City of the Sacred Heart

Instinct would tell you that it is pointless to build an artificial city in a place that everyone appears to want to leave – unless you can channel all your inward investment factories like Dell computers, etc, there, so providing real employment.

Even that might not be enough. In the UK, the reasonable success of Milton Keynes is due to the fact that it is on existing fast rail and road links between London and Birmingham, and soaked up the overspill populations from both cities. Far from being in the back of beyond, it was planned to be right in the centre of things.

Even Telford new town in Shropshire – pretty remote by English standards – rose from the remains of the area’s once-great iron and coal industries. Which makes you think: cities are where they are because there is some existing reason for them to develop. If there is no existing demand, it’s hopeless.

Unless yours is to be a new administrative capital like Canberra or Brasilia, this one is surely a non-starter. Great publicity scam by the architect, however.

Um, surely pilgrims aren’t meant to live at the holy place? Isn’t the point of being a pilgrim that you have to travel to get there?
You’ll be telling me next that hermits all want to live together.

as a south african irishman lookin in i found this ‘sacred heart’ city very interesting!
the name has to go, but the idea is interesting. reader comment on building a city where no demand appears to exist is valid… brasilia is an excellent example of huge expense with shockingly awfull results… surely a lot of credible research is required… before any further consideration is given.
it may be far more logical to concentrate on improving existing towns/cities. the english model of row houses interspersed with ‘affordable’ tower housing complexes seems not only wastefull space wise but negative experientially. the dutch seem to have the edge on good urban models.

would the private and public homes in sacred heart city all have chapel rooms/ prayer spaces? If this is true, the idea should be forgotten about quickly, and if it is not true, it should still be forgotten about too.

prayer spaces in every new house!!! i.e. catholicism infiltrates planning now. as if their wasn’t enough corruption. “Sacred Heart City” scares me because a bishop backed it……suddenly it must be a good idea.. ..genuflect please. Ireland’s Salt Lake City. NO THANKS

Never mind prayer spaces, what about a city properly designed from scratch for people working from home? Now that would be an idea worth pursuing. Not just talking about the home office here, but also the necessary social spaces: it gets lonely stuck in your cell all day.

Lobb, how else would they be anything other than Catholic oriented, it is “Sacred heart City”, backed by a Bishop, in the W of Ireland. A room not dependent on money- making… an extra bedroom, a lounge, sitting room,kitchen,store room, whatever. One can pray anywhere. People should determine how their homes develop and are experienced, not vice-versa

……..come to think of it maybe it would be a good idea, because we could move all those morons and gombeens who happened to experience the ‘moving statue phenomenon’ in the eighties into the place and build a wall around it. Then they could celebrate their ‘perpetual mother of sorrows’ and ‘miraculous medals’ all they like. Cheers!

the thought of a ‘sacred heart city’ in the middle of mayo makes me want to …

[This message has been edited by mht (edited 09 September 2000).]

This proposal seems like a very, very badly misconceived idea.
It takes hundreds of years for a city to develop properly, you can’t just build one overnight in any old place.

The experience of Britain is that their ‘new towns’are very sterile and boring places (i have heard the same said about Canberra).

In Britain they have a very large population that can make (strategicly placed!) ‘new towns’ viable. Many of them have become expanded commuter areas.
We are only flatering ourselves if we think we have a ‘big’ population.

At the most, the ‘City of the Sacred Heart’ could only hope to become an expanded residential area. That will mean lots of commuters traveling by car to Sligo and Galway city etc. What would that mean for the governments’ sustainable development strategies (1997)?

It would be very hard to make this ‘city’ self-sufficient – look at Shannon Airport and the ‘Shannon Free Enterprise Zone'(?). At least there they had a magnet (the airport) but it hasn’t exactly been a roaring success has it?

The way the development of the built environment continues apace in Ireland today, i think the ‘city’ has no chance of developing EVER , (never mind the somewhat idillic pictures shown on their website).

Why not try to develop Galway and Sligo etc. in the best possible way and, make the rail links to the East coast very good as opposed to the mediocre efforts so far, (and planned for future).

Build on what we have today. People AND buisness prefer to move to established areas.
For example, today international investors look for ‘quality of life’ features of cities/areas for possible investment and are far less interested in financial incentives popular in the past. What will a half – arsed new town.. Sorry, ‘city’ have to offer in the way of culture, education, entertainment etc.???