Subscriber OnlyOpinion

I want MetroLink, but must it be at the expense of St Stephen’s Green?

In years to come, people will wonder why we agreed to put a station in the city’s most beloved public space

supplied by Frank McDonald for oped on  MetroLink
A computer-generated image of the northeast corner of St Stephen’s Green showing the proposed MetroLink station and repositioned Wolfe Tone monument. Illustration: MetroLink/ TII

Dublin’s MetroLink was granted planning permission over a fortnight ago.

This is great news for public transport in the capital, not least because it will lessen the chore for many when it comes to getting to and from Dublin Airport.

However, there has not been much debate – and perhaps not much awareness – about the impact this public transport project will have on St Stephen’s Green, where a stop is planned.

The St Stephen’s Green station will be located in the interior of the park, changing its northeastern corner.

In an submission by Frank McDonald to a MetroLink oral hearing in March 2024, the journalist, author and advocate for the architectural integrity of Dublin city pointed out that as a national monument, St Stephen’s Green has the same status as Newgrange and the Rock of Cashel. McDonald cited Maurice Buckley of the Office of Public Works (OPW), who said that the station would have “a direct, severe, negative, profound and permanent impact on the heritage value of the Green”.

It is possible to be enthusiastically in favour of the MetroLink project in general (which I happen to be), while querying the logic of its southside trajectory, and also its impact on one of Ireland’s great urban parks, and a square that the public has tremendous affection for.

This is not about being against public transport or aspects of the city centre changing, even radically. I believe that we should progress towards a situation where private cars, besides taxis and those used by people with additional mobility needs, are removed from the city centre, and our public transport networks vastly expand in scale, speed, frequency and efficiency; more electric buses, more Luas lines and the MetroLink, along with much more cycling infrastructure and pedestrianisation. But we should be able to aspire to that without our city centre gems being altered in this way.

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The integrity of St Stephen’s Green is rooted its heritage and the coherence of its design. Last year, the OPW told An Bord Pleanála (now An Coimisiún Pleanála) that the construction of the MetroLink line “cannot be at the expense of Ireland’s national heritage”.

It is possible to be enthusiastically supportive of the MetroLink project, while also bemoaning the placement of a station in what is the city centre’s most beloved public space. Photograph: Artur Widak/ NurPhoto via Getty Images
It is possible to be enthusiastically supportive of the MetroLink project, while also bemoaning the placement of a station in what is the city centre’s most beloved public space. Photograph: Artur Widak/ NurPhoto via Getty Images

Sixty-four trees will be felled. The OPW said that this “could be construed as demolition of part of St Stephen’s Green”, and that “the construction of the station as currently proposed will result in permanent changes to the architectural form of the green and increased hard landscaping”.

The MetroLink going from Tara Street to St Stephen’s Green and then on to Charlemont effectively follows the Luas Green Line. Purely from a common sense perspective, it would make more sense to have a transport hub at Tara Street where the Metro could terminate (and where there is a Metro stop planned), linking travellers via pedestrian tunnels to both the Dart line, along with a new Green Line Luas stop at the junction of Hawkins Street and Burgh Quay linking travellers to that line (which goes to St Stephen’s Green going south, and on to Broombridge going north), as well as to the Red Line. Instead, the Metro will continue to St Stephen’s Green, already served by the Luas Green Line, and then on to Charlemont, also served by the Luas Green Line.

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The MetroLink website states: “to avoid impact on the early Georgian buildings on the street, the revised station will be located under the perimeter footpath and part of the eastern interior of the Park”.

The reason this location was “revised” was due to “a substantial saving financially”, along with impacts on sewer infrastructure and traffic disruption. It is also stated that the MetroLink station “will have a short-term impact on approximately 7 per cent of the eastern side of St Stephen’s Green”.

I fail to see how a station within the interior of the park is a short-term impact. The website says: “This design offers the potential to locate the Wolf [sic] Tone Monument and Famine Memorial within the park interior, allowing greater public appreciation of this significant work. Compensatory planting and landscaping will also take place.” Declaring that moving this memorial inside the park will allow for greater appreciation of it is merely a positive gloss.

It is possible to be enthusiastically supportive of the MetroLink project, while also bemoaning the placement of a station in what is the city centre’s most beloved public space.

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I’m hopeful that these plans will generate a positive conversation about public space in the city. Photograph: Artur Widak/ NurPhoto via Getty Images
I’m hopeful that these plans will generate a positive conversation about public space in the city. Photograph: Artur Widak/ NurPhoto via Getty Images

Unfortunately in Dublin, there are so many instances of the city’s characterful attributes being demolished and then blighted with incoherent and incongruous development. There are so many examples of poor architecture, poor design, street clutter and poor materials. There is a pattern of those with the power to change the fabric of the public realm not appreciating the heritage, and tangible and intangible value, of the aspects of our city that are beautiful. There is a pattern of insensitivity.

When these things are gone, they’re gone.

I’m hopeful that these plans will generate a positive conversation about public space in the city. Design matters. Public space matters. Character matters. Heritage matters.

In years to come, many will wonder why this station in its current incarnation at St Stephen’s Green happened, and why people at the time didn’t sufficiently value the integrity of this square. It is a national monument for a reason.