Dodgy Developer's Plans To Raze Neighbourhood Are Exposed
A property developer’s plans to raze a part of Dublin’s North Inner City without the consent of local residents has been exposed!
Ballymore, the property developer involved in the construction of ‘Dublin Arch’ on lands adjacent to Connolly Station and bounded by Sheriff Street, have been meeting with local politicians and Dublin City Council (DCC) in relation to ‘re-developing’ Sheriff Street since at least 2016!
According to the Dublin Inquirer, Ballymore’s Development Director said at a recent meeting that the company has held many talks with ministers and council officials about its vision to ‘demolish and rebuild’ a large part of Sheriff Street, with an email to a local DCC councillor from DCC CEO, Richard Shakespeare confirming that these discussions have been going on for years.
In that time, Ballymore has met and talked about its idea with the Fine Gael TD and Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, the former Fianna Fáil Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien, and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. In addition to this, on the 17th of September, DCC rejected a Freedom of Information request seeking records that related to officials’ meetings with the developer since July 2024.
Image from the Dublin Inquirer: “Screenshots from Google Street View vs the Ballymore video showing its vision for the area. Top: Looking from Seville Place down Emerald Street towards Sheriff Street. Bottom: Looking east along Sheriff Street, with St Laurence O'Toole's Church out of frame to the left.”
Speaking from East Wall, Éirígí North Dublin spokesperson Gareth Murray has said,
Residents from Sheriff Street are far too used to dodgy developers and local politicians working in cahoots to take advantage of their community without any input from locals. Only a few decades ago hundreds of homes in Sheriff Street flats were levelled to make way for the International Financial Services Centre against the wishes of local residents.
Now history looks set to repeat itself with property developer Ballymore secretly making plans to again raze a large part of Sheriff Street under the guise of ‘redevelopment’.
Ballymore itself has said that any plans it has made with regards to Sheriff Street do not include people’s homes or local infrastructure, but a YouTube video released by the developer tells another story altogether with computerised renderings of it’s ‘redevelopment’ plans including land that currently hosts multiple homes, a community centre, schools, creches, and a five-a-side pitch.
A lot of local politicians seem surprised that a developer like Ballymore thought it could unilaterally execute plans to level a significant chunk of this community, but I’m not - this is what happens when property profiteers like Ballymore are allowed to take control of land and housing!
The solution to this madness is an entirely new system of Universal Public Housing - a system that will put the needs of local communities ahead of the greed of dodgy developers. It’s time to end the reign of the property profiteers and their political fixers. It’s time for UP Housing!