In Clonsilla, a plan comes together for the Old School House and surrounding lands

There’s a strategy now for restoring the Old School House in Clonsilla, which has been lying empty for 25 years. 

Fingal County Council has published a draft masterplan for the building and the site that surrounds it.

The document, which sets out a vision for the redevelopment of this long, thin strip of land and the former Clonsilla National School along the Royal Canal, was put out for public consultation on 30 June.

The council’s vision for the derelict school – built in 1853, according to the National Built Heritage Service – is that its owner should redevelop it as housing.

The overgrown lands around the school are zoned for housing, and the masterplan envisions up to 100 homes on it, roughly two or three storeys high. Along with a community facility, like a creche, and some open green space.

In 2023, a spokesperson for Fingal County Council said it was trying to buy the school and the site it sits on. But that hasn’t happened. 

And, last Tuesday, 1 July, a council spokesperson said there weren’t any current plans for it to buy the 5.73-acre site – which is up for sale for €3,750,000, according to Daft.ie.

That leaves the masterplan as a “non-statutory” document (it says), “establishing a long-term vision” meant to “guide and promote” the future development of the site by whoever should own it. 

That the council has reached this point is welcome, says local Stephen Grey. “It’s a plan. It’s better than no plan.”

But Christine Moore, a member of the Clonsilla Porterstown Heritage Society, said she doesn’t think the old school should be turned into a house. 

“It would be fantastic if this building was a community centre, because Clonsilla doesn’t have one,” Moore said. Perhaps this can be sorted out via the consultation, she says. 

The major issue Moore and local councillors have is the timeframe for people to make their views known. The consultation, which began on 30 of June, was set to conclude on 28 July. 

It shouldn’t be done over the summer period like this, because a lot of people aren’t around, she says. “It’s like putting a consultation before Christmas. Even the public reps go away.”

There isn’t a plan to postpone the consultation until after the summer period, council Chief Executive AnnMarie Farrelly told councillors at the monthly full council meeting on Monday.

But a council spokesperson on Tuesday evening confirmed that the deadline is now being extended by two weeks, with the new end date set for 11 August.

Old school, new homes

The Old School House ceased to operate as a school in 1963, the draft masterplan says. 

It fell into disuse in 2000, and its condition has worsened in recent years due to fires, vandalism and water damage, according to an architectural heritage assessment prepared by Patrick Dunne Architects Ltd.

“The Old School House building itself is to be conserved and restored, forming an integral element of the land’s overall development,” the draft plan says.

“Given the location of proposed residential buildings along with amenity space in the area of the Old School House building, it is deemed appropriate to develop the Old School House building for residential use,” it says.

“The degraded nature of the building fabric, particularly the need to reconstruct much of the interior, may in principle allow for its redevelopment as a single residence or as several residential unit,” it says..

A map for the proposed redevelopment shows homes stretching across the elongated strip of land, including on the exact site of the school.

The number of homes on the site could be somewhere in the region of 100, it says.

However, if any planning application down the line can provide for high-quality homes that are sustainable and compliant with guidelines for compact settlements, there could be room for more than that.

Similarly, the building heights proposed in the masterplan would be either two or three storeys. But there is scope for additional storeys.

Any sustainable housing proposal would need to be a mix, including houses and duplex units, with the provision of age-friendly homes promoted, it says.

The Royal Canal is just to the south of the site and acts as a “natural development boundary”, for any potential new developments on the lands, it says.

As part of the development of this site, the masterplan aims to support the delivery of Fingal’s section of the Royal Canal Urban Greenway project linking the River Liffey to the Shannon in Longford, it says.

Community facilities

While the masterplan envisions the school being used as housing, the zoning does allow for a variety of uses “permitted in principle”, including an educational or childcare facility, a restaurant or café, or a community facility, the plan says. 

Any of those uses could offer an opportunity for the former school to be reactivated and form an integral part of the new development proposals, the plan says.

Indeed, that is what a lot of locals favour.

During the preparation of a draft village framework plan for Clonsilla, published in January, locals made submissions during the initial consultation phase wherein they proposed that the school be restored as a community facility.

It’s wrong that this building isn’t being considered for that purpose, said Moore, of the Clonsilla Porterstown Heritage Society. “It’s a two-storey over basement Victorian Gothic school house, a very unusual design.”

It could be an arts venue or a coffee shop, or a heritage museum, she says. “It links nicely to Shackleton’s Gardens along the canal. Why aren’t they encouraging tourists to come, or giving locals a place to go?”

While the plan doesn’t envision the school house being used for community purposes, the map setting out the potential land use has earmarked a spot in the middle of the site, just west of the protected structure, for either a community facility or a creche.

Alongside that, the landscaping plans for the lands provide additional open spaces and amenity areas within the scheme, a council spokesperson said. “The new residential community would also benefit from proximity to the proposed Royal Canal greenway.”

Poor timing

Local councillors were keen to bring up the masterplan at the full monthly council meeting on Monday evening, which was also the last time councillors will convene until September.

The substance of the document, however, was not chief among their concerns. Instead, they directed their criticism towards the council’s deadline of 28 July for the public observations.

Residents in the village were unhappy with this timeframe, said Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly. “They’re looking for the consultation to be postponed until September.”

Or at the very least, a couple of weeks, she said.

As of 8 July, nine days since its publication, only one submission had been made. It’s by Emer and Mark Hilliard, and it says “the timing is unfortunate at peak holiday time”.

In comparison, the Clonsilla village framework plan’s consultation had four submissions in its first eight days, before eventually collecting a total of 70 responses.

But Farrelly, the council’s chief executive, said if they couldn’t consult now, they could effectively lose four months.

“If we allow adequate time, four to six weeks, you would expect to cover people’s holidays unless they were away for a very long period,” she said.

Following the meeting and representations both from councillors and local groups, the council has agreed to extend the consultation period for another two weeks, changing the deadline for submissions from 28 July to 11 August, a spokesperson said on Tuesday evening.