Saoirse Ronan gets green light for family home in west Cork on second attempt

Gordon Deegan

Irish Hollywood star Saoirse Ronan has secured the planning green light on the second attempt for "a long term home for a young and growing family” near the village of Ballydehob in west Cork.

This follows Cork County Council granting planning permission to Ronan’s Slaney Productions UC to demolish her existing 125 sq metre two-storey dwelling on site at Foilnamuck, Ballydehob, County Cork and replace it with a "high quality" single-storey 320 sq metre farmhouse-style home.

Star of Brooklyn and Little Women, Ronan purchased the coastal property 3km from Ballydehob for €650,000 in 2020.

The planning permission comes almost 18 months after the council in October 2024 refused planning permission for a separate application, concluding that the proposal would not fit appropriately into the rural coastal and high-value landscape and would seriously detract from the visual amenities of the area.

Ronan’s Slaney Productions UC did not appeal the decision to An Coimiúsiun Pleanala and instead lodged revised house plans with the Council in December.

A report by Clancy Moore Architects, lodged with the application, stated that its brief from its client was for “a dwelling designed in sympathy with the surrounding landscape which could act as a long term home for a young and growing family”.

In July 2024, the second youngest four-time Oscar-nominated actor in movie history, Ronan married her long-time partner and star of Apple TV’s Slow Horses, Jack Lowden.

The couple last year became parents with the birth of their first child.

Ahead of revised plans lodged in December for the 2.6 acre site, a council planner’s report records that the architect for the home, Andrew Clancy at a pre-planning meeting with the council last August stated that “it was not intention for the new dwelling to be used as a second holiday home and stated that the applicant ‘has to live somewhere.’”

Advancing the case for the demolition of the existing home, which was only built in the 1990s, a Clancy Moore report states that the dwelling “is fundamentally unsuitable for continued use due to multiple critical deficiencies”.

The report states that the house fails to meet current building regulations regarding ventilation, fire safety, escape routes, and accessibility, while floor-to-ceiling heights are insufficient for habitable spaces.

The council granted planning permission after Ronan and her design team relocated the planned home to a lower site on the sloping field and moved it closer to the site of the existing home, reducing its visual impact.

Attaching 15 conditions to the permission, the council concluded that the scheme "would not seriously injure the amenities of the area".

Clancy Moore reduced the size of the home to 320 sq metres "to further minimise both the visual and environmental impact" of the revised proposal.

Clancy Moore stated that the house “is designed to blend harmoniously with the landscape, matching the height and form of surrounding buildings while retaining its own distinct character.”

A 15-page planning report lodged with the application, planning consultants, McCutcheon Halley stated that “the proposed house has been designed to meet our clients’ unique requirements and aspirations whilst keeping proportions limited to a traditional rural building”

The report states that the proposed living space at the home has been around a central courtyard “and the overall design approach is akin to a collection of rural buildings found in a traditional farmyard”.

The family living spaces consist of three bedrooms and an open space living area, which extends to the covered terrace.

The home includes an office and library space, which, the report states, facilitates separation of workspaces from family life.

The report states that the result “will be a dwelling that provides a modern living space in an unimposing structure”.

The McCutcheon Halley report states that the proposed development “will provide a high-quality, energy-efficient home on the site that will integrate into the surrounding landscape”.

The Council planner’s report concluded that the justification for the demolition of the dwelling is accepted.

The planner’s report stated that the other fundamental change from the turned down proposal is that the proposed home “is no longer to be sited in the open sloping green field with a tiny exception of the proposed structure”.