In East Wall, a long-vacant site is looking more likely to become a community garden

It’s looking more likely that a long-vacant plot of land on Ossory Road in East Wall can be turned into a community amenity for a couple of years, councillors say.

The plot, known locally as The Meadows, is owned by Iarnród Éireann, said Daniel Ennis, a Social Democrats councillor for the north inner-city, by phone on Tuesday.

It has been vacant for a very long time, said Ennis. But he, other councillors, and community groups have been pushing to be allowed to turn it to better use. 

As in other parts of the city, a stalled transport project means the land has been in limbo, given this site is destined in the long run to be used by Iarnród Éireann for its DART+ West line.

At a meeting on Tuesday of the council’s Central Area Committee, Iarnród Éireann’s Dublin Division deputy infrastructure manager, Gary Donohoe, told councillors that the land now won’t be used for that new route until 2028.

That’s further out into the future than had been the plan. And it creates the time to make it worthwhile to let the community use it in the meantime, Donohoe said.

So after that meeting, Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam spoke with a council area manager, Marie Kavanagh, about a meanwhile use for the plot, said McAdam. 

She said the community should get active use of the lands by July, said McAdam. Access should last “most likely until the second half of 2028”, he said.

On Thursday evening, a spokesperson for Irish Rail sounded a much more cautious note, though. 

“It is not accurate to say that meanwhile use will definitely occur,” she said. Donohoe had committed to exploring it, she said.

A grey zone

East Wall is the “greyest area in Dublin”, says Ennis, “and there’s a green space sitting there idle this long, I think that’s mind-blowing”.

Ennis said he was on ramble with his son, when he took notice. “He said, ‘Daddy, what’s that space in there used for? Wouldn’t it be great to have a park there?’ and my mind started going 90.”

At first, he honed in on a plot over the way owned by a fund, E to Infinity ICAV. But then he switched his attention to the Iarnród Éireann-owned plot. 

Ennis says he began reaching out to community groups and locals to build momentum behind the idea of putting The Meadows site to better use. 

He discovered others in the area had been quietly thinking the same thing. 

He says he rallied senior citizens’ groups, members of the local Men’s Shed, the garden club and people involved in the North Strand community garden, Mud Island.

Shortly after being elected to Dublin City Council last summer, Ennis put a question to the council’s chief executive, asking for the plot to be used for “recreational community use”.

The response? The council had contacted Iarnród Éireann to commence discussions of “future meanwhile temporary uses” for the site, said a reply from Marie Kavanagh, the council’s north inner-city area manager. 

To which Iarnród Éireann agreed in principle, for a period of approximately two years, Kavanagh’s reply said.

In the longer term, however, the land was required for “future rail expansion projects”, specifically the building of the DART+ West line, she said. 

So, Iarnród Éireann advised the land would be available for use until mid-2026, she said.

A community consultation held in the Sean O’Casey Community Centre on 20 June 2024 was extremely well attended, said McAdam, a Fine Gael councillor for the north inner-city, by phone on Wednesday.

Locals aired their views on what should be done with the site.

Popular suggestions included allotments for growing food, and a sensory garden, according to resident Deirdre Murray, who went along.

Some older residents simply wanted somewhere comfortable to sit in the sun and chat, Murray said.

The feedback to the news was “extraordinarily positive”, says McAdam, but the short time frame for meanwhile-use – up to just the middle of next year – did dampen enthusiasm slightly.

Now though, given the changed time line for the project, the community should be able to keep it as an amenity for longer, said McAdam.

At the meeting, Donohoe said, of Iarnród Éireann, said “that was the only stumbling block, that it would be required back very shortly, which would make it not worthwhile for meanwhile use.” 

Community needs

“We're always talking about how built-up the area is, and they don't seem to cater for the new people moving in. Young families with children,” says Rachel Kane who co-runs NIC Side-By-Side, a local support group for parents of neurodivergent children.

“Any additional spaces are not being added in when these apartment blocks are going up,” she said.

So, she is pleased with the latest update about the lands, she says. 

An outdoor sensory space for neurodivergent children is sorely missing, she says. “A lot of our children like to be barefoot. They feel very uncomfortable in shoes and even the seams of clothes and things like that can be uncomfortable.”

A space that is clear and clean for these children is very important, she says. 

Ennis says this project would bring the whole community together, and already has huge buy-in.

“I’ve been speaking to the guys up in the East Wall IPAS Centre, and they’d all be looking to get involved with the clearing up of the site, helping the council with all of that,” he says.

The site has attracted illegal dumping and anti-social behaviour, he says. Developing the grounds into a well-used amenity would also address those ongoing problems, said Ennis.

Murray remembers how she and her neighbours would chat outside during the pandemic and think how great it would be to have a garden on that site to enjoy.

“We were all growing bits and pieces in our own little outside spaces, and we’d get competitive with each other, who could grow the better sunflowers,” she says. “We were dreaming of having a bigger shared space.”

Gardening is big in the community, she says. 

The Men’s Shed and Garden Club are really active. “Anywhere you see flowers potted around the area, that’s not the council who’ve done that. It’s locals,” says Murray.

Older people in the Men’s Sheds groups would absolutely be involved in any new community garden in The Meadows, says Paul Graham, East Wall Men’s Shed secretary, by phone on Thursday.

 But it’ll be even better for younger people, living in new apartments, he says.

“We’ll need that younger energy. It’ll be a welcome opportunity for everyone to come together,” he says. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.