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LAST UPDATE | 26 Nov 2025
AS THE OLD adage goes – don’t mention the war.
The line originated in Fawlty Towers, Basil Fawlty’s flustered attempt to avoid reminding a German guest of World War II.
In the leafy, affluent streets of Ranelagh, the ‘war’ is of a different kind: a last-minute legal battle over MetroLink.
Late on Monday evening, just hours before the deadline closed, a group of 20 applicants, mostly residents of Dartmouth Square, along with one company, lodged an application for a judicial review of the €9.5bn project.
Their case is set for hearing on Monday 1 December. Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has already said it “regrets the inevitable delay that will result”.
The MetroLink terminus is planned for nearby Charlemont.
And while there have been “significant design changes” to avoid temporarily taking the rear gardens of Dartmouth Square West, according to the MetroLink website, the laneway behind the houses will still be required during construction.
It will be handed back afterwards.
For many residents, that concession isn’t enough. They also argue that that streets nearby are small and already congested, and the terminus would create enormous issues for the local community.
This morning, a woman walking her dog at Dartmouth Square offered her view on those behind the legal challenge.
“I just want them to get on with it at this stage,” she said. “And I think a lot of people in the area are of the same mindset.”
“I know some of the people involved in the judicial review, and I understand their complaints, it will disrupt their current way of life.
“But it will also mean we have an easier route to the city centre, and more importantly to the airport. Who doesn’t want that?”
Across the road, along the terrace of 17 handsome three-storey redbricks on Dartmouth Square West, The Journal knocked on doors this morning to hear local residents’ views.
Most went unanswered; others answered but declined to comment.
One man who did speak on the application for the judicial review, albeit briefly – his name appears on the judicial review application – opened the door only a few inches.
“I just want to keep living here,” he said, stating that the scale of construction would likely force several neighbours to move away.
He shut the door after this, declining further comment.
A nearby resident, not part of the application but fully supportive of those who are, was more forthcoming.
“There’s simply no space,” she said, shaking her head as she gestured towards the Grand Parade road in the distance.
Traffic there, she insisted, would “quadruple overnight”.
“It’s a busy road now. If the end of the line is here, it will be an impossible road to travel down by car.
“It’s the wrong area, the Metro should end at Stephen’s Green.”
When asked about the benefits that the new public transport could potentially provide the residents of the area, she shook her head.
“Who wants the metro and the noise and the people?”
Many of those now taking the case had previously objected to the project at the planning stage.
Submissions to An Coimisiún Pleanála highlighted fears about noise, traffic disruption and the potential impact on property values.
A January 2023 submission from consultants MacCabe Durney Barnes, on behalf of the Charlemont and Dartmouth Community Group, warned that the Tara Street-to-Charlemont section would “severely and demonstrably adversely affect” residents’ amenities.
Another submission from two residents, one now a named applicant for the judicial review, argued that the scale of works and the temporary loss of part of their garden would “have a very material impact on the value of our home”.
TII responded at the time that it did not accept claims of long-term harm.
“There is strong evidence to suggest that property values will in fact increase in close proximity to public transport infrastructure,” the agency said, adding that a “world class metro system” would be a significant local asset.
MetroLink, approved last month, will include 16 stations and carry up to 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction.
The Department of Transport’s upper cost estimate is €23 billion, though the final figure is expected to be lower.
Local Green Party councillor Hazel Chu said the project will have “huge benefits for the region”, even as she acknowledged the right of residents to challenge the decision.
“The community here is divided,” Chu said.
“People who are pro-Metro see the benefits. As much as I wish it was a consensus project, these things never are.
“But even as someone who lives in the area, if I didn’t like this happening on my doorstep, I could still see the public good that it will serve. So just make it happen.”
Chu believes claims that older people won’t use the metro are misplaced.
“Systems like this are used across the world. It makes no sense to say, ‘we need to stop it, it doesn’t benefit us’. Public transport can’t only benefit one area. We have to look at the bigger picture.”
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