Council’s plans for Mountjoy Square contested by those who want more sports facilities added

Tensions between competing visions of Mountjoy Square – either as a restored Georgian Square, or as a sports hub – that helped to scupper a previous effort to revamp it, have re-emerged.

Dublin City Council yesterday launched a public consultation on its plans to renovate Mountjoy Square, and restore it in line with its Georgian heritage. 

The proposed project seeks to reimagine the park within the context of its original 1802 design, according to a council report, restoring its railings and adding 84 “oil” lamps around the park’s edges. 

Plans also show public toilets, a basketball court, accessible seating and an outdoor gym. The council has budgeted €3.25 million at the moment. 

In these new plans, in the centre of the park is a large lawn area, which a council official previously said could serve as a “pitch-lawn area”, which would be “more suitable for field sports” than the current asphalt courts. 

That is the heart of the current disagreement.

Dublin City Council previously withdrew an application for planning permission to revamp Mountjoy Square amid – among other issues – tensions between conservationists, who wanted to see the park restored in line with its Georgian heritage, and others who wanted to retain sports facilities in the park.

In November, Gareth Toolan, a council landscape architect, indicated that the issue had been resolved. “There has been a huge amount of consultation on this in the last 10 years,” he said at a meeting that month of the Central Area Committee.

Anto Perry, secretary of Hardwicke FC, said that after that November meeting, he had understood that the redevelopment was set to include a FIFA-grade football pitch. 

But drawings showing the design of the square were only released earlier this month, and there’s no sign of a football pitch. “We were completely shocked when we saw the plans,” says Perry. 

The club, like others in the north inner-city, has no pitch, apart from a five-aside and has to hire pitches for training, Perry says. “This is what the north inner-city needs and is crying out for.”

At another meeting of the Central Area Committee, on Tuesday, Paul Flynn, chair of the Dublin City Sports Club Network – an umbrella group that he said represents around 50 sports clubs in the north inner-city and surrounding areas – said they would like to see Mountjoy Square developed as a sports hub. 

In a presentation, the network said it would like a large indoor studio for dancing, drama and martial arts, as well as two astro-turf pitches, new tennis courts, and upgraded basketball courts.

But Graham Hickey, CEO of the Dublin Civic Trust, said that since the square is an Architectural Conservation Area, “any proposal for development of the square would have to be guided by the architectural heritage protection guidelines”.

It's unlikely that the council would grant planning permission for new buildings under that designation, Hickey said. 

After the consultation period concludes, on 6 March, council staff will review the submissions they’ve received, and might potentially make changes based on those,

They’d need councillors to vote in favour of any plan before it could move forward.

A new sports hub?

There is no full-size soccer pitch in the area, says Perry. 

Local clubs often travel to Fairview Park and further away for training and matches, and adults often train on small astroturf pitches, which are designed for five-a-side, or for use by children. 

There are thousands of children in the area, including many living in council flats and homeless accommodation, with no full-sized pitches to play on, says Perry, of Hardwicke FC. 

Perry says that getting kids involved in sport in the inner-city is critical to reducing issues with anti-social behaviour. 

It doesn’t matter what the sport is, and it doesn’t matter whether they win competitions or not, or what level they compete at, he says. “Its not the trophies they won, its the men they become.”

Young people who play sports learn to show up on time, to listen to coaches and take instructions, he says, which helps them with employability when they are older. “It doesn’t have to be a full-size pitch,” he says. “But we need to be able to run academies.”

At a meeting of the Central Area Committee on Tuesday 20 January, Flynn, chair of the Dublin City Sports Club Network, said they want the council to increase and improve sports facilities at Fairview Park and Mountjoy Square, and fully redevelop Dunard Park in Cabra.

The network represents around 50 sports clubs, in Dublin 1, 3 and 7, says Flynn, chairperson, covering a variety of types of sports and activities. 

Any development of Mountjoy Square should take into account the needs of the high number of homeless children living in the area, Flynn said. 

“I think we can sit down and look at what is essentially needed for children in that region,” he said. “Mountjoy Square is the only possible site where we could develop a sports hub in Dublin 1.”

Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis, who is secretary of Dublin City Sports Club Network, and is also the chairperson of the council’s new sports forum, responsible for implementing its sports plan. 

Ennis said, by phone on Wednesday, that the solution to anti-social behaviour in the area is more pro-social activities. 

As for Mountjoy Square, “It needs to be a hub for sports,” he says. 

There is a hard concrete pitch being removed from Mountjoy Square under the plans, says Ennis. “If that pitch was in better condition, it would be well used.”

Green recreational space

Restoring the park in line with its Georgian heritage, delivering open play space and recreational space, is not in line with fencing off a sports pitch, says Green Party Councillor Janet Horner. “Pitches and parks are not the same.”

There is a desperate need for pitches in the north inner-city, but there is also a desperate need for recreational space for informal play, sitting around and walking space to cater to all potential park users, she says. 

“This park is a small confined space that needs to serve a wide range of uses,” she says. She doesn’t think it is big enough to cater for both a sports hub and a recreational play space. “Any sports use needs to be shared with general uses,” says Horner. 

Hickey, of the Dublin Civic Trust, also lives locally, and says that he used to live on Mountjoy Square itself until recently.

He said residents rejected the council’s proposal in 2019 because it envisioned developing only half the park, and leaving the other half as it was. 

He says he noticed that the park is not used by all cohorts of residents. For example, older people don’t go in there a lot, he says. 

He supports the council plan as it is aimed at encouraging people of all ages to use the park, and he says it facilitates active play and outdoor activity pursuits.

“There is a huge amount of kids’ play scattered the whole way through the park as well as in designated areas,” he says. There is a basketball hoop too, and a sensory garden. 

“That is what is clever about it, they are using the ground plan of the original design but accommodating 21st century requirements within that framework,” says Hickey. 

He says that there is a need for better sports facilities in the area, but that Mountjoy Square is the only open green space available, so it needs to cater to everyone. 

Perry, of Hardwicke FC, says he thinks that the council could renovate the park in line with its heritage while also delivering a football pitch on it. 

Ennis, the Social Democrats councillor, says he thinks Mountjoy Square is big enough to accommodate a pitch and other uses. The purpose of the consultation process is for locals to have their say on the council’s proposals, he says. 

Why is there confusion?

Back in November, Dublin Live reported that the council's plans for Mountjoy Square included a new FIFA-grade football pitch. 

Perry, of Hardwicke FC, says he was excited when he heard that there was going to be a new football pitch on the square. “We want to run children’s academies there and bring that park to life,” he says.

The drawings released this month don’t include any sports pitch on the green, but comments made by a council official in November did indicate that the existing hard concrete courts were being replaced by better space for field sports.

“We are not losing any facilities that are there already,” said council landscape architect Gareth Toolan at the meeting of the Central Area Committee. 

“People are very much attracted to the asphalt area because it is the only flat surface that is in the space at the moment,” he said, “but that is not suitable for sports.”

There are damaged tennis courts, with potholes and cracks on the surface there at the moment, he said. 

“The new pitch-lawn area will be more appropriate for field sports and general gathering will be a lot more attractive for the wider community, not just sports people,” he said.

“It will be a high-quality finish to it, FIFA-grade,” he said. “While people are attracted to the asphalt at the moment, we are going to replace it with a more appropriate solution.” 

Dublin City Council didn’t respond in time for publication to a query as to whether the current plan allows for a football pitch on the lawn.