€40m Islamic centre for Clongriffin

A DUBLIN-BASED Muslim group is in advanced discussions to develop a € 40 million Islamic Cultural Centre including a substantial Mosque at Clongriffin on the northern fringe of the city. A formal planning application for the six-acre campus is to be lodged with Dublin City Council by the end of this summer.

The complex is expected to give a major boost to Dublin’s newest town centre and lead to the creation of up to 500 construction jobs over a three year period.

The promoters have agreed purchase terms for the extensive site with Gerry Gannon’s development company, which has already spent a fortune on providing a range of public facilities at Clongriffin including an impressive new Dart railway station, an internal street network, a 460-space park-and-ride facility, supermarket and department store, apartments and houses as well as a string of retail units.

Dublin’s other sizeable Mosque at Clonskeagh – there is also a small one at South Circular Road – caters for only a fraction of the 40,000 Muslims currently residing in the city and suburbs. A two-year search for a suitable site for another Mosque along with a range of support facilities including a 34-classroom school, conference centre, assembly hall, playground, swimming pool and on-site apartments, has culminated in an agreement to locate the development on part of the extensive lands owned by Gannon Developments near the recently-opened Dart station. Swords estate agent Shane Redmond was involved in the negotiations between the Muslim group and Gannon Developments.

The group is anxious to make it known that the proposed amenities will be available not only to the Muslim population but also to families of other faiths – or no faith – with the intention of promoting harmonious relations. Funding for the development has been promised by 10 wealthy individuals as well as charitable organisations in the Middle East.

Most of the Dublin-based group promoting the Islamic Cultural Centre are professionals working in medicine, research and the universities. Once the centre has been developed, it will be capable of accommodating up to 5,000 people at any one time. The new campus will also include 147 houses and apartments.

Gannon Developments, whose loans are currently managed by Nama, is awaiting planning permission for 147 houses close to the six-acre site. Nama will have to give its approval for the Islamic centre. Only about one-third of the 3,678 new homes already approved for the Clongriffin area have so far been built, while no more than 20 per cent of the commercial projects have also been completed. Building operations in the area have virtually ground to a halt since the collapse of the property industry.

There is considerable optimism among those associated with the proposed Islamic centre that if it works out successfully “it could put Ireland in a very favourable position in the Muslim world and lead to significant inward investment”.

Plans for the Islamic centre drawn up by architects and urban designers Conroy Crowe Kelly show that the proposed buildings will cover an area of 16,257sq m (157,000 sq ft) next to Panhandle Park, halfway between Fr Collins Park and the railway station. The mixture of cultural uses will be arranged around a series of public civic spaces and private courtyard gardens. The Mosque will be dominant and will define the complex. The various building will be accessed from a central civic space.

The architects say the centre will have a “strong sense of place, be of unified design, encompass high-quality public civic spaces and provide glimpses through to calm, private enclosures within: the Islamic tradition of the wall and the garden.