{"id":304906,"date":"2026-02-18T21:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/304906\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T21:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:26:08","slug":"judge-dismisses-rathmines-residents-bid-to-overturn-st-marys-college-rugby-pitch-plan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/304906\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge dismisses Rathmines residents\u2019 bid to overturn St Mary\u2019s College rugby pitch plan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court<\/a> has dismissed an effort by residents of Rathmines<\/a>, south Dublin, to overturn a Dublin City Council<\/a> finding that a local school does not need planning permission to make changes to its rugby pitch.<\/p>\n

Judge David Nolan said he had a \u201csignificant degree of sympathy\u201d for the residents of Kenilworth Square \u2013 noting that St Mary\u2019s College\u2019s redevelopment of its pitch \u201cwill be disruptive to the beautiful square\u201d \u2013 but ultimately found the council\u2019s granting of a planning exemption to the school was valid.<\/p>\n

The proposed redevelopment at the Victorian-era square involves changing the existing grass surface to an artificial all-weather surface, changing the orientation of existing pitches and installing a fence around the reconfigured pitch.<\/p>\n

In August 2024, the local authority granted the exemption for the works to St Mary\u2019s College, a fee-paying school on Rathmines Road.<\/p>\n

Following the council\u2019s decision, local campaign group Protect Kenilworth Square and resident Martin Joyce initiated judicial review proceedings seeking to overturn the decision.<\/p>\n

It was the residents\u2019 case that the proposed redevelopment at Kenilworth Square should not be exempt from planning permission. They also claimed that the council\u2019s decision should have been overturned because it failed to adequately consider the environmental impact of the development.<\/p>\n

In a judgment published on Wednesday, the judge said a key issue in the case was the interpretation of the class of planning exemption relied upon by the council, namely, a development \u201cconsisting of the laying out and use of land … for athletics or sports\u201d. <\/p>\n

The residents argued that this class of exemption was limited to \u201ctwo-dimensional surface works\u201d. The residents argued that the proposed development would involve \u201cmajor\u201d excavation with heavy machinery at the square, and could not fall under this class of exemption.<\/p>\n

\"ResidentsResidents at Kenilworth Square gather at a protest in 2024 over the plans. Photograph: Barry Cronin\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

The judge disagreed with this point, and, with regard to the definition of the terms \u201cdevelopment\u201d and \u201cworks\u201d under the Planning and Development Act 2000, said subterranean works were permitted under the exemption class.<\/p>\n

The judge also rejected the residents\u2019 argument that the planning exemption can only apply to \u201cminor or insignificant\u201d developments. <\/p>\n

In the context of the relevant legislation, the works are not significant, and fall squarely within the parameters of the exemption regulations. \u201cI appreciate that from the [residents\u2019] perspective the works are significant and, no doubt, are not what the original developers or planners of the square had envisaged,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The judge also dismissed the residents\u2019 argument that the council\u2019s decision was invalid because it failed to consider the environmental impacts of the proposed works. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0South Dublin school\u2019s plans to create \u2018private Aviva\u2019 in Rathgar square face local backlashOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The judge found that the works did not require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) because the development was not an \u201cinfrastructure project\u201d, as defined under the planning exemption regulations.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that \u201csadly\u201d, the square was not a protected structure, nor is it owned by the residents. Rather, the square is private property owned by the school since 1948, which have used it for sporting facilities since then. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn this day and age of environmental protection, this is a sad state of affairs, nonetheless it is the case,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

The judge said he would dismiss the application to quash the council\u2019s decision. He said that based on the material before the council, the decision to grant the exemption was open to it. <\/p>\n

\u201cNotwithstanding a significant degree of sympathy which I have for the [residents], in circumstances where I have no doubt that the proposed development will be disruptive to the beautiful square, in more ways than one, I am of the opinion that the decision made by the council is not one which can be overturned by way of certiorari (an order to quash a decision),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court has dismissed an effort by residents of Rathmines, south Dublin, to overturn a Dublin City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[615,73,61,60,43,12989],"class_list":{"0":"post-304906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-dublin","9":"tag-high-court","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rathmines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}