Devondale has applied for planning permission to develop their 3.53 acre site on Clonskeagh's Bird Avenue beside the Marist Fathers' lands. The company is owned by four members of the Foxrock-based Durkan family, including Brian and Anthony Durkan.

The application represents a major change in direction in comparison with the company’s 2007 attempt to secure planning for 150 units, comprising 134 apartments in two six-storey blocks and several houses.

Eight years later, the developers are concentrating on family homes and applying for permission to construct 54 units – a move likely to be welcomed by house-hunters.

The proposal includes six detached, 18 semi-detached and six terraced houses in addition to 12 townhouses and 12 own-door apartments below them.

Also in Dublin 14, another Durkan is planning a large development on the Goatstown Road. Irish-linked British housebuilder Durkan Holdings is entering the Irish market with its subsidiary, Durkan Estates Clonskeagh, applying to amend planning permission previously secured in 2011 for of a 2.3 acre site adjacent to Our Lady’s Grove School.

A three-man consortium including developer David Arnold obtained planning permission in 2007 for 109 apartments and a convent on the site, including underground parking.

This was later scaled back in 2011 to 40 units when a fresh planning application was submitted, and construction of the convent went ahead as planned. However after the economy collapsed, the residential scheme couldn’t be developed, and the order of nuns who owned the land placed it on the market in 2013.

Bids of well over €3.5 million were received from two parties, with Durkan Estates securing the site.

The company is now seeking to amend the planning permission again to provide a further eight units, bringing the total to 48.