Dublin city churches ‘virtually inaccessible’ under new plan

Concern has been expressed that the churches in the nation’s capital may become “virtually inaccessible” if Dublin City Council pushes ahead with plans for a pedestrian plaza at College Green.

A number of city centre representative bodies have opposed the controversial plaza that will ban private cars from the area outside Trinity College.

Fr Christopher Clarke, the prior of St Teresa’s Church on Clarendon Street, told The Irish Catholic he was “worried that the plans may mean people couldn’t get to the church”.

The Carmelite priest said “it looks as if the link between the two sides of the city would be closed off for traffic anyway”.

“We would have a lot of elderly people who would need access by car and it will really affect them,” he said.

Conor Keogh, who is the manager of the Brown Thomas car park on Clarendon Street, echoed Fr Clarke’s concerns. 

Proposals

“If the proposals are brought forward you are actually going to find that most of the city centre churches are going to become virtually inaccessible to most people. We do need better access, better public transport and a better system. The problem is that what is being proposed is none of that,” he said.

Noting that the new plans would cause difficulty for people travelling to churches on both the north and south sides of the city, Mr Keogh said “you are taking about a doubling of the journeys for most people”.

Fr Clarke said he has already noticed a drop off in the number of people visiting the popular city centre church on Clarendon Street due to the construction work currently underway to expand the city’s Luas network.

“It’s like a building site up at the top of St Stephen’s Green at the moment. You are prepared to endure that in the hope that it will be completed in the near future but it is a logistical nightmare for old people to manoeuvre around,” he said.