Dear All,

Thank you again for signing this petition. 

Your signature, together with the signatures of more than 15000 other people, has helped to create a high profile public statement in defense of Magheramore beach and its environs.

As an expression of solidarity, it has also become part of a landmark articulation of the value of such things as biodiversity, heritage and community, and the importance of responsible and ethical development. 

You might recall that in 2021, Creatively Pacific Ltd. purchased 21 acres of land at Magheramore Beach, including the long tree-lined former Leslie-Ellis Estate laneway that leads down to the beach from the R750. In a public auction where Wicklow County Council, committed to conserving the site, were the only other serious bidder, that was a dispiriting result for many people. 

The following year, when a grand wooden house in a historic Connecticut style appeared above Magheramore Beach, a planning enforcement probe was triggered and the story made national news. It turned out to be a movie set, the blighted home of the Tyrone family. An adapation of Long Day's Journey Into Night was filmed in unseasonable rain that summer, with Ed Harris and Jessica Lange in the lead roles. Cast and crew alike emerged from an extended shoot in Magheramore, cursing the weather, but thoroughly bewitched by the abundant wildlife. The world premier of that film will take place at the Dublin International Film Festival this month, with Lange and Harris due to attend.

That strange omen was forgotten in 2023 when Creatively Pacific submitted a proposal to Wicklow County Coucil for an elaborate resort, including a cinema and an outdoor pool overlooking the beach and adjacent to the Special Area of Conservation at Magherabeg to the south.

Almost 100 letters of objection followed, and Wicklow County Council rejected the proposal outright. Creatively Pacific’s plan, they said, 'would set an undesirable precedent for similar type development in this sensitive landscape, would appear visually out of character with the coast and would interfere with the environmental quality and amenities' of both Magheramore and the long scenic coastal strip south of Wicklow Town. 

This dramatic and widely celebrated moment was memorably captured in a Wicklow People front page headline that read ‘Curlews See Off Developer’.

Creatively Pacific, strongly critical of the council’s approach, then submitted an appeal and a beefed-up proposal to An Bord Pleanála (ABP), the national planning appeals board with authority to over-rule development decions at the county level.

A long road of activism became longer at this point. There was anxiety and some pessimism in the air, and many expressed the same opinion: this developer appears untouchable and absolutely determined, and they appear to care little for bad press. Money will talk, and that will be that. 

After a delay of more than a year and a half, APB’s final judgment was announced last week. The Creatively Pacific appeal has been dismissed in resounding and comprehensive terms, including a detailed vindication of Wicklow Couty Council’s initial assessment and thinking. 

It is now hoped that Creatively Pacific will sell the land to Wicklow County Council or to the State, and it is understood that both are interested. It is hoped too that the wealthy men and women behind Creatively Pacific will not feel humiliated, or further provoked. And that the phenomenon of more that 15000 signatures, as part of a story of local environmental understanding and unity, and the undeniable integrity of the system in this four year speculative journey, will hit home and convince them it was a non-starter all along.

You can read a summary of the APB judgment here.

And you can hear and see a mighty flock of wintering curlews in Magheramore every day for at least another month, before they are due to migrate again, in their ancient rhythm.

Martin Dyar