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‘NIMBY’ Planning Activist Lodges Appeal Against Doonbeg’s Trump Wall

7th January 2018
The Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg The Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg Credit: Trump Hotels

#Doonbeg - US President Donald Trump’s sea wall proposal for Doonbeg has hit another stumbling block — this time from a planning activist who’s turned his attentions to the controversial plans.

As TheJournal.ie reports, Peter Sweetman has lodged an appeal against last month’s decision by Clare County Council to green-light revised proposals for coastal erosion works alongside the Trump International Golf Links at the Co Clare coastal village.

The reduced scale of the project met with council planners’ approval but not that of surfers and some local residents who fear its impact on Doonbeg’s surfing conditions and unique natural habitat — a cause that Sweetman now supports.

Considered ‘Ireland’s foremost objector to energy projects’ by The Irish Times, Sweetman is also known for his campaigning against the Corrib pipeline and large road projects, as well as being son of former Finance Minister Gerald Sweetman.

The self-professed ‘NIMBY’ claims his appeal is not a personal objection but only “is about the Habitats Directive, the law and Doonbeg golf course”.

TheJournal.ie has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes
MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.