“You’ve seen our work, even if you didn’t realise it.”
At the start of a recent call I joked, it’s not about putting the fence in straight – it’s about putting it in right. Sometimes that means a curve, sometimes colour, sometimes a mesh panel that disappears into the background. The detail depends on the place.
And that’s the story of fencing the public realm in Ireland. For decades, we’ve been shaping how schools, parks, and housing schemes work – often unnoticed, until something goes wrong. From the panic over vandalism in the 70s, to planners objecting to palisade, to today’s safe play areas and community courts, the role of fencing has evolved with public need.
This month, we look at three examples – a school play garden, a green in Jobstown, and a new calisthenics park – that show how the right fence can quietly change the way people live in a space.
Schools: from panic to planning
The challenge: when schools ring, it’s rarely about looks. It’s because they’ve got a problem. Sometimes it’s traffic at the gates. Sometimes it’s anti-social behaviour. Sometimes it’s a safeguarding issue.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, the problem was vandalism.
“They wanted razor wire. They wanted everything we could give them. And it worked. It stopped the vandalism.” – Terry Hobdell, Founder
But you couldn’t keep building Fort Knox around every school in Ireland. Planners pushed back, and rightly so. Palisade might have been effective, but it looked oppressive. So we moved towards railings and mesh – still secure, but easier on the eye.
The focus also shifted. Schools realised fencing wasn’t just about keeping trouble out – it was about keeping pupils safe inside. “They recognised they couldn’t have kids roaming around the schools both from a health and safety point of view and from the risk factor.”
Over time, the requirements became more sophisticated:
- Access control: knowing who’s coming in and out, and being able to close gates during the day.
- Play areas: designated spaces where younger children can play safely. “You couldn’t let them wander off.”
- Fairness: facilities like basketball courts and tennis courts, once reserved for “posh schools”, are now expected everywhere.
Today, no school is built without a fence. And nine times out of ten, it’s a mesh system – robust enough for safety, but not so heavy-handed that it looks like a prison.
Project 1: Safer play at school
The challenge: younger children need supervised play spaces that are secure but not oppressive. Parents and principals need peace of mind. Departments need whole-life value before they’ll sign off a grant.
The solution: brightly coloured bow-top railings around a primary school play garden. “It’s brightly coloured, very effective, and yet very secure.”
The outcome: a safe, welcoming green space where children can play freely without risk of running into traffic. As we put it, “It’s a nice green place where they can spread out their toys.” The design balances safeguarding, aesthetics, and long-term value.
Parks and housing schemes: flow, not walls
The challenge: local authorities don’t just want barriers – they want behaviour change. Parks suffer from scramblers, quads, and even ponies. Residents want safety without losing access. Councils want solutions that don’t cost a fortune to maintain.
The solution: smarter layouts instead of higher walls.
- Kissing gates & motorcycle inhibitors: “A mother with a pram can get through… somebody walking with a bicycle can get through… but you won’t get a scrambler. You won’t get a pony.”
- Anti-vandal hardware: “You can’t bolt into tarmac. It’s not effective.” On our palisade, we use anti-vandal nuts: “Once you tighten it to full tightness, it breaks so you only have the rounded head. You can’t get a spanner on it again.”
- Graffiti resistance: not a major problem on open forms. “It’s hard to put graffiti on a thing which is full of holes. Walls are what they go for.”
Maintenance & access: plan the gate logic early
It’s common for a project to reach late stage before anyone asks who actually locks and unlocks, what happens out-of-hours, and what needs to move through the gate. We tackle that up front:
Who manages access? Agree lock/unlock responsibility and out-of-hours protocols.
- What’s moving through? Size gates to real machinery – mowers, sweepers, tractors, litter vehicles – not just people.
- Automated or manual? Automated gates can open/close on schedules or via remote/mobile. If automation is chosen, integrate with existing access control (card/fob readers, keypads, intercoms).
- Manual done right: standardise padlocks across sites; we’ll design the keeps to suit your chosen lock. Add self-closing with automatic locking where needed.
- “Ten minutes thinking about usage, convenience and compatibility of the gates will be well worthwhile.”
Build that thinking into drawings now, and maintenance teams won’t be fighting the hardware later.
Project 2: A green transformed in Jobstown
The challenge: a housing green with nothing in it. No focal point, no safe recreation space, and the risk of anti-social behaviour taking root. The council needed a durable, cost-effective amenity that would improve quality of life without creating ongoing maintenance headaches.
The solution: a basketball court right in the middle of the green. Before, it was just grass. Now it’s full of life. “There was nothing there on that green and then you put in the basketball court and it’s been used by everyone there now.” We managed the whole job: excavation, formation, surfacing, fencing, even benches. “We did the surface. We did the excavation… we did everything with it.”
The outcome: a safer, more active park that serves every age group. “It improves the quality of life all around.” And for the local authority, it’s an amenity that reduces pressure elsewhere – they don’t need to build gyms into the adjacent apartments because the park already provides one.
Project 3: New calisthenics facilities
The challenge: how do you add meaningful recreation space for older residents and young adults, without loading the budget with new maintenance costs?
The solution: a new calisthenics park, delivered end-to-end – groundworks, surfacing, fencing, certified engineering bark to the required depth, seeding, benches, and installation of the equipment itself.
The outcome: a public fitness space that broadens amenity for the whole community. “It might attract an older cohort, a different cohort into the park… it improves the quality of life all around.” For councils, this is double value: a healthier community, and less demand for indoor gyms in nearby developments.
What buyers really ask
Schools: “When a school calls, it’s dealing with a problem… access control or anti-social behaviour.”
Local authorities: whole-life cost, maintenance, and balancing safety with amenity.
The detail changes, but the principle stays the same: make the place work. “Adding more steel isn’t the only answer. Logical engineering is.”
Closing thought
From vandalism panics in the 70s, to planners insisting on better aesthetics, to today’s mesh railings, play gardens, basketball courts and calisthenics zones – fencing has quietly shaped how Ireland’s public spaces work.
You don’t always notice the fence. That’s the point. When it’s put in right, the space feels safe, open, and looked after. And that’s what civic infrastructure is really about.