The original application describes Cobh’s Liberty Casino as a ‘similar use site’
18:28, 06 Dec 2025Updated 18:45, 06 Dec 2025
Slot machines (stock)(Image: Getty)
A casino company has been granted planning permission to construct a new “gaming/amusement arcade” in East Cork.
Applicant Wonderboy Amusements Ltd – which shares owners with Coalquay Leisure Limited, who operate a number of casinos in the city centre – is looking to build a four-storey development on West Beach and Rahilly Street at Kilgarvan, Cobh. The location would include a gaming/amusement arcade on the ground floor, two 1-bed apartments on the first floor and two 2-bed duplex apartments on the second and third floor levels.
In the original planning application, the local Liberty Casino is described as a premises with a ‘similar use site’ to the proposed arcade. It further references the Council’s County Development Plan, which they say “notes the importance of the role of recreation and leisure and in particular the night time economy in the evolution of town centres as the retail base contracts.”
The area of the planned development
The application also states: “The use of the upper floors for apartments will contribute to alleviating the shortage of residential apartments in Cobh. With just one existing similar use in the town centre, it is considered that the proposed development will not result in the proliferation of such use.”
Access to the arcade would be provided via an entrance on West Beach, while access to the apartments in the upper floors would be through a separate entrance onto Rahilly Street. Planning application was granted by Cork County Council, subject to 18 conditions.
Coalquay Leisure Limited also received planning permission for what it described as a ‘gaming/amusement arcade’ in Ballincollig in October.
The development was initially refused by the council after close to fifty objections were made against it, but that decision has since been overturned on appeal. The Coimisiún’s decision has sparked outrage among locals, with more than 2,000 people signing a petition opposing plans to date.
A protest was held in the suburb about the development last month.