Residents in the Croke Park area of north Dublin are to take legal action to prevent the Garth Brooks concerts going ahead next month if Dublin City Council approves an application to license the events.
Aiken Promotions applied for a licence for the concerts, due to run over five days from July 25th-29th, in April this year. Dublin City Council received more than 370 submissions in relation to the application and is due to decide on the case in the next week.
Solicitor Anthony Fay, representing the Croke Park Streets Committees, has said if the concerts are licensed by the local authority, he has been instructed to seek an injunction and/or a private prosecution under the planning Acts against concert organisers Aiken Promotions.
He claimed both the GAA and Aiken were in “clear contravention” of section 230 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 because the Garth Brooks concerts were promoted and sold in advance of being licensed.
The Act states that any person who “organises, promotes, holds or is otherwise materially involved in the organisation of an event” or is “in control of the land” on which an event occurs shall be guilty of an offence “other than under and in accordance with a licence” .
Mr Fay has written to the local authority asking it to bring a prosecution against the concert promoters and the GAA for their actions.
Gardaí have also been contacted about the issue, but no response has been received from either.
Mr Fay also said local residents had been denied a right to an oral hearing on the issuing of the licence.
“That is undemocratic and it lacks transparency, particularly when the local councillors unanimously passed a resolution in April saying that the residents should get an oral hearing,” he said.
Eamon O’Brien, chairman of the Croke Park Streets Committees and treasurer of the local Handball and Community Centre, said residents were disappointed with the report published by mediator Kieran Mulvey on the management of events at Croke Park.
He said it should have included a recommendation to reduce the number of Garth Brooks concerts, which was the “real issue”.
"The GAA are doing the mea culpa about the imposition of the five concerts … but they have not decided that they will reduce the number of concerts. Anything that affects their getting more money or profit is not considered," he said.
On the offer of €500,000 for a local community fund, Mr O’Brien said residents did not want to be “treated like prostitutes”, as though there was “a price on the inconvenience and the destruction of the quality of our lives”.
However local Labour Party TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said Mr Mulvey’s report offered “the basis for a better relationship between Croke Park authorities and the local community”.
