Mayo community petition for judicial review of wind farm decision

A NORTH Mayo community is continuing its fight against a proposed wind farm.

An Coimisiún Pleanála has granted planning permission for the Glenora Wind Farm development on the Céide coastline, comprising 22 turbines.

Now, Save the Ceide Fields Community & Boglands community group is petitioning councillors, TDs and NGOs to request a judicial review of that decision.

In their petition, Save the Ceide Fields Community & Boglands set out how the fight unfolding in Glenora begins in a landscape shaped by millennia.

On Ireland’s northwestern edge, where the Atlantic crashes against cliffs 'older than the pyramids', boasting the world’s oldest known field system in the Céide Fields, a rural community finds itself confronting a decision that feels less like planning policy and more like an intrusion into the heart of their home.

They are not resisting climate action, nor opposing renewable energy. Instead, they are resisting a development they believe threatens their land, their heritage, and their health.

The proposed Glenora Wind Farm, approved by An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP), would install 180-metre turbines across blanket bog and archaeological terrain near the Céide Fields. For locals, the approval has drawn a line through a landscape they consider fragile, irreplaceable, and deeply intertwined with their identity.

The community group Save the Céide Fields’ Community & Boglands is now petitioning councillors, TDs and NGOs to request a judicial review - one of the few legal avenues available, though financially out of reach for most rural residents.

The door is technically open, but practically locked, they say.

Their concerns begin with the land itself. The Glenora site sits on blanket bog, one of Europe’s most delicate ecosystems. The community argues that ACP 'completely misconstrues how the drying out of peat under conifer trees occurs', warning that desiccation increases the risk of bog slides.

Their fears are shaped by memory: the 2003 Derrybrien peat slide, which resulted in Ireland paying €1.245 million to the European Court of Justice for failing to enforce proper environmental laws.

Those who lived through it spoke of the shock. “It was like watching the land breathe and then collapse,” farmer Tom Larkin recalled. “The fish were gone. The water was ruined,” said Mary O’Donnell. Others, like retired forestry worker Seán Fahy, remember warning that 'the bog wasn’t stable enough for that scale of construction'. Teacher Bríd Ní Mháille put it simply: “This landscape is alive… When you interfere with it, it reacts.”

Above the bog lies another treasure: one of Europe’s darkest night skies. Glenora’s sky matches the Mayo Dark Sky Park, and the Céide Fields Centre has hosted international stargazing events. But turbines of 180 metres require red aviation lights.

ACP acknowledges the dark sky will be lost, they say, calling it an acceptable trade off. Locals call it cultural erasure.

“In a flick of a digital pen, this can be completely undermined,” the petition warns. What could have become Ireland’s second Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park may instead become a red-lit industrial skyline.

Noise and infrasound add to the unease. Ireland’s wind farm noise regulations are more than two decades old, and the petition argues they ignore emerging research on low frequency sound studies suggesting sleep disruption, 'seasickness-like symptoms', reduced farm milk production, increased animal mortality, and even higher heart failure rates near expanding wind farms.

The science is contested, but the community’s frustration is clear: Ireland has not funded independent research.

Heritage, too, feels under threat. The turbines overlap with Queen Maeve’s legendary route and the Western Way walking trail. The Céide Fields lie just beyond reach, but locals argue heritage cannot be fenced off.

“Natural beauty and heritage are priceless,” the petition says.

The group's statement added: “For Glenora, the dispute is about more than turbines. It is about who defines climate action, who bears its burdens, and how rural voices are heard.

Considering other forms of renewable energy in Mayo has basically been ignored.

“The bog is still intact. The sky is still dark. But the community knows that could change - and they are determined to be heard.”