Horse-owners consider court action over Smithfield market

Horse-owners may go to the High Court in an attempt to ensure they can hold a horse market in Dublin.

Dublin Corporation has received a solicitor's letter from some owners threatening to take legal action to ensure the market can take place in the square at Smithfield on the first Sunday of every month. The market dates back to 1664.

The corporation and the EU have spent some £3.5 million on regenerating Smithfield, and the area has been the site of a number of new apartment and office developments in recent years.

The horse enthusiasts were provided with a temporary site in nearby Grangegorman while the square was being redeveloped, and the market took place on the temporary site from August to December of last year.

However, last month the traders returned to Smithfield against the wishes of the corporation. Yesterday the market began in Grangegorman, but was moved to Smithfield at about 10 a.m. Ms Mary Weir of Dublin Corporation said negotiations involving the corporation, the horse-owners and local residents and business people have run into difficulties and that some representatives of the horseowners appeared to believe the market would never be allowed to return to Smithfield.

"There's a guarantee in the framework plan for the area that the horse fair will be retained, no matter what other activities are going to take place in Smithfield" Ms Weir said. "Obviously there is a sense of mistrust there at the moment, but it will be better if before we go back we have the horse fair so well organised that there will be no cause for complaint when we return to Smithfield."

The corporation wants to see the market segregated. "Some people come to the fair to buy and sell. A lot of young people come just to meet up with their pals and show off their horses, and some people just come to watch. We feel it would be better if there were separate areas for the different activities, but some people are getting impatient, and I understand that", Ms Weir said yesterday.

The corporation is also concerned about other areas, such as public safety and animal welfare. Negotiations on the future of the horse market have been taking place since October on the Smithfield Horsefair Committee.

The committee includes representatives of the corporation, local residents and business people, horse-owners and the Garda.

Smithfield is the centrepiece of the HARP rejuvenation area which extends from O'Connell Street to the National Museum at Collins Barracks. The square is seen by planners as having the potential to be an important civic space.

The City Manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, told one reporter last year: "I guarantee you won't recognise the north inner city in five years' time. Have a good hard look at it now, and come back and hit me over the head if I'm not right".