Council identifies Clongriffin as potential site for a new cultural and artistic centre

Dublin City Council has identified Clongriffin as the potential site for a new cultural and artistic centre, officials say.

A 2021 cultural infrastructure audit found that there was a big swathe of the northeast of the city that did not have any cultural buildings nearby. 

In 2024, Dublin City Council City Arts Officer Ray Yeates said he would support the move to develop an arts and culture venue somewhere in the council’s North Central Area administrative area. 

Since early 2025, a council subcommittee has been devoted to identifying a new potential arts centre in this area, which also includes the northeast part of the city, Green Party Councillor Donna Cooney said on Friday. “It’s coming from our awareness of a lack of cultural space in the area.”

Meanwhile, a council-commissioned social needs infrastructure audit for Clongriffin and Belmayne identified a strong need for artistic and cultural facilities in the area, according to an email sent to councillors by the North Central Area manager Bruce Phillips on Friday.

The demand is most noticeable in Clongriffin, where the council is set to provide a library and community centre, Philips wrote. “There is further opportunity here for a flagship Cultural and Artistic Centre in Clongriffin.”

A growing area

Clongriffin might be ideal for the northeast’s new arts centre, said Cooney.

“We’re talking about the population increasing greater than anywhere else. Basically in a few years time, it could be as large as Drogheda.”

The Land Development Agency is working on two large-scale residential developments in this corner of the city – on either side of the Clongriffin Dart Station.

To the east of the tracks, within Fingal, the LDA has permission to build 1,931 homes. Meanwhile, to the west, on the Dublin city side, they are currently in the first stage of construction on an estimated 2,000 homes.

On 21 May, the LDA applied to the council for permission to proceed with phase two of this development, which includes 711 homes, a childcare facility and spaces for shops, shops, cafés and restaurants.

Their application also includes a proposal for community, cultural and arts spaces within the new development, an LDA spokesperson said on Tuesday evening.

The cultural and arts spaces would be integrated into mixed-use ground floors alongside the spaces for shops, restaurants and cafes, the spokesperson said.

But, the LDA spokesperson did not comment when asked on Friday whether any of these proposed spaces would be used as a flagship arts and cultural centre as is currently being sought by the council.

Scouting for sites

In March 2025, the council held a public meeting in Coolock Library with a view to set up a steering group, identify potential sites, and find funding streams to develop a new arts centre in the North Central Area.

According to the minutes of the council’s Arts and Cultural Advisory Group on 23 March, they appointed a new project manager to the North Central Area Arts Centre Development Committee, whose role it would be to audit, map and rank potential new-build and adaptive re-use buildings for cultural and community use.

The working group has been considering one potential location for community, arts and sporting facilities on the Oscar Traynor Road.

Early stage discussions are underway on a mixed-use development, the minutes say. But no decisions have been made yet.

Officials told the committee that their current work is focused on setting up guiding principles – like questions of public and private use, accessibility and revenue requirements – before any proposals would be brought to the members, the minutes say.

It is promising, however, that the council could begin preparations for a site visit to Clongriffin now that the area audit has identified a demand for an arts centre, Cooney said on Friday. 

“Knowing people want something like this is really good, because you’re not just saying ‘Here’s an arts centre,’” she said.