Our friend and colleague, Eamonn Prenter, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, 7th April after spending the weekend engaged with two of his greatest loves – his children and a major sporting event. No appreciation of Eamonn is complete without an understanding of his  three main passions - sport, planning and his family.  

Eamonn was born in Belfast in September 1964. Attending St. Malachy’s College in North Belfast for secondary school, he quickly became well known in Gaelic football circles, playing with his local club Naomh Éanna, winning both Gaelic and Hurling County finals in 1980 and 1984. He also played at County level for Antrim and represented the University of Ulster and Queens in the Sigerson Cup. Even while playing in London and later coaching in Dublin, he remained deeply committed to his native county, serving as a founding member of Club Aontroma in 2006 and helping to develop the game locally.

Eamonn had an infectious passion for his profession, graduating with an MSc in Planning from Queen’s University in 1992. Like many of his peers, he moved to London where he worked initially as a Planning Assistant with Healy and Baker before joining Cunnane Town Planning, where he honed his planning skills over several years with the late Joe Cunnane, a successful Irish born planner based in London and Manchester. In 1995, he and Joe, together with colleague and former Directors Finbar Barry, John Blackwell, Ian Phillips, Christopher Stratton and Sarah Reynolds, founded Cunnane Stratton Reynolds, a multi-disciplinary town planning and landscape architecture practice. Offices were initially based in Dublin and later expanded to Cork and Galway.

CSR celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025, and Eamonn has been at the forefront of the planning service and the management team since the very beginning. He has been greatly liked, respected and valued by colleagues and clients, all of whom spoke warmly of his generosity, his approachable and engaging nature and his wise mentoring and advice.

As well as the mainstream aspects of Development Management - Housing, Retail, Environmental Assessment, Infrastructure, Public Realm, Framework Plans, Local Area Plans/Masterplans -  Eamonn was at his most content when he could merge his two passions of sport and planning and in this regard, he left an indelible legacy in the advancement of sports and recreation projects throughout the Country.

He led major strategic recreation needs studies for Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick and Galway. He was engaged with the National Sports Campus at Abbottstown over several generations of projects and masterplan updates and led successful planning submissions for the National Indoor Arena, the National Cross Country Route, the National Equestrian Centre, the National Velodrome and, most recently, the National Cricket Centre.  He represented GAA HQ in advocating that robust sports and recreation policies were enshrined in County and City Development Plans.

He steered the Dublin Mountains Visitor Centre through a challenging planning process with works now on site to bring enhanced amenities and facilities to Hellfire Wood and Massy’s Wood in Dublin. He supported the planning and successful redevelopment of the Curragh racecourse. These are all world class facilities for a new 21st century Ireland. However, Eamonn also loved the local project and engaging in consultation with communities, initiatives and representatives, where his easy charm hid his meticulous preparation and ability to engage thoughtfully with opposing views. He delighted in championing the Dunsilly Centre of Excellence for his native County Antrim and the redevelopment of Casement Park in Belfast, as well as a range of planning studies to guide GAA development policy, nationally and regionally, and also in London.

He continued to represent clients in England and enjoyed local planning committees and planning negotiations, including the redevelopment of the historic Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar, Gosport, a Grade II listed complex of over 75 acres, dating back to 1753. Recently, he enjoyed engaging with local elected representatives in Castleblayney, County Monaghan around a masterplan for Hope Castle & Lough Muckno, where his mother’s family hail from.

Eamonn’s most enduring passion was for his family.  He was married in 2004, and he and Ailsa subsequently had 4 children – Grace, Isabelle, Alexandra and Nicholas. He was extremely devoted to his family, instilling a love of sport in all his children, and took immense pride in his eldest daughter Grace, as she embarked on a College Basketball career in the US. We offer our sympathies to them all and remember his siblings Kieran, Brendan, Fergal, Sinead and Meave, and his mother Margaret.

He was part of our family too at CSR and our office is a lesser place without him.  He is sadly missed by all colleagues at CSR, both past and present.

His was a well-lived and meaningful life cut short far too early.

The following poem by Patrick Kavanagh seems an appropriate epitaph for a generous planning professional who made a difference.

     Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin

     O commemorate me where there is water,

     Canal water, preferably, so stilly

     Greeny at the heart of summer. Brother

     Commemorate me thus beautifully

     Where by a lock Niagarously roars

     The falls for those who sit in the tremendous silence

     Of mid-July.  No one will speak in prose

     Who finds his way to these Parnassian islands.

     A swan goes by head low with many apologies,

     Fantastic light looks through the eyes of bridges -

     And look! a barge comes bringing from Athy

     And other far-flung towns mythologies.

     O commemorate me with no hero-courageous

     Tomb - just a canal-bank seat for the passer-by.

‍For details of funeral arrangements or to leave a condolence, follow link: https://rip.ie/death-notice/eamonn-prenter-dublin-627200‍