The intrusion of flights from Dublin Airport, especially at night, has been undermining quality of life for John Harris, who lives “under the flight path of the south runway”, in the St Margaret’s area of Co Dublin, since 1983.
The days of when “the planes were in the room with you” may be gone, but he knows the obvious health impacts have not gone away. And he fears that many more people living under the north runway flight path may soon have to endure similar disruptions – to sleep, in particular – if an imminent decision from An Coimisiún Pleanála eases night-time restrictions, as sought by Dublin Airport Authority.
Harris’s is “the first house you hit going into the west” taking off from the south runway, which is the route taken by 70 per cent of flights because of prevailing winds.
A 65-flight restriction was put in place between 11pm and 7am, with a limit of 13,000 flights annually, split between 9,100 in summer and 3,900 in winter, but there is a legal stay on this pending the planning authority’s decision.
The bottom line, Harris says, is that there were 95 flights per night in May, concentrated into periods from 6am to 7am and 11pm to midnight. He and his wife Jacinta “do not sleep very deeply”. They invariably go to bed during the day for a few hours. He is conscious of not getting enough REM sleep, which is important to wellbeing.
After retiring in 2014, he did a medical exam in advance of a charity walk, which identified a blood pressure issue peaking in the early evening. “I realised this was because I was turning up the volume on the television to counter airport noise,” he says.
In 2019 Harris was able to enhance double glazing at his home which helped to reduce daytime noise, but night time is different; the couple invariably wake up at about 4.30am coinciding with “US flights coming in”. They both have tinnitus, which may be linked to constant noise intrusions.
Their two grandchildren, aged eight and five, stay with them about once a month. “They are very sensitive to the noise. We know it’s there; it really frightens them, particularly if they’re in the garden,” says Harris.
Harris has been part of the Dublin Airport environmental working group since 2016, so is familiar with the issues.
Medical consultant Dr Niamh Maher has young children and lives under the north runway flight path. She is struck by differences between planning restrictions, supposedly to protect people, and reality.
Having been reassured by Fingal County Council, the family renovated their house on the understanding that planes were never going to fly directly overhead, only to find themselves now in the highest noise category in St Margaret’s, “which is horrific”.
And since the runway opened in 2022, rather that taking a straight path, planes are deviating in the face of westerly winds and turning sharply at low altitudes.
Maher, who is a spokeswoman for St Margaret’s The Ward Residents Group and whose children are aged six, four and one, is worried about adverse effects on her children’s learning and about sleep deprivation, with its knock-on effects.
“With windows open, it feels like you are at the airport. It makes daily life intolerable,” she says.
Her eldest two children attend Kilcoskan National School which is under the “divergent flight path, [so] they’re getting this all the time”.
The children are affected from 7am when the north runway opens until it closes at 11pm, she says. She is worried about two additional hours’ usage if the “relevant action” application by DAA is granted.
“We chose to live in a rural part of Dublin. We’re now blasted out of it with noise, and it has been going on for three years,” she says. She is critical of airport authorites’ attitudes and of inadequate enforcement, adding: “it makes you feel helpless”.
Maher says simplistic “you should move house” suggestions, or dismissal of concerns, along the lines of, “you’re living close to an airport, what do you expect?” miss the point. “I would never have chosen to live under a flight path,” she says.
Maher believes lower-noise aircraft will not solve the issue on its own.
Dublin Airport is the exception in wanting to increase night-time flights when all around Europe there is a massive campaign to reduce them because of risk to public health, she adds. “That is way this is going.”
