Save Santry Wood for the people
By Robert Allen
A community campaign to save a woodland from profiteering
developers is poised to become an initiative to provide badly
needed jobs.
Santry Woods will be destroyed if Fingal County Council succumb
to pressure from developers to rezone the land and allow the
construction of apartments and warehouses.
The woods, which stretch from Ballymun and Santry up to the M50,
are owned by the family of Robert `Pino' Harris, the truck
importer and property speculator who made a profit of £1.5
million when he bought the grounds of Carsyfort College for £6.5
million and sold them to UCD for £8m. The circumstances of the
deal which allowed him to acquire the college land has been
questioned, significantly by those interested in Ray Burke's
affairs.
The campaign to save Santry Woods, which was once part of the
dense forest characteristic of the area and an aristrocratic
estate dating back to the 12th century, began when the Harris
family brought the house and lands of the Donvilles, the last
lords of Santry Demesne.
The Donvilles delighted in their native forest of oak, ash, beech
and rowan among other trees and when King Victor Emmanuel of Rome
presented a gift of 16 tree species in 1912 the demesne gradually
acquired an exotic quality with groves of Spanish chestnuts,
Californian redwood, Italian walnut plus hazelnut and cedar. When
the lords of Santry departed in the mid-twenties the estate was
given to the Health Board who relinquished in temporarily to the
army during the 39-45 world war. Although the estate house was
burned down during this occupation the forest was left alone and
became so dense that it completely shout out the light, becoming
known as the Dark Wood. In 1969, the Harris family brought it.
Their first action was to evict the tenants who occupied the
artisans' cottages. They were told they had a week to get out or
their furniture would be forcibly removed. Artefacts on the land
were removed or destroyed. A stone sculpture of a celebrated
racehorse was bulldozed to rubble. The destruction of the woods
began when a man was allowed to cut down as many trees as he
wanted. Within a few years the Dark Wood was gone.
Shocked by these scandalous events several people from Ballymun
and Santry came together in 1985 to form Sábhál Coillte
Sheantruibh (Save Santry Woods) and began to lobby for the woods
to be protected and ultimately to be purchased for the people as
an amenity area. As a result of their campaign a preservation
order was placed on the remaining trees. However more trees were
cut down and locals noticed that the bark of many trees had been
mutilated with half inch deep cuts.
Desperate to make a profit from the land Pino Harris has
constantly thwarted the attempts by campaigners to save the
woods. Having sold 10 acres to Trinity in 1972, (when it was
acquired in the name of Queen Elizabeth II) and developed as
sports grounds and a warehouse for the college library, Harris
has been aware of its value. A further two acres on Bullock Hill
was sold to the Industrial Development Agency and rezoned as
development land. The Santry Residents Association had lodged an
objection to the rezoning but mysteriously withdrew their
complaint a day before it was due to come into effect. In 1989 he
tried to sell it to Dublin City University for £12m. The
university president said he wanted the land for student playing
fields but Harris' asking price of nearly £100,000 an acre was
more than 10 times what DCU's valuer estimated it was worth. At
the time Ballymun Sinn Féin criticised the duplicity of
politicians who said they supported the campaign to have the
woods protected as a local amenity. ``Santry Woods should be taken
into public ownership with minimal compensation to Harris. Its
trees and woodlands should be preserved. It should be upgraded to
a public park for the people of the area,'' they demanded in
November 1991.
But nothing happened until a few weeks ago when a letter from
Fingal County Council to Dublin Corporation revealed that
Woodland Developments Ltd had informed the council that they
proposed to acquire 243 acres of the forest and are planning to
exploit it for large scale commercial and residential use -
leaving only 50 acres for public use around Santry Stadium. ``Such
a massive development would destroy Santry Woods as the only
natural woodland in this area and deprive our children of its
beauty and educational value,'' raged Sean Marlow of the Santry
Woods Action Group who have rallied in recent weeks to oppose the
latest development.
This time the council may find themselves under severe pressure
to finally acceed to the demands made by Sábhál Coillte
Sheantruibh more than ten years ago. Now Anton Mac Giolla Rua,
one of the people behind Sábhál Coillte Sheantruibh, has called
on the 26 County government to channel funds into a plan for the
development of Santry Woods as a city farm, craft centre, tree
nursery, tourist village, riding club and wild animal hospital as
part of the regeneration of Ballymun.
Contact Sean Marlow, Ballymun Sinn Féin, for further details:
7045120.
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