Ian Guider: Sights could have been set so much higher for the Irish Glass Bottle site

The location close to the city centre could have held a Manhattan-style high-rise quarter

As impressive as the Irish Glass Bottle site looks in its CGI renderings, has an opportunity been missed to transform an unloved part of Dublin into a proper high rise community with a multiple of the housing that is being offered in the current design?

The battle for control of the former Irish Glass Bottle site near Dublin Bay deserves its place in Celtic Tiger history. It was one of a handful of deals driven more by ego and exuberance than rational thinking.

It has been a decade since the land was seized by receivers put in place by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). Finally last month, as this newspaper reported, planners have given its new owners, a consortium backed by Johnny Ronan, permission for the first phase of development to begin.