A HIGH COURT judge has compared court objectors against a €175 million wind farm in Co Kilkenny to “the dogged Japanese soldier still fighting World War 2 in the Philippine jungle, decades after everyone else has admitted defeat”.

Judge Richard Humphreys made his comment when dismissing a High Court bid by the group Save the South Leinster Way and the writer Tara Heavey to quash An Coimisiún Pleanála’s decision to grant planning permission for the 21-turbine wind farm at Castlebanny, Co Kilkenny four years ago.

ACP granted planning permission in September 2022 despite opposition from local residents which included 10-time All-Ireland winning hurler Henry Shefflin.

The recently appointed Kilkenny senior hurling manager was one of 70 parties to make submissions when the case was before ACP in 2021/22.

The applicants’ court challenge has been before the courts for almost four years after launching their High Court judicial review application in November 2022.

In the new ruling, Judge Humphreys has refused to quash the grant of permission for the wind farm despite finding in favour of the objectors’ grounds of challenge concerning objectives relating to the Fresh Water Pearl Mussel and the Kingfisher.

However, Judge Humphreys has found that the opposing parties in the case, An Coimisiún Pleanála and the minister for housing, local government and the environment have established that the errors concerning objectives for the Kingfisher and the Fresh Water Pearl Mussel were “harmless”.

Judge Humphreys said that discretion weighs decisively against the quashing of the grant of permission here, particularly due to the harmlessness or lack of effect of the error.

On the issue of “harmless error” Judge Humphreys commented that “generally speaking it would trivialise judicial review and be an exercise in self-indulgence to quash decisions because of things that make no difference”.

He said that the applicants adopted the extremist view that “there is no room for ‘harmless error’”, and he commented that “this is a complete misunderstanding designed to create automatic certiorari (quashing of decisions) and costs”.

Judge Humphreys did grant the objectors’ costs concerning the issues of the Kingfisher and the Fresh Water Pearl Mussel and made no order for costs for the remainder of the proceedings.

The wind farm scheme by Springfield Renewables Ltd is a joint venture between FuturEnergy Ireland – made up of Coillte and the ESB – and ART Generation.

In a new 41-page written judgment on the legal challenge by Save The Leinster Way and Tara Heavey, Judge Humphreys commented that “the applicants began this case scrambling for the last seat on the last helicopter off the embassy roof in Saigon, by lodging their papers on the last possible day”.

In a previous judgment in October 2023, Judge Humphreys made his initial ‘Saigon’ comment when ruling that the judicial review challenge by Save The Leinster Way and Tara Heavey was one day out of time.

However, Save The Leinster Way and Tara Heavey were subsequently successful in a Supreme Court challenge where the court ruled that the judicial review application was made within time and the case was remitted back to the High Court.

In October 2025, Judge Humphreys dismissed the objectors’ challenge apart from a number of core grounds including the Freshwater Pearl Mussel and the Kingfisher pending the outcome of a separate case.

Now, in refusing the applicants’ challenge, Judge Humphreys said that the applicants
“end like the dogged Japanese soldier still fighting World War II in the Philippine jungle, decades after everyone else has admitted defeat”.

He said that contrary to the applicants’ submissions here, which have already been rejected time and again in a landslide of Irish, EU and UK jurisprudence, “all legal systems have rules whereby not every error leads to automatic invalidity of a decision”.

In his original objection against the Castlebanny wind farm, Henry Shefflin told the appeals board that “the residential amenity of my home would be irrevocably compromised by the construction and operation of this wind farm”.

The three-time Hurler of the Year and 11-time All-Star said: “It is proposed that these turbines are up to 185 metres in height. Surely, it is completely unjust and unreasonable for such gigantic moving structures to be placed in such close proximity to people’s homes.”

The Shefflin objection added that given the enormous height and number of turbines involved, and with the proposal to build on a ridge, the visual impact of the development would be extensive and would have an extremely negative effect on the surrounding landscape, stretching into neighbouring counties.

Shefflin added that “the national trail, the South Leinster Way, in particular, would be greatly compromised”.