Mixed reaction to plans for student housing on Magdalene laundry site

There has been a mixed reaction to proposals to develop hundreds of student apartments on the former site of a Magdalene laundry and orphanage on Cork’s northside.

Last week, it emerged that a property development firm was in the final stages of a planning application for permission to build more than 250 units for student accommodation, containing multiple bed spaces, on the eight-acre derelict Good Shepherd Convent site in Sunday’s Well.

If the proposed development receives planning permission, it is understood it would be the largest such single private development of student accommodation in the city, exceeding the capacity of the 623-bed Bottleworks development.

The Good Shepherd site was first bought by UCC in 1995, and has since changed owners multiple times. It has been on Cork City Council’s derelict sites register since 2019, and its owners are listed as Moneda Developments.

In 2017, Moneda secured planning permission with the provision that its proposal for 234 apartments at the site be reduced to 182, but those proposals never progressed, and planning lapsed in December 2023.

Now, another property development firm is understood to be about to submit a planning application for the site under the large-scale residential development process.

News of the proposed development came after the latest suspicious fire to occur on the site. Local residents have repeatedly warned that security on the site needs to be increased lest a tragedy occur.

Tom Coleman, chairman of the Blarney Street and Surrounding Areas Community Association, said previous proposals to develop the site for student accommodation had had been opposed by residents.

“When UCC bought it first day, it was going to be student accommodation and we were totally against that, and the compromise then was that it be residential or social housing, but now we’re back at square one,” he said.

“It is good that something is happening with the site, but there has been no consultation with residents at all.

“The traffic situation in Sunday’s Well and Blarney St is already a bottleneck, and the prospect of construction traffic would only exacerbate that.” Fianna Fáil councillor Tony Fitzgerald said news of a development was positive, and it would be important once a planning application was made that locals have a say in the process.

Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins said he hoped the site's sensitivity as a former Magdalene laundry would be respected in any development.