Coldcut Lands Rezoning Scandal

The communities of North Clondalkin and Palmerstown have been campaigning against the rezoning of lands at the Coldcut Road for over 6 months. In a shock vote last Monday councillors in South Dublin County Council voted to rezone the 3 hectare site for Residential development by 20 votes for and 18 against.

All Fine Gael and Labour councillors and most Fianna Fáil councillors voted for the rezoning (Tanya MacDonald and Trevor Gilligan abstained). Local Independent councillor Alan Hayes also voted in favour, together with other Independents from the ruling group including Alan Edge, Ronan McMahon and Dermot Richardson.

The site is surrounded in controversy and rezoning was voted down by councillors in June. The lands are owned by the Dublin Bus Services Sports and Social Club and consist of 10 hectares of land with sports pitches, a clubhouse, a pitch and putt course and an abandoned GAA pitch. It’s the 3 hectares at the abandoned GAA pitch that has been rezoned for housing. The facilities on the lands have been widely used by the local community for decades, from communions to football training.

The entire site was put up for sale in late 2025 by the Trustees of the club. Following a tender process with closed bids it is believed that Beldare Homes were successful with a bid of €5.4 million. South Dublin County Council also entered a bid but was unsuccessful.

Beldare Homes is owned by Sligo businessman and convicted criminal Cathal O’Connor. He was jailed for 2 years in July after being found guilty of false imprisonment, physical abuse and threats to three 13 year olds.

Cathal O’Connor falsely accused the three boys of anti social behaviour on one of his construction sites as he held them captive and beat them. He threatened to kill them saying that he “had killed before”. Former Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry provided a character testimonial for O’Connor at the trial.

Cathal O’Connor has a history of dodgy deals. He provided a “donation in kind” to Sligo Independent Ireland councillor Michael Clarke which the councillor failed to declare. The same councillor proposed and voted for the rezoning of 8 separate plots of land owned by O’Connor. O’Connor is also a member of the exclusive Developers Club Ireland.

The sale of the Coldcut lands to Cathal O’Connor was conducted entirely by the Trustees of the club, Gerry Maguire (Dublin Bus appointee and former HR manager) and Martin Duggan. They have denied the members a vote on the sale in contravention of the club’s constitution. Many of the members are appalled by the behaviour of the Trustees and the sale of the club. They want the facilities to be kept in club ownership, or at least to be sold to the council to guarantee the use of the facilities for the community.

Despite the sale of the land being publicly advertised Cathal O’Connor set up a business entitled Coldcut Construction Ltd in 2021. The company submitted no documents such as annual returns until 2026. It seems as though the sale had been planned for years, pending the rezoning of the land. Club members have not received their share of money from the sale leading us to believe that the sale was not progressed due to the initial vote against rezoning.

Not only is the developer a convicted criminal, he has also been making false promises to local clubs regarding the future of the site. This week pictures have emerged on a website run by Fianna Fáil councillor Trevor Gilligan of proposed drawings for development on the site. However, those drawings are not available publicly anywhere and show housing at parts of the site that was not rezoned. These drawings can only have come directly from the developer who is misleading local clubs and elected representatives with a plan that could never be delivered.

The immediate vicinity of the Coldcut has seen a long history of corrupt planning. Fianna Fail TD Liam Lawlor took money in return for planning decisions in favour of Owen O’Callaghan in the 1990’s for the construction of Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. At the time local football clubs were made false promises about facilities and amenities that never appeared.

In recent years Vincent Cosgrave has spent years in court for breaching planning permission on the conversion of Liffey Valley Fitness Centre to substandard apartments. He also owns apartments on Kylemore Road that have been left vacant for years because he breached planning laws.

After the vote on Coldcut was lost I proposed a roll call vote on the overall plan. I was asking them all to put their name to their vote. You need 3 councillors to get a roll call. Disgracefully, not one other councillor supported me. No one.

The roll call vote was dismissed and the plan was passed by the council.

Working class communities like North Clondalkin are always the ones who suffer from the corrupt dealings of developers and politicians. They don’t give a damn about working class people or our communities.

The Coldcut lands should be Compulsory Purchased by the council and the local community should continue to support the members of the club who continue to fight against the sale from within. I will continue to fight by every means possible on behalf of the community.

Ultimately, we need councils were decisions about working class communities are made by working class communities. We need a rebellion in this country to put working class communities in the driving seat of local councils. Development lands should be nationalised so that decisions can be made democratically and locally about what is built.