Save Bray Community Group

Ceol agus Craic agus Cúpla Rince - what more could you want on a dark November evening?! Join SaveBray's fun-raising fund-raiser in the Royal Hotel on Saturday, 14th November, from 7-11pm. Whether you have cúpla focail or fluent Irish, beidh fáilte romhaibh! Admission €15. Ticéidí available from our staunch cairde in Bray Footwear, Main Street, and at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ceol-craic-agus-cupla-rince-tickets-2003071883926
Sábháil Brí Chualann!

The mills of God grind slowly, but they can seem like greyhounds compared to our justice system. We learned on Monday that the final judgement on our current case (Ballymore’s Phase 1b) - we in our innocence were expecting it that day - will not be published for some weeks yet. Instead, “the court will be issuing a second draft judgement in the coming weeks”, we are told, and: “Once a second draft judgement is issued, the court will list this matter again for mention”.

So we now find ourselves waiting for the final result of one court case, while we prepare for another to challenge An Coimisiun Pleanala’s recent upholding of Wicklow’s grant of permission for Ballymore’s Phase 2.

But we'll use the time to prepare well...

Today we received notice that An Coimisiún Pleanála has decided to grant permission to Ballymore for Phase 2 of their planned development on the former Bray Golf Club lands, despite over 50 objections to Wicklow Co Co, and at least objections to ACP, plus several councillors.

Today we requested the complete file on this case from An Comisiún for our solicitors as the first step in our next court battle against that decision. We won our first case against the Board regarding an Environmental Impact Assessment for the bridge. We are awaiting a final Judgement this Monday on our Judicial Review of their decision to grant permission for Phase 1a of Ballymore's development: we will post that decision as soon as it is published next week. Meanwhile, we begin again...

Because we will never stop until our floodplain is safe from greedy development that puts lives and homes at risk. Ballymore has money. Wicklow's officials - but not their councillors - have immunity. We have courage and determination, and every case we win against An Coimisiún Pleanála's decisions in favour of building on a floodplain will help to bankroll our next case, alongside our fund-raising.

So watch this space...

We are looking for photos of the old golf course before the developers moved in and destroyed the lower land, below the old schools' road - like this one, taken from the railway end where the furze bushes were full of a huge variety of birds.
The golf club left in 2003 and the land wasn't disturbed below that road until late 2022. If you have any, we'd be very grateful if you'd allow us to use them 🙏 You can either email them in JPG or GIF format (up to 2 MB) to us at [email protected] or dm them to us.
Thank you!

Disaster doesn't end when the cameras leave the scene...
While we were all enjoying a glorious summer here, we were - at the same time - very conscious of the suffering going on in other parts of the world, including Nepal. https://www.redcross.ie/latest-appeals/nepal-appeal/
We were deeply shocked by this tragedy and offer our deepest condolences to all those who were affected, and are still being affected, by this terrible disaster. It didn't end when the cameras left the scene...

We all sit up a little straighter. We all hold our heads a little higher. She has made us proud, over and over again. Good luck to Katie Taylor tonight, Ireland's champion and especially Bray's. No matter what the result, you will always be our Champ. Go proudly and safely, Katie, and may you be as happy tonight as you were in this golden, well-earned moment...

40 years ago tonight, the lowlands of Little Bray, next to the Dargle River, were devastated by flooding for the fourth time in the 20th century. Terror reigned as flash flooding tore down the Lower Dargle, Greenpark Road, & all the little streets in between, especially where the most vulnerable - the old, the very young, and the disabled - lived, mostly in one storey houses. Alongside the terror, courage reigned, as neighbours fought to save neighbours, fishermen brought their boats from the flooded harbour to even greater danger, and Civil Defence, Red Cross, Fire Brigade, and Council workers performed acts of heroism for their endangered townspeople. Tonight we remember all of them, and how that night ended - when the gate into the side entrance of the old Bray Golf Club lands was broken down, releasing the flood waters from our homes onto its floodplain, so that the floods began to recede from our homes almost an hour before the dreaded high tide. How many lives were saved by that simple act - and what will happen in future floods in this era of increased fire & flood if, next time, there is no floodplain to take those waters? In 'Never Again? Stories from the Floods of Little Bray', produced by SaveBray for Christmas 2022, that history is remembered. Let's learn from it... 'Never Again?' is still available on Amazon at

Never Again? Stories from the Floods of Little Bray Flooding is life changing - for people, their homes and their land. Little Bray, a tight-knit community on the East Coast of Ireland, learned this the hard way… In local and family history comes alive through first-hand recollections - by families and rescuers - of the most recent Dargle v...

Atmospheric shot from our incomparable Anne Marie Byrne.