Plans by a fee-paying school in Dublin for a new floodlighting system for playing pitches have been stalled due to residents’ concerns for the Light-bellied Brent Goose and “the Las Vegasification of St Michael’s”.
Four separate appeals have been submitted to An Coimisiún Pleanála after Dublin City Council last month granted planning permission for the lights to the the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (The Spiritans).
St Michael’s College is on lands between Ailesbury Road and Nutley Avenue in Dublin. The primary and secondary school cater for 1,000 students and 100 staff.
The council gave the go-ahead for the lighting system, comprising five 18.3m poles on the main synthetic pitch; six 18.3m poles oo the main grass pitch and four 15m poles on another synthetic training pitch.
As part of the permission, the local authority included a condition to ensure that St Michael’s College put mitigation measures in place for the Light-bellied Brent Goose, a protected bird.
A report lodged on behalf of the schooll stated that the presence of recent and widely distributed droppings on a playing pitch on 17 February 2026 indicated that geese grazed there in significant numbers before that date.
However, in an appeal, Declan Kennedy and Declan Corcoran, on behalf of residents of Nutley Avenue, raised concerns over the bird and “the Las Vegasification of St Michael’s”.
They claim the council decision “is unsound for a combination of ecological, technical, residential-amenity and enforceability reasons”.
“The most serious issue concerns the treatment of Light-bellied Brent Geese,” they state, and the protection afforded to the birds “does not simply yield to the sporting convenience, institutional resources or perceived entitlement of a school in Dublin 4”.
Light-bellied Brent Geese have been present on St Michael’s College land
Mr Kennedy and Mr Corcoran say that “the legal test remains the same regardless of the identity or status of the applicant”.
The appeal also states that the area risks becoming “the Las Vegas of Dublin” due to the cumulative impact of the floodlighting.
They say this is “to convey the contrast between the existing comparatively dark setting and a concentrated island of sports lighting”.
Three other objections have been lodged by Nutley Avenue residents.
Padraic O’Neill and Vincent Coole made separate appeals and a joint submission was lodged by Úna Ní Aodha, Éabha Ní Bhuachalla and Gráinne Ní Bhuachalla.
Mr Coole said the proposal is to erect 15 lighting columns, 11 of them 18.3m high, within the curtilage of a protected structure, immediately behind family homes, and over grassland that is regularly used by four wintering waterbird species.
The Ní Bhuachalla/Ní Aodha appeal states that “ultimately, this appeal turns on a single planning question: Has it been demonstrated, on the basis of clear evidence and reasoned assessment, that floodlighting columns of up to 18.3 metres and the approved lighting specification are necessary, proportionate and represent the least intrusive solution reasonably capable of achieving the operational requirements of the development?”
An Coimisiún Pleanála is expected to give its decision in January.
Reporting Gordon Deegan