> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dublininquirer.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # With development on the horizon, councillors tease out how to protect Dunsink observatory - URL: https://www.dublininquirer.com/with-development-on-the-horizon-councillors-tease-out-how-to-protect-dunsink-observatory/ - Published: 2026-10-28T00:16:12.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-28T00:25:58.000Z - Description: They agreed a motion to review the impact of the plan, within a couple of years, and to compel the council to amend it, if the review finds it is needed. - Author: Michael Lanigan - Tags: Fingal, planning, Dunsink The skies over Dunsink began to darken but it didn’t seem to bother any of the people still out playing on the Elmgreen Golf Course. At a little after 5pm, the course's floodlights switched on. About 800 metres away, the grounds of the Dunsink Observatory were quiet. A laminated paper sign ziptied to the steel gates at the entrance of the 18th-century landmark said it would only open up 15 minutes before an event. The observatory was opened in 1785, attached at the time to Trinity College Dublin, [says its website](https://www.dunsink.dias.ie/observatory-history/?ref=dublininquirer.com). And it is the oldest purpose-built scientific research centre in the country, it says. Recognising this history, the site is currently on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, the inventory of places which member states expect to put forward for full world heritage site status in the coming few years, said Sinéad Murphy, Fingal County Council’s director of operations, on 20 October. It is a joint application, with others of the Irish Historic Astronomical Observatories, she said, so not just the observatory in Dunsink. “It is linked to the observatory in Armagh, and also the observatory in Birr.” Murphy was speaking at the second day of the council’s debate to agree an urban area plan for Dunsink, with councillors thrashing out motions to determine how many thousands of homes, with what infrastructure, at what heights, and in what phasing, should be permitted on the 435ha lands, west of Finglas. Councillors [approved the blueprint](https://www.dublininquirer.com/fingal-councillors-approve-revised-plan-for-new-dunsink-town/) a couple of days later. But not before they have given some attention to how the observatory would sit among all this development. Getting Dunsink wrong could undermine the integrity of the observatory’s historic setting, said Labour Councillor John Walsh at the 20 October meeting. “And would certainly threaten the credibility of Ireland’s UNESCO World Heritage aspirations.” To try to ensure that it is not harmed, Walsh and 13 other councillors [brought a motion](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28847744-dunsink-observatory-motion/?ref=dublininquirer.com) to the meeting asking that the council agree to carry out a review of the urban area plan between one and two years after it is adopted. It should assess the effectiveness of the urban area plan in protecting the observatory, and supporting the progression of Ireland's historic astronomical observatories of Ireland towards UNESCO World Heritage inscription, the motion said. "If deficiencies are identified during this review, Fingal County Council shall amend the Urban Area Plan where necessary to secure the Observatory’s long term protection," the motion said. Deirdre Fallon, a council senior planner, opposed the motion, saying it was beyond the reach of this council to instruct future elected members to carry out such amendments. But councillors passed the motion by a vote anyway. ## **Lighting** Staff at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies' (DIAS') Dunsink Observatory had expressed concerns around the draft urban area plan, before it was agreed by councillors. Getting the urban area plan wrong would threaten the credibility of Ireland’s UNESCO World Heritage aspirations for its observatories, wrote the Dunsink Observatory’s director, Professor Peter Gallagher, in [a statement](https://www.dunsink.dias.ie/protecting-dunsink-observatory/?ref=dublininquirer.com) published on its website on 20 October. The council needed to include protections like a commitment to adopt “sensitive, dark-sky-friendly lighting to minimise light pollution”, Gallagher wrote. At the meeting on 20 October, Fallon, the council senior planner, said the plan includes a comprehensive strategy for lighting. “There is a low-impact lighting plan across the land as a whole.” That means not using external lighting unless it’s required, she said. “And where it is, it’s to the lowest level.” New developments "shall" also be designed to minimise “light spill”, when light leaks beyond an area it is supposed to illuminate, she said. “So there is that obligation in the use of the word ‘shall’ on developers for future proposals in the area.” What is most useful to the observatory is the horizon, said Fionnuala May, Fingal’s county architect, at the meeting. “And because Dublin is a bowl, that works for them in that their horizon is the horizon line of the Dublin mountains, which are still where they always were.” The council is working to ensure there is no diminution of the quality of light between the observatory and the horizon line, she said. “We now understand a lot more about lighting technology and how to respect the idea of darker skies at night.” ## **Keeping an eye** There's several steps between a site appearing on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, and becoming a bona-fide World Heritage Site, including a preliminary assessment. In his statement, Gallagher said that the Dunsink Observatory was also looking for a commitment to amend the Dunsink Urban Area Plan, once they had feedback from UNSECO after the preliminary assessment step. The motion tabled by Walsh and the 13 other councillors asked the council to agree to undertake a formal review of the plan between 12 and 24 months after its adoption. This would assess the plan’s effectiveness in protecting the operational and historic setting, as well as the impacts of building height scale and artificial lighting, it said. A mistake would jeopardise the collaborative all-Ireland initiative linking the astronomical observatories in Armagh, Birr and Dunsink, Walsh said at the meeting. “So protecting Dunsink Observatory isn’t just a local planning issue. It’s a matter of national scientific heritage,” he said. Nobody in the council is an expert in astronomical heritage, he said. “But this motion is informed by experts in Dunsink Observatory.” There is a provision to alter the urban area plan, said May, the county architect. But, “we have taken on board as much as possible to project the ongoing operations of the observatory, and to align it with all of the aspirations of the World Heritage bid.” The recommendation from the council's chief executive, AnnMarie Farrelly reflects on the principle of the motion, but suggests that a review should happen after the completion of the preliminary assessment, said Fallon, the council senior planner. Once that assessment is done, they will have entered into discussions with UNESCO, she said. "So there will be a body of information there that informs, that will be I suppose really substantial that is very robust and can be relied on then for any subsequent review of the plan." The draft preliminary assessment will be ready in the first quarter of 2028, she said. But, the observatory had essentially written the motion, Walsh said. “Their view would be that if the motion was not passed and the plan appropriately amended that they would fear the UNESCO World Heritage application would be dead in the water.” The motion, however, was saying that the council “shall” amend the plan, Fallon said. “I think that would be ultra vires to be trying to compel a future council to amend the plan. Or to prejudge the outcome of that statutory process.” Every amendment goes through a statutory process with a consultation, she said. “To say to include an objective to say a plan shall be amended to do something specific goes beyond the reach of what can be included or should be included in an urban area plan.” Nevertheless, the motion was ultimately agreed by a vote, with 18 agreeing, while 12 opposed it, and five abstained. ## **The Observatory Quarter** After four days of work, the last motion on the council's [240-item agenda](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/28829505/agenda-frontsheet-19102026-1400-draft-dunsink-urban-area-plan.pdf?ref=dublininquirer.com) for fine-tuning the Dunsink Urban Area Plan was one from Fine Gael Councillor Ted Leddy, calling for a "comprehensive rebranding strategy". "We want this to be a place where there's good quality homes, good communities and good places to live," he said. "But the whole place is named after a dump. In most people's perception, that's what Dunsink is, and that's problematic." But his idea met with significant pushback from other councillors. "My kids don't know, or didn't know, that Dunsink was a dump. They knew it as an observatory," said Aontú Councillor Gerard Sheehan. "People worldwide you look at Dunsink Observatory, there's no reference to a dump or a landfill," said Sinn Féin Councillor Breda Hanaphy. "This name has been here for hundreds and hundreds of years," said Aontú Councillor Ellen Troy. The people who live there won't want the place they're from obliterated. And the name has its connection with the observatory, Troy said. "Hopefully we can use, for all the names of the estates and all different things, terms from astronomy maybe." Yes, said Walsh, the Labour councillor, the council should promote Dunsink Observatory as the centrepiece of the new development. "But I would like us to find a way perhaps in the first estates or the first parts of the quarter, to use the name of Hamilton, William Rowan Hamilton, who was the director of the observatory in the 19th century, and has a really strong historic association with the area," he said.