Proposed Development of Deepwater
Port at Bremore, N. Co. Dublin
The proposal to build a new port straddling the Fingal and Meath border is likely to be the most controversial to affect an Irish heritage site since the M3 motorway near the hill of Tara in the early 2000s.
Not only is the proposed site, on the Delvin River, a magnificent landscape woven with legend and ancient places of importance but it also boasts an unspoilt stretch of beach, clear waters and is home to varied species of wildlife. The passage tombs which are threatened by the development are thought to be the origins of the whole Irish passage grave culture.
For many years the Drogheda Port Company has been seeking to build a deep water port competing with Dublin Port. Already the Bremore Port Company (a joint venture between Drogheda Port and Treasury holdings) is behaving as if legal consent for the port is a given thing. Decisions have already been made as to the new ports operator - Hong Kong-based multinational Wampura, and Drogheda Port is attempting to extend its jurisdiction in order to use compulsory purchase orders and is seeking fast track planning permission through the Strategic Infrastructure Act.
The new port would be a 24 hour floodlit operation including road and rail access, container storage and huge numbers of lorry movements, that would irrevocably change the character of the this undeveloped section of the east coast. There are also wider global impacts on green house gas emissions and resource consumption. Tonnage of imports has doubled over the last 20 years and the future success of this port is predicated on a further doubling within the next 20. The emissions from global shipping is comparable to aviation, but both escaped inclusion in the Kyoto Protocol. Reduction of these emissions is essential rather than the increase needed to make this port economic.
This port would also increase Ireland’s capacity to soak up global resources particularly cheap, plastic consumer goods as well as steel and other heavy goods manufactured in energy intensive plants in China.
The development of a new deepwater port at Bremore in North County Dublin was facilitated by the Harbours Act of 2009. This joint venture between Drogheda Port Company and Castle Market Holdings could only be advanced by an extension of the boundaries of the former body. Their application to do so is currently being considered by the Department of Transport.
The Bremore promontory is host to a significant archaeological landscape and a spectacular inventory of natural and protected species as can be seen in the diagram below. The adjoining area of Gormanston is not only a Special Protection Area (SPA) but also contains the remains of a Passage Grave cemetery that can only be intrinsically connected to the P.G. cemetery located on the Bremore Peninsula.
You can also see a 'photo-montage' of the proposed new port, which shows how this will be built on top of these historic sites.
There is no justification for this proposed development, especially in the current economic climate when trade at Drogheda, and Dublin Port, has fallen dramatically.
See how the proposed port is to be built over these historic sites.
In the photos below, the rocks on the beach are remains of neolithic tombs swept away by coastal erosion.
The mounds above the shoreline at Bremore are smaller scale Newgrange type passage graves.
