Locals affected by Ireland’s AI data center boom tell ‘cautionary tales’

On the outskirts of Dublin, dozens of huge data centers hum, consuming more electricity than all the urban homes in Ireland.

Jess Spear lives near Grange Castle in south Dublin, one of the largest data center districts in the country.

Every day she walks past one of the “hyper-scale” facilities on her way to work.

“It looks like a huge prison,” Ms Spear told the ABC.

“It’s incredibly intimidating, with big tall gates behind it and hardly any windows… frankly it blights the landscape.”

Ms Spear, who sits on the local council for the People Before Profit political party, said some residents could hear the constant hum of the facilities at night.

But the data center presence was much more than a “NIMBY” problem (not in my backyard).

“The main thing that upsets the public is that we are subsidizing these giants,” she said.