Cork city councillor says Good Shepherd site must be more secure

A CORK city councillor has called on the owners of a derelict northside site to secure the property, following a spate of fires and incidents of trespassing there.

The former Good Shepherd Convent site in Sunday’s Well suffered its fourth blaze in recent years last September, leading at the time to calls that the owners develop the site or else that Cork City Council compulsorily purchase it.

In September 2018, Drogheda-based Moneda Development secured planning permission through An Bord Pleanála with a proposal to build 234 apartments at the site, which has remained derelict since.

Now, following a number of reports of anti-social behaviour on the property, a local councillor has called on the site’s owners to secure it before someone is seriously injured.

Cork city councillor Tony Fitzgerald said he had been contacted recently by a number of local residents complaining about multiple incidents of trespass on the site.

“The owners of Good Shepherd Covent must respond to residents’ concerns about health and safety issues at the site, and trespassing issues which will only increase over the summer months,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“I am calling on the owners to take immediate action, as a lack of security at the site is attracting anti-social behaviour there regularly.”

The Fianna Fáil councillor said the ruined convent is in extremely poor condition and he described as “an accident waiting to happen” reports of young people repeatedly accessing the upper storeys of the western section of the building.

“Gardaí were informed of residents’ concerns at the latest Neighbourhood Watch meeting but the owners need to take responsibility and not use up garda resources as this is a private site,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“I’ve contacted Cork City Council and they have informed me they are dealing with it from a derelict sites perspective.”

Completed in 1881, the site is a former Magdalene Laundry and is also home to Little Nellie of Holy God, a girl who died aged just four in 1908, and who is venerated within the Catholic Church as “the unofficial patron saint of Cork”.

The Echo was unsuccessful in attempts to contact Moneda Development to establish whether the site is monitored by any security firm.