Call for ‘pop-up park’ on fenced off central Dublin site

An “unused and unproductive” site for a future family law courts building at Hammond Lane in Dublin’s north inner city should be developed as a pop-up park , Fianna Fáil's Mary Fitzpatrick has said.

She said a temporary pop-up park was developed very successfully with the aid of the local community at Dominick Street in 2014, on land that was awaiting housing development.

Ms Fitzpatrick called for a review of all State-owned sites which were boarded up - sometimes for many years - in the city centre.

“While it is unused and unproductive it could be made into a playground. It would involve the community and it would remove the derelict look,” she said.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald announced plans for the family law courts building in December 2014, after the Hammond Lane site had been fenced off for about a decade.

The site remains vacant although an announcement on the design and a budget for the construction of the courts building is expected to be made by the Courts Service and the Office of Public Works as early as January.

The site at Hammond Lane is located at the heart of the capital’s legal district, between the Four Courts and the Courts Service’s own building, and is beside the Luas Red Line. The proposed new centre would bring together a range of mediation and judicial services which are currently provided in three different locations in Dublin.

Ms Fitzpatrick said a pop-up park could still be provided while planning permission for the courts building was being obtained.

She said there was sometimes very long lead-in times for public buildings to be developed and pop-up parks were one way of involving the local community and dealing with what were often eyesores.

She suggested the OPW rehabilitate the site “in commemoration of the events that took place on Church Street and the Four Courts in 1916”.