The IRFU might ve won a valuable battle on behalf of U2 and the Irish music industry last Friday, but the war isn t over yet. The band s shows will now go ahead as planned on August 30th and 31st, but the future of outdoor events of this kind still hangs in the balance.
However, one thing is clear: objectors will have to think long and hard before launching into a legal action of this kind again. The three residents who attempted to prevent U2 s gigs going ahead may now have to meet legal costs of up to #200,000. It s an extremely heavy price to pay when the alternative was a few days minor inconvenience.
The Supreme Court may not seem like the most exciting place on earth, but last week s courtroom karaoke did have some of the qualities of a Hollywood drama. There was scandal (unpublishable), drama (well, would you like to have a #2 million gig hanging on a legal thread?), intrigue (one of the residents, Sharon McGrath, is the wife of former rugby international Brendan Mullin) and even comedy (legal eagles debating the difference between an integrated structure and a temporary erection ).
There was even an all-star cast featuring Paul McGuinness, Denis Desmond, Lord Henry Mountcharles and Oliver Barry, all nervously tugging their ties while the peripheral figure of Eamon Dunphy loitered outside in the courtyard, confronting his own private hour of judgement. Indeed, the appeal was something of a cause celebre around The Four Courts, with scores of barristers who weren t directly involved anxiously awaiting the outcome of what was both a high-profile and a complex case.
In the end, the appeal against the High Court decision that the gigs could not go ahead was granted because of a strict adherence to the exact letter of the law: the residents objecting to the gig suffered a technical knockout. It was one occasion where the difference between what is and what will be was a legal as well as a philosophical question.
In the Supreme Court judgement Justice Susan Denham said: Section 27 empowers a planning authority or any other person to make an application to court in certain circumstances. It enables members of the public, whether or not they have an interest in the land, to apply. It is thus an important section enabling a community or an individual to take watch dog actions. It is a powerful tool. However, the section limits the right to make an application to situations where -
(a) development of land . . . has been carried out, or is being carried out, without permission, or
(b) an unauthorised use is being made of land . . .
It refers plainly to events occurring in the present or which have occurred in the past. There is no reference to future events.
In other words, The Supreme Court concluded that because Section 27 gives powers to members of the public over land they may or may not have an interest in, they have the right to intervene only in present or established events. The High Court was wrong, therefore, to prevent an event happening in the future on the basis of this section of the Planning Act.
So, can the residents intervene once the U2 gigs have started? No. And not just because of the possibilities of a riot. Justice Denham rejected an alternative submission made by the residents council Mr. Eamonn Galligan that the U2 concerts could be judged as being in continued unauthorised use since the Celine Dion gig at the stadium.
In regard to future application of Section 27 she stated that there are very complex issues to be determined on the status of the trustees stadium in relation to the holding of pop concerts. These issues will be determined in the judicial review proceedings now pending.
FARCICAL SITUATION
This was an important case for the Irish music industry. Trouble had been brewing since the summer of 95 when Denis Desmond was refused permission to hold Fiile at Mondello Park. Also, Lord Henry Mountcharles run-in with Meath Co. Council last year, which effectively ruled out gigs at Slane Castle, did not bode well. But, as Tony O Brien pointed out in the Irish Independent, there s a much earlier precedent The Boomtown Rats struggle to find a Dublin venue at the height of the punk wars in 1978.
So while the champagne might ve flowed in The Kitchen last Friday, it was less in triumph than the knowledge that the Irish music industry narrowly avoided being set back twenty years in a day. If the appeal hadn t been granted, it wouldn t have been just U2 and crew who lost out Ireland might ve found itself effectively removed from the international touring circuit for major acts.
Ancillary businesses such as security, catering and the people employed to clean and repair the pitch would ve stood to suffer even more than they have in the last two years, what with planning laws forcing Fiile indoors and reducing the Trip To Tipp to a one-day event.
For the local humpers and riggers who supplement the regular international crews at these events, this is lucrative seasonal work. It is vital that these concerts be safeguarded from the kind of Fire Brigade situation whereby any crank can walk in off the street, blow the whistle and bring a million-pound industry to a halt. This is not to demonise the residents: large-scale concerts are inconvenient for locals, but people who buy property near a stadium run that risk.
One can t very well purchase a house beside the DART station and then complain about the noise of the trains at night. And as the IRFU s Council Colm Allen pointed out in court last Wednesday, Landsdowne Road has been used for non-sporting events as far back as a 1924 military exhibition. Besides, the Bath Avenue and District Residents Association are delighted that the concerts are going ahead because they ll provide temporary employment for an estimated 800 people, many of them local.
Over the past week all sorts of people have been coming out of the woodwork to claim that they are representing the residents, commented Mrs Anne Keating of the association, but we are the only body recognised to do that.
The judicial review proceedings which will deal with the future of events at Lansdowne Road are listed for the Autumn. In the meantime, legislation is clearly required to ensure that football grounds can be used for entertainment purposes without time and money-wasting court proceedings. What is needed is new legislation to introduce a proper licensing system so that we don t have this farcical situation with people wandering in and out of the High Courts in the future, Lord Henry Mountcharles proclaimed after the judgement last Friday.
Until that legislation is in place, Ireland isn t safe for rock n roll.n
See also Message, page 5