The village of Killinard, Co Laois, has been mauled by the Celtic Tiger over the past four years, argues Frank McDonald, Environment Editor.
The chief executive of the Heritage Council, Michael Starrett, told a recent symposium on the future of villages that anyone who wants a definition of "over-development" should go to Killinard, three miles from Portarlington. What has happened there is "developer-led", he said.
The view from the railway bridge as you come into Killinard is not what you would expect to see in a village. Spread out before you are ranks of cream-coloured suburban houses that rise up to the recently-built Heritage Hotel and Country Club.
The Celtic Tiger has mauled this village. Until 2001, all it had was two 19th-century churches, a national school dating from 1962, a community centre, a pub called The Thatch and 43 houses, all of them relatively modest bungalows built during the previous 30 years.
A single shop is only now under construction to serve the huge influx of new residents in the housing estates already built. Because none of the land was zoned for development, there was no legal requirement to provide any social and affordable housing.
There was no plan, no "village design statement" and no zoning. In essence, what happened was that developers moved in, bought up land and got planning permission to turn fields into housing estates. Some of the local farmers became millionaires overnight.
Suburban housing is strung out along the narrow road between the railway bridge and Mount St Anne's retreat centre, a distance of less than a mile.
There are no footpaths, not even outside the school where up to 200 parents deliver and collect children daily by car.
"There was a time when I could sit up in bed and see the ESB power station in Portarlington," says Michael Cobbe, a long-time resident of Killinard and retired engineer with Laois County Council. "Now I can't see Portarlington at all, with all the housing that's been built here."
The major development was started by Corrigeen Construction Ltd, controlled by Portlaoise developer Tommy Kane. In 2001, he got planning permission for an 18-hole golf course, designed by Seve Ballesteros and Jeff Howes, a restaurant and a road layout for future development.
This was followed by separate schemes for a five-star hotel, 82 semi-detached and terraced houses, a golf clubhouse, leisure centre, golf academy and driving range, indoor bowls arena, 18 "golf villas", one of them built for Ballesteros, and a par 3 golf course.
The suburban houses are set back from the road, just opposite the Catholic church built in 1835. Their frontage is marked by a fence and sapling lime trees.
A big billboard nearby, featuring a picture of Ballesteros, flags the latest "exclusive" three-, four- and five-bedroom homes at The Heritage, with membership of the golf club.
Some of these detached houses, for sale at €700,000-plus, back on to another new housing estate being developed by Tipperary-based Surestone Construction Ltd. It consists of 55 detached houses, in mock-Georgian style, with a pair of gate lodges at its elaborate entrance.
Kids playing on bikes around the triple-tiered sandstone fountain on this estate, called Carriglea, had Dublin accents. There are four house types, all variations on the mock-Georgian theme, with different coloured doors. One house had a skip outside full of new carpets.
Killinard Lodge, another new estate of 28 detached houses selling for €500,000-plus, is fronted by railings and brick piers. Planning permission for this scheme was obtained in 2001 by Portarlington-based developer Liam McMahon, who subsequently sold it on.
Mr McMahon later acquired a large field just across the road from a row of 11 county council bungalows and sought permission for 46 houses. Despite being turned down last November, he has since reapplied for approval to build 110 houses on the same site.
Across the road, opposite Killinard Lodge, the council also turned down plans by Portlaoise-based developer Terry Behan for 89 houses, on the grounds that they were premature pending an upgrade of water and sewerage facilities to cater for more housing.
Corrigeen Construction, which provided a pumping station and sewer main linking Killinard with the treatment works in Portarlington, got permission for another estate of 86 houses on a site at the southern end of the village. This decision was overturned on appeal, however.
In its ruling, An Bord Pleanála said the scheme "represents an unsympathetic, unco-ordinated, haphazard and non-plan led extension to Killinard village". It would also "significantly increase the volumes of traffic" on roads in the area and thereby "endanger public safety".
Last April, Corrigeen applied for permission to build 106 houses in the same field, where Charolais cattle were grazing last week. The council, which had approved all of the company's previous planning applications for Killinard, sought further information on this occasion.
Corrigeen's latest scheme - designed, like the others, by Portlaoise architect John Delaney - is for 24 duplex apartments and four three-storey houses on a site adjoining what its brochure describes as "a world-class resort, nestled in the charming village of Killenard".
It goes on: "Accommodation at the Heritage Hotel begins with a liberating sense of space. Designed to inspire, its beauty connects you with the beautiful surroundings of the Laois countryside, while ensuring your comfort and convenience at this luxury lifestyle resort."
In reality, the resort complex is approached through a maze of housing. Many of the rooms in the lavishly decorated hotel (from €275 a night for a standard de-luxe to €1,000 for the presidential suite) overlook the rear ends and boundary walls of the houses built by Corrigeen itself.
There is also an extensive area of surface car parking on two sides of the hotel, which opened for business in June. Some of the houses were bought by investors and leased back to the resort. They are laid out on roads with names like Windmill Place and Mount Henry Drive.
The golf clubhouse, described in the brochure as "Ireland's largest and most inspiring", is three storeys high, topped by an octagonal lantern and clock tower. In front is a bronze statue of Seve Ballesteros, in full swing; the resort's golf academy uses his "natural" method.
A long mesh fence, nine metres high, protects nearby houses from the driving range. The golf course, which needed a lot of earth-moving to create 98 bunkers and five lakes, is surrounded by a four-mile walking track, floodlit at night. Some 30,000 trees have also been planted.
Tommy Kane of Corrigeen Construction did not return calls from The Irish Times.
Michael Cobbe welcomes the amenities provided by Corrigeen, particularly the walking track, but he blames Laois County Council for what has happened to Killinard. "They hadn't the courage to come in and design a new town," he says. "They just allowed speculators to rule."