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15 Usher's Island, Dublin, the house where The Dead was set. Leah Farrell
Seamus McEnaney
Dublin house where James Joyce's The Dead was set is to be converted into apartments
A petition signed by 1,675 people had called on DCC to refuse planning permission.
A FIRM OWNED by former Monaghan senior GAA football manager, Séamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney, Brimwood UC, has secured the green light to convert the building where James Joyce’s The Dead was set into apartments.
This follows Dublin City Council granting planning permission to McEnaney’s Brimwood UC for the apartments after Brimwood reduced the scale of its plan at 15 Usher’s Island, Dublin 8.
Last July, Brimwood initially proposed 10 apartments, made up of seven one bed units and three studios, and reduced the number of units to seven after Council concerns.
The Council has now reduced the number of apartments further by granting planning permission for six units “to protect the residential amenity of future residents” in the revamped building.
The 10-page planner’s report which recommended that planning permission be granted concluded that “the proposed development would not seriously injure the residential amenities of neighbouring dwellings or the amenities of the area”.
Last month, in revised plans lodged, Brimwood reduced the number of units to seven and in the Council planner’s report, it stated that “the revisions are largely positive”.
However, it recommended the omission of a further apartment by amalgamating units 3 & 4 at first floor level into one apartment unit.
The Council report states that “this will facilitate the potential to provide a high quality two-bedroom unit which shall ensure that the development shall be aligned with a conservation led approach in conserving the building’s architectural, artistic and cultural special interest”.
In response to its original 10-apartment scheme lodged, An Taisce contended that the building “is of too great a cultural heritage importance for conversion to multiple apartments”.
Along with the An Taisce submission, a submission by Zoe O’Beimhen, accompanied by a petition signed by 1,675 people, was also calling on the Council to refuse planning permission.
Requesting a reduction in the number of units, the Council told Brimwood last September that some of the units were sub-standard in terms of apartment minimum floor areas and individual room areas and widths.
As part of one of the conditions attached to the planning permission, the Council has ruled that all works shall be carried out in accordance with best conservation practice and any repair works shall retain the maximum amount of surviving historic fabric in situ.
The Council states that this condition is required in order to protect the amenity, setting and curtilage of the Protected Structure at 15 Usher’s Island, and to ensure that the proposed works are carried out in accordance with best conservation practice.
Accompanying the revised plans, planning consultant Kevin Hughes for Brimwood stated that the amalgamation improves the overall quality of the units, ensuring compliance with Dublin City Development Plan and Ministerial Guidelines, ‘Design Standards for New Apartments’.
Hughes states that the revised layout also addressed fire safety and building control regulations, minimising the impact on the protected structure.
In An Taisce’s submission, An Taisce’s Dublin City Planning Officer, Kevin Duff stated that refusal is recommended “in order to find a way forward and secure the future of this key cultural building of Dublin”.
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