A local GAA club works with children with additional needs, said one councillor. “They have children with needs that need to be met and the closer they can be dropped off to the pitch, the better.”
As 2pm came around on Monday, Herzog Park switched from near silence to being awash with the sound of excited kids.
They raced into the Rathgar park on bikes and scooters, some equipped with tennis rackets.
Many of them bolted right into the playground, which was built like a trail that meandered through a wooded area on the edge of the park.
According to an old site notice that was fixed to the green steel gate at the entrance to the park, the council started to upgrade the playground in October 2025.
The weathered, slightly tattered laminated paper notice depicted images of the play equipment using computer-generated imagery.
Many of the play items were upgraded to be wheelchair accessible, in a bid by the council to respond to a 2021 playground audit that found that only one of 16 playgrounds in the council's South East Area was fully inclusive.
Also attached to the green steel gate was a red sign, saying “access closed to all vehicles”.
The gate was partially closed, preventing vehicles from travelling up a road, approximately 70 metres long, inside the park which slopes upwards and culminates in a carpark right next to the Rathgar Tennis Club.
The council’s decision to block vehicular access has been quite beneficial, said Labour Councillor Fiona Connelly on Tuesday morning. “It is a safer, better environment without having any through traffic.”
But it has also thrown up some issues for people who use wheelchairs or who have reduced mobility, she said.
Ranelagh Rockets, the GAA club which uses the park's astroturf pitch next to the tennis club, works with children with additional needs, said Green Party Councillor Carolyn Moore. “They have children with needs that need to be met and the closer they can be dropped off to the pitch, the better.”
It has already had an impact on the club, she said. “What was expressed to us was that some parents now had to withdraw their children from the club because they can’t be guaranteed parking on the site.
A spokesperson for Ranelagh Rockets said on Tuesday morning that they are currently working with Dublin City Council on the issue.
Limiting vehicular access to the tennis club is a by-product of the council’s upgrades to Herzog Park over the past decade, Connelly said on Tuesday.
The council notified locals of its intention to improve the park in November 2016, with the creation of a pedestrian pathway, more play facilities and a realigned car park just outside the entrance in Orwell Mews to accommodate 24 cars, a notice from the time reads.
There were a lot of delays over the last 10 years, Connelly said, speaking by phone on Tuesday. “There were circumstances outside our control. Like Covid, Japanese knotweed, funding also. Lots of genuine reasons.”
At the council’s South East Area Committee meeting on 14 September, Connelly said that as the upgrades were carried out, the council’s communication with local stakeholders was poor.
She tabled a motion at the meeting saying that locals needed urgent clarification around the change in access to the park for members of the club.
“This restriction was not anticipated by club members or locals and has already given rise to a serious concern when recently emergency services were unable to access the tennis club,” her motion read.
Cornelia Raftery, executive parks and landscape officer at the council, said in a written response to Connelly’s motion that the council had carried out improvements in the park to address concerns raised by its users about surface conditions, accessibility and the safe movement of pedestrians.
The hardstanding area in front of the tennis club wasn’t designated as parking for the club, but it has functioned as an informal public parking area, she wrote.
But, due to modern health and safety requirements, insurance obligations and a need to eliminate unnecessary vehicle movements adjacent to children's play facilities, unrestricted public vehicle access through the park was no longer considered appropriate, she said.
Raftery said she acknowledged concerns regarding accessibility and inclusion. “The ongoing works are improving accessibility within the park itself, while a public car park immediately adjacent to the park entrance remains available.”
But, parking next to the tennis club was important for children with additional needs, Connelly said, speaking at the meeting. “If you’ve got a need yourself, that could be the difference between accessing or not.”
There needs to be ongoing consultation and better communication, she said. “People are very angry.”
There was a fundamental lack of consultation here, said Moore, the Green Party councillor, at the area committee meeting in mid-September.
Moore had tabled her own motion asking the council to complete its long-delayed upgrades to the park.
She had been contacted in recent months by parents who were happy that vehicular access through the park was restricted, she said. “So, I’m not in any position to say what the preferred outcome here would be by the majority of park users.”
But, that is why some form of consultation should’ve taken place here, she said. “You can’t just unilaterally decide, in the midst of a 10-year work programme, that you’re going to close an access road that people have become very used to using.”
Fine Gael Councillor Patrick Kinsella said this issue was brought to his attention by the local tennis club, as well as the Ranelagh Rockets. “And the upset it has caused there is phenomenal.”
Raftery, the parks official, said they did speak with the tennis club regarding access before a new lease agreement was organised.
The council also communicated a lot with Ranelagh Rockets, Raferty said. “They are aware of the situation.”
The public has also misused the gateway into the park, she said, citing a complaint about a delivery van which reversed up the driveway to drop off an A4 envelope. “And then shooting down the drive again, literally feet from the playground.”
But, as far as disabled access is concerned, the council is in talks with the tennis club with regards how to deal with this, she said. “I think a solution is ripe for discussion with them at the moment.”
At the end of September, local councillors as well as members of the Rathgar Residents Association, tennis club and Ranelagh Rockets attended a meeting with officials to discuss a solution, Moore said on Tuesday morning.
All of the parties involved have come out of the meeting acknowledging the difficulties that were created, she said. “I suppose also acknowledging the benefits of no traffic going through the park.”
“Now, we’re looking at what possible ways we can find a way to offer park users who need to park as close as possible to the club how to offer them a greater capacity in terms of car parking,” she said.
It would use extra heat from the Poolbeg rubbish incinerator to warm water and send it through pipes underground, into buildings in the city, to keep homes and offices cosy without burning additional fossil fuels.
"He's a local lad here from Carpenterstown, he's a local schoolteacher," said Fine Gael Councillor Ted Leddy, who proposed the motion. "A mural or something like that would be very appropriate."
The council says it'll be open late this year, or early next.
Grazing in public parks means other uses are being pushed out, and adding momentum to calls for an equine centre and stable club to properly support horse culture in the area.
