green Party Councillor Ray Cunningham said.

But it could be even better, Cunningham said at last Wednesday’s meeting of the South Central Area Committee.

So he’d put in a motion to the area committee calling on the council to make a few changes.

He asked for it to add access paths on the north and south sides of the green, and raised-table crossings connecting those paths to make it safer to cross the road there.

He also asked that the council replace the barrier at the east end of the green with a wheelchair-accessible gate, or remove the barrier completely.

The response he got from council managers was that the council’s parks department “acknowledge that some other additional access points would be of benefit”.

So they can review that idea “in the context of 2025 parks improvements”, the response said. “Parks will refer the request of raised table to E&T”, the response said, referring to the council’s environment and transport department.

Cunningham said by WhatsApp on Tuesday that “Residents had originally requested removing the gate at Benbulbin [Road] end, but after the fires [on the green] in last few weeks they want to keep it,” he said.

So a plan take out the gate at the east end of the green and replace it with a removable bollard has been scrapped, he said.

Building housing in Ballyfermot

It’s time to give the Sons of Divine Providence a push to come to an agreement with the council so it can build 176 homes on their property in Sarsfield Road in Ballyfermot, said Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan.

“It’s a really good site, we have an opportunity to build a serious amount of houses at a time when the city and this area badly needs them,” Doolan told the South Central Area Committee at their meeting last Wednesday.

As it happened, said the chair of the committee, independent Councillor Vincent Jackson, “I’m the Secretary of Sons of Divine Providence Ireland down there.”

“It is a fantastic site of 5.4 acres,” Jackson said. “Up until a few weeks ago, we were the people all the time looking for the city council to advance this project,” Jackson said.

“Now they have come up with one or two issues now that causes some problems for us,” he said. “But can I assure all the members here the delay is not on our end.”

But Doolan said that the “terms and conditions for the transfer of land were shared with the Sons of Divine Providence on 5 March. That’s over seven months ago.”

The plan for the site includes three blocks of homes, according to a response by council managers to a query from Doolan in July 2023.

“One block would consist of 60 sheltered units owned and managed by the Sons of Divine Providence (an AHB) with Dublin City Council operating intergenerational social housing from the other two blocks,” the response says.

The project had received “Stage 1” approval from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) in August 222, “with a budget of approximately €67 million”, the response said.

“In the period since, Dublin City Council has met extensively with the Sons of Divine Providence and DHLGH on a development agreement to progress the project,” it said.

“This agreement will include a Title Exchange and Draft Terms are due to be exchanged shortly,” it said. “Once this is done the project will proceed to Stage 2 which will include planning requirements.”

Area Manager Alan Sherry said at last Wednesday’s meeting that he didn’t think any party was holding up the process.

“I don’t feel there’s negativity on any side,” he said. “I think it’s just the nature of the situation there is probably delaying it more than we all like.”