Below are excerpts from an article about a Ryder Cup celebration for Paul Maginley posted on the Irish Independent Website. The entire article is at
www.unison.ie The portions that I cut and paste are about a proposed golf project across the way from Saint Patricks on links land. It's indicative of the planning problems that some of these projects are having after the Special Area Conservation (SAC) regulations went into effect in 1997. The people that laid out Saint Patricks in 1996 prior to the new regulations were very fortunate.
"...An edge then entered the exchanges when Collins said: "You were involved in a golf-course design project here in Donegal. A course which you felt had great potential." "Yes," came the reply. "It is one of the most magnificent pieces of land I've ever seen and it was going to be my first design project. I turned down three or four more lucrative offers so as to do this one, but it looks as if it won't work out."
There was enthusiastic applause when he added: "Though it doesn't seem to be the case in Ireland, I would argue that a golf course is far more environmentally friendly than houses. I believe land can look far more attractive with a golf course on it." More applause.
But if there was so much support for the project, why wasn't it going to happen?...
Five Donegalmen, including Michael McGinley, bought the 200-acre site back in September 1997. At a projected cost of around £10 million, their plan was to build a golf-course development which would provide a badly-needed economic lift, with 100 jobs in the blackest employment spot in the country.
Driving down "Magnolia Lane" , it wasn't difficult to appreciate how golfing men could be drawn to this site. Even a bleak January day couldn't dull the beauty of a slender finger of duneland, jutting into Sheephaven Bay, with Rosapenna and the towering dunes of St Patrick's links to the north east and Muckish Mountain to the south west.
"Isn't that a fantastic sight," said the prospective architect, looking from gorse-covered heathland out to pure linksland sweeping into the wild Atlantic. "Every time I come to Donegal, I can't resist a trip out here, sometimes with my dog, to take in the wonderful potential of the area. Look how majestic it is. And down there, the Lacah is one of the best salmon rivers in the country."
The previous evening, he had been presented with a painting of a local scene, dominated by Muckish. "The scenery is spectacular, especially for housing from the seashore up to here," he enthused. "I have mental pictures of holes where, on half-blind drives, the line of the shot is provided by the peak of Muckish. And other lines by that mountainside cottage.
"Kerry has been such a successful tourist destination because of the variety of courses it has to offer. That's what we need here in Donegal. Our plan would perfectly complement Ronapenna which, incidentally, is one of my favourite courses. I wanted to design a layout attractive to play, leaving visitors wanting to come back. Just like Baltray (where he won the Irish Professional Championship with a record aggregate).
"On the advise of Des Smyth, I was going to bring Declan Branigan on board. I love what he's done at Seapoint, which is also a mixture of heathland and links.
"Too many people, in my view, are building courses for the likes of me, tournament professionals who represent point zero zero one of the golfing population. I would be looking at a player-friendly stretch where people wouldn't feel intimidated. And I was all set to promote it, any way I could. I even spoke about it to the Taoiseach."
He added: "It would have meant being able to do something for the local community and what's happened here has been very frustrating. A great pity."
So, what precisely had happened?
Denis Boyce, a retired schoolteacher and one of the five shareholders, explained their experience. "Not long after we bought the site, it was designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC)," he said. "Still, we remained optimistic about getting planning permission when we hired a firm of Dublin-based consultants and did an environmental impact study.
"It would have been self-financing, but when our consultants met with representatives of Duchas, they were advised that building a course on this site would never be a runner. We then went through an appeals process, challenging the designation of the land as a proposed SAC and were turned down."
'We just got sick and tired of going over the same business, again and again'
Duchas was an advisory body set up by the former Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and The Islands to deal with heritage matters. They had to be consulted by local authorities on planning matters which, apparently, was done by Donegal County Council. In the event, Duchas no longer exists and its function has been absorbed into the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
Meanwhile, there is an EU regulation covering SACs, National Heritage Areas (NHA) and Special Protected Areas (SPA). My information is that none of these designations precludes development, as can be seen from on-going golf projects - both links and parkland - in Scotland and in Continental Europe, notably Spain. It should also be noted that such designations by the EU would be based on information provided by member countries: there is no all-seeing environmental guru in Brussells capable of making such decisions.
Meanwhile, experts from UCD and the University of Ulster, assured the group that there was nothing environmentally special about the area. Still, in the belief that there was no point in applying for planning permission for the entire site to Donegal County Council, Boyce and his colleagues sought planning on about half of it, which is largely heathland. Outline permission on this area of about 100 acres, was granted.
"This would have limited us to a nine-hole course but we felt it was worth making the application as a stepping stone to what we really wanted," said Boyce. "Then, despite amending the design plans three or four times so as to avoid sensitive areas like primary dunes, we were repeatedly told we would fail if we tried to get planning for 18 holes.
"That was two years ago and eventually, in utter frustration, we put the entire site up for sale. We just got sick and tired of going over the same business, again and again."
SO the project is effectively dead, then? "Not necessarily," Boyce replied when I spoke with him again on Friday. "What's happened here over the last few days has caused us to think again. We're really impressed by Paul's sustained interest and after his Ryder Cup exploits in Detroit, his profile is now higher than ever.
"He has already done great work in promoting Donegal, so we owe it to him and to ourselves to go back to the County Council, this time with a planning application for the full site."
McGinley's Christmas holiday in Donegal with his wife, Allison, and their three children was at an end. Having viewed Wednesday's function as a great honour, he didn't expect any other New Year gifts. But he may yet land the great prize of designing his first golf course in Ireland in an area very dear to his heart.
"From what the lads are saying, it looks like we could still make it happen," he said. "Wouldn't that be a really wonderful way for me to say 'Thank you', for how I was received there on Wednesday night." Indeed it would. He might even be forgiven for not playing Gaelic football for Donegal."