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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
68 July 2022
T
HE IRISH Rural Dwellers Association
(IRDA) was founded in to
“safeuard people’s rihts who have
been refused plannin permission in
rural areas in this country”.
Its members included TDs Jerry Cowley and
Marian Harkin; Chairman of the Council of the
West, Seán Hannick; retired academic archae-
oloist, Séamus Caulfield; former CEO Cathal
McGabhann and director Seán Ó Baoill, of
Údarás na Gaeile; Senator Labhras O Murchú;
and director of Rural Resettlement Ireland, Jim
Connolly. Rural Royalty.
For the rest of that weird tomorrowless decade,
the IRDA was a force for plannin inertia, for
development in the countryside so unsustainable
that the impetus would have to remain in cities,
most notably Dublin, and indeed an unwittin
force for the corruption of An Bord Pleanála for
which it dubiously nominated Paul Hyde, now
under multiple investiations for improper prac-
tice and indeed for a dody oriinal nomination
by the IRDA.
It was also abusive of environmentalists and
planners, and atavistically and weirdly Celtic. It
attracted people like Marian Harkin and Seamus
By Michael Smith
The rural dwellers association took a pre-scientific view on planning,
especially one-off housing, was xenophobic and now is exposed for
dubious nominations to An Bord Pleanála
The IRDA was a force for planning inertia,
for development in the countryside so
unsustainable that the impetus would have
to remain in cities, most notably Dublin, and
for the corruption of An Bord Pleanála for
which it dubiously nominated Paul Hyde’
That seekin-back-control platform was, of
course, later to find much worldwide favour but
did not work for the Plannin Tribunal which
reported in and found “systemic and
endemic” corruption of the process.
It also inored, or lionised, the reality that most
of Ireland’s County Councillors are private repre-
sentatives not public representatives.
“Until recently”, the release went on, “town
planners educated in Ireland raduated without
any rural qualification. Available journals and
plannin literature are predominately Enlish.
These raduates are accredited by the Royal Town
Plannin Institute in London. In addition many
Irish planners received their education in collees
in Enland. ‘We have failed to produce an Irish
plannin philosophy so far’, said Jim Connolly of
the IRDA.
Caulfield, who should have known better. Its
place in the history of this country should be
better known, so it is never replicated.
A typically overwrouht press release, border-
line xenophobic and unrounded in factuality
from the year after its formation, stated that “the
plannin reime is undemocratic, anti people
and out of control. A root and branch chane is
now essential includin radical leislative
chane”. Pointin out that “the traditional Irish
housin pattern based on the townland or baile
fearann, stretchin back thousands of years
which is uniquely dierent from Enland and
mainland Europe, has become almost entirely
dominated by an Enlish plannin philosophy”,
it proclaimed that: “the IRDA are determined to
seek control of plannin policy brouht back to
elected Irish politicians”.
ENVIRONMENT
WeIRDA and WeIRDA
July 2022 69
Reflectin the IRDA’s pretensions to power the
Champion noted that:
“Environment Minister John Gormley has been
requested by the roup to establish a Dáil com-
mittee to conduct an immediate review of all
aspects of the operations of the board followin
concern over recent plannin decisions in a
number of rural counties includin Clare.
It wants to establish if the ‘extraordinary power
vested in Irish society by the board is bein exer-
cised exclusively in the interests of Irish
democracy’”.
The IRDA had its teeth into the board and “has
asked questions about the appointment of board
members of Minister Gormley, board chairman,
John O’Connor and the Irish Conress of Trade
Unions, chief executive ocer, David Be”.
Wide-ranin interlocutors.
Mr Connolly told The Clare Champion: “there
was very little meetin of minds on many funda-
mental issues and recalled their question about
the leal status of the appointment of two senior
plannin inspectors to the Board in was
directed to Minister John Gormley”.
Connolly honed his messae and by the follow-
in year, , Bord Pleanála was forced to reject
alleations that British planners workin for it did
not have appropriate trainin to adjudicate on
Irish plannin appeals.
The Irish Independent reported that “The IRDA
is callin for all non-nationals who are workin in
plannin in Ireland to undero formal trainin in
Irish history and cultural practices”.
His call was supported by Marian Harkin, then
an MEP, who said that relevant trainin on settle-
ment patterns in rural Ireland was necessary
before planners made decisions which aected
people’s lives.
In a statement An Bord Pleanála insisted that
it was wron to conclude, as it said the IRDA had
done, that the majority of one-o housin
appeals are dealt with by non-national
planners.
Connolly was also director of Rural Resettle-
ment Ireland which imploded in after, he
It was makey-uppy. Derees are mostly in town
and country plannin, awarded by many Irish
educational institutes and the biest represent-
ative body is the Irish Plannin Institute.
Much of the IRDA’s enery was devoted to sla-
in post-ararian decision makers for their
tedious adherence to professional or academic
standards, especially ones that promoted the
public-interest or the lon-term.
The IRDA spread fast for a while, dispensin
rief and uilt to the political system.
Addressin a meetin in April in Drum-
shanbo to form the Leitrim Branch of the Irish
Rural Dwellers Association, special uest Profes-
sor Seamus Caulfield, a bi man in defendin
rural ways at the time, delivered a typical IRDA
spake: he said that it was “time that people
bean to look at the preservation of another spe-
cies in rural Ireland, human beins”.
Contemporary reports don’t mention the species
that was bein over-preserved but no doubt it
was snails or bats — Enlish animals with Enlish
expectations aainst which the IRDA was an
informed counterweiht.
Pointin out that Leitrim had only just beun
to show sins of recoverin from the Famine, Pro-
fessor Caulfield arued that many plannin
ocials didn’t understand the cultural settle-
ment patterns in their own native country. He said
that “Ireland had a history of scattered settle-
ment, dierent from settlement patterns evident
in the UK and Europe. In the UK people lived in
clustered villaes and went each day to work on
their farms. Here, people have a lon tradition of
livin on their farms, outside of villaes and
towns. That is our culture, that is our history”, he
noted — thouh many say the tradition dates only
to the nineteenth century, occasioned by landlord
abuse.
On he went, many plannin ocials were con-
tinuin to base their decisions on forein models.
“I believe if we have a settlement pattern in Ire-
land where more than half of the population live
scattered and we have access to the main
services such as electricity, water, telecommuni-
cations and roads, then we should be lookin at
preservin this part of our culture and not sup-
pressin it”.
The IRDA never had any time for, or understand-
in of, sustainable development — a concept
which looks to economic, environmental and
social factors toether.
One-o housin scores very poorly economi-
cally — requirin disproportionate investment in
broadband, roads, postal services etc, and envi-
ronmentally — eneratin car-dependence and
usually pollutin the roundwater.
Socially, it has certainly been popular in much
of modern rural Ireland but it also atomises soci-
eties that could have been more communit y-driven
in local villaes, for example, and risks the aliena-
tion of people too old or youn to drive.
In addition to underminin plannin the IRDA
aimed to undermine the plannin system.
The IRDA specialised in inveilin its way into
red-faced Oireachtas committees whose craven
and compromised members wanted to curry
favour with their most painfully vociferous rural
supporters.
In , Jim Connolly of IRDA, defended com-
ments from his oranisation that An Bord
Pleanála was “anti-rural”, tellin the po-faced
Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment
and Local Government: “There is possibly a lack
of understandin rather than a misunderstandin
of how and why An Bord Pleanála was set up the
way it was, to be representative of the whole of
society. I am quotin from all the documentation
I have read, therefore I am not inventin any of
this and anybody is free to challene the points I
make.
The reason the board of An Bord Pleanála was
set up was ‘to represent all sectors of Irish soci-
ety’ and ‘it is not intended to be a board of experts
as such’.
Those are the words of the people who estab-
lished the board and they also assured us ‘It has
experts to advise it’. If a case has one throuh
the plannin system, that means it has been con-
sidered by planners at local authority level. If it is
appealed to An Bord Pleanála, for whatever
reason, it is aain considered by planners
employed by the board. I refer to a balanced
roup of senior people nominated by the IFA and
others who hold them in the hihest esteem.
They can take a balanced view, on behalf of the
country. We are talkin about the common ood.
The roup sifts throuh what the planners have
said. There should be no further involvement of
planners. That was the concept”.
After Mr Connolly’s triumph at the meetin it
was nevertheless reported in The Clare Champion
that the IRDA vowed to continue askin questions
about An Bord Pleanala’s appointment proce-
dures for board members followin the “recent
inconclusive minute meetin with the
authority”.
The Champion has a bee in its bonnet about
the rural/city divide and took some pleasure in
notin that “The Kilbaha-based Irish Rural Dwell-
ers’ Association had become the first rural roup
to attend a meetin with representatives of the
appeals’ board“ and that “Group actin secretary
and well known Kilbaha-based sculptor, Jim Con-
nolly admitted there was still a number of
unanswered queries, which were raised about
two months ao in a Sunday newspaper adver-
tisement, in spite of a wide ranin cordial
discussion on rural housin issues”.
The IRDA specialised in inveigling its way into
red-faced Oireachtas committees whose
craven and compromised members wanted
to curry favour with their most painfully
vociferous rural supporters.
Launch of IRDA’s ‘Rural Planning’ book, 2004
70 July 2022
said, it became dicult to et permissions for
housin for people bein resettled from the cities
because his oranisation was bein “victimised”
for the hih profile he was takin criticisin “plan
-
nin matters”.
In May the IRDA re-entered the frustrat-
in Bord Pleanála fray undimmed by any no
apparent interim chane of tack by the Anlo-
phile city-centred appeals bureaucrats. Mr James
Doyle of the IRDA told the rapt Joint Oireachtas
Committee on the Environment and Local Govern-
ment: “Today I want to focus on An Bord Pleanála,
its role, its constitution and the appointment of
the board’s members. The IRDA is very concerned
at the method of appointment of board members,
to the point that some appointments may be in
breach of the rules of appointment laid down in
leislation. It is essential that rural Ireland is rep-
resented on the board iven that one third of the
population resides there. Some % of objec-
tions made aainst one-o rural housin are
upheld by the board and are often made by serial
objectors”. Althouh it was in favour of the sell-
in o of rural sites for holiday houses. Layin out
a typical property-fetishin aenda. It claimed it
believed that:
“Plannin must be looked at within the en-
eral framework of the development of a vibrant
community life in rural Ireland.
Social, cultural and economic development are
factors of crucial importance as are the rihts of
individuals under vital headins such as freedom
of choice, freedom of movement, rihts of prop-
erty owners, rihts to fair and impartial treatment
and many more”.
One of the hysterical IRDA feats was to dress
that aenda up as a human-rihts cause and
Doyle rarely disappointed.
“After years of ever-increasin pressures on
rural society by a plannin reime determined on
a policy of restrictions, rural people are fihtin
back. There is no fairness, equality, justice,
democracy or any accountability in what is bein
practised in the name of plannin. A policy of
urbanisation is bein forced on our rural culture,
with scant respect for historical settlement pat-
terns, stretchin back for thousands of years”.
In fact one-o housin constituted over a third
of the national total and in most rural counties
was sixty-to-eihty percent, of overall housin
permissions. Only a small percentae of applica-
tions are refused or appealed, thouh it is true
that a hih percentae of those appealed are
refused —because An Bord Pleanála applies the
standards the local authorities set in their devel-
The IRDA release claimed: ‘Until recently town planners educated in
Ireland graduated without any rural qualification. Available journals
and planning literature are predominately English. These graduates are
accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute in London. In addition
many Irish planners received their education in colleges in England’
Michael Leahy
opment plans, but in practice inore.
In , one-o houses were permitted
and An Taisce appealed , for example.
The vituperation was roundless.
Nolan went on: “Furthermore we believe that
the Oireachtas should undertake a complete root
and branch review of all aspects of An Bord
Pleanála for the sake of democracy”.
So what did this proressive and informed
body actually achieve when it was finally made a
nominatin body to An Bord Pleanála?
The IRDA didn’t operate after and — fol-
lowin a request from its directors Jim Connolly
and James Doyle — was struck from the compa-
nies reister in . Nevertheless it nominated
members, who were then appointed, after it had
been disbanded.
IRDA’s first nomination to the board, in ,
is now chairperson of the far-right Irish Freedom
Party which campaigned against EU member-
ship, direct provision centres and vaccine
passports and tried to undermine the appoint-
ment of Roderic O’Gorman as Children’s Minister
on grounds he had been photographed next to
Peter Tatchell. opened his planning consultancy,
Leahy Planning Ltd, just ten months after his May
departure from the board.
According to the firm’s website, “While working
as a board member of An Bord Pleanála, Leahy
secured a diploma in planning and environmental
law in order to be better able to advise clients the
complex legislative framework which surrounds
the planning process in Ireland at present”.
It might have been assumed he’d got the letters
to improve his knowledge for the board he was
handsomely paid to serve.
An Bord Pleanála (ABP) deputy chairperson
Paul Hyde
Paul Hyde was also nominated to the board in
by the then-non-existent IRDA. The dubious
practice raises further questions as to whether
the beleauered Hyde, who faces other questions
as to whether he was entitled to serve on the
board after he apparently entered “arrane-
ments” with creditors which terminate
membership of the board, was ever leally
appointed to the board.
Former Fine Gael minister Phil Hoan appointed
both men to the board. You’d have to wonder what
aenda he thouht he was servin. Several
former board members of the IRDA recently told
the Irish Examiner they had no knowlede of there
ever havin been a formal nomination process.
So the IRDA’s leacy is of xenophobia and
actual illeality.
Its nomination successes outmanoeuvred An
Taisce, the Heritae Council and the Institute of
Archaeoloists of Ireland for two available board
positions. An independent review of An Bord
Pleanála published in recommended:
“The list of prescribed bodies that nominate
candidates for appointment by the Minister, as
set out in section of the Act, is outdated
and should be reviewed to include representation
of society’s wider interests”.
In July , James Doyle of the IRDA told the
Irish Times: “We are providin a balance aainst
An Taisce and An Bord Pleanála”.
I was chairman of An Taisce from to .
It was peculiarly unrewardin larely because of
the likes of the IRDA which took a pre-scientific
view on plannin. Gobshitery really.
But only now is it bein exposed what obshi-
tery meant, at the end, in terms of propriety and
the law.
