SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS claiming that Dublin is going to build “the largest mosque in the world” are based on screenshots of an Albanian article that is more than a decade old.

Although there were plans to build a large mosque in north Dublin, the Albanian article was inaccurate — it was never going to be the largest in the world — and the plans as envisaged never went ahead.

“The largest mosque in the world is being built in Ireland,” reads a screenshot of a headline from the outlet Telegrafi.

“Watch the lefty loonies and the west brit want a be’s celebrate this super duper win for diversity [sic],” reads a 10 February post featuring the screenshot posted into the Facebook group Meath Says No To Open Borders.

“Ireland is lost if this goes ahead. Absolutely disgraceful, and in a Christian country. We used to be land of saints and scollars, now it seems we’re the land of soyboys and commies [sic]”.

There were plans in 2013 to build a large, three-domed mosque complex near Father Collins Park in Clongriffin.

However, a Google Street View image of the area now does not show a three-domed mosque at that location; instead, there is a newly built residential complex there.

Although a mosque is located in the area, this is much smaller than the purpose-built centre that was reported to have received planning permission in 2013.

Plans for the three-domed mosque as envisaged in 2013 Dublin Welfare Society Dublin Welfare Society

The Clongriffin mosque that was built as it appears today (file photo) Google Street View Google Street View

So what happened?

A planning application for the mosque and subsequent decision granting permission, made in 2013, can still be seen on the website of Dublin City Council.

It showed that the mosque itself would have taken up less than a quarter of the complex, with the rest comprising a conference centre, a primary school and a secondary school, a fitness centre, and apartments.

However, planning permission expired on 26 August 2018 and the large, three-domed mosque was never built.

Instead, the site was developed into houses in 2017.

There are still plans to build a smaller community centre: more than €304,000 has been raised on GoFundMe for an acre site in Maynetown, near Clongriffin in north County Dublin.

No planning applications were found for the address on the Dublin City Council website.

Meanwhile, the original headline from 11-year-old Telegrafi article saying that Ireland had plans to build “the largest mosque in the world” was always misleading.

The Imam Reza shrine in Iran is 250 acres, or a million square meters, while the Great Mosque of Mecca has a capacity for 3 million worshippers.

Unsurprisingly, there were never any plans for a mosque in Ireland to exceed either of these in area or capacity.

The existence of a mosque plan was real, but on a six-acre complex and with a top capacity of 3,000, potentially representing the largest mosque in Ireland, rather than the world.

RTÉ reported at the time that the project, which was expected to cost upwards of €40m, was being funded by a United Arab Emirates benefactor.

However, those plans never went ahead.

Update: This article was updated on 21 February to clarify that a mosque does exist on the site in Clongriffin, but that this is not of the same scale as the mosque that was originally given planning permission.

The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.