thomasjstamp

This may become a long post, sorry if it turns out too long. I am from Ballymun as well. I was born there and lived there till 1999 and then moved to Maynooth and now (curses) I am one of those who have erected a one off rural dwelling on a site given to my wife and I by her father, who is, yes, a farmer. I lived in the flats during the 70’s and 80’s and then Poppintree (houses).

Was Ballymun a failure? A a previous post suggested you have to ask what was the objective. I recall that it was an urgent, quick and cheap solution to the problems in the inner city tenanments of the 1960’s. I guess the mohair brigade wanted lots of new space in the city as well so the two co-joined nicely. The Fenian Street disaster was the ultimate catalyst I think. In anyevent, the project from start to finish took only about 5 years helped by the modular construction and an on site fabrication plant. The only problem was that there was no plan at all for what to do with the people when they were out there. CP will remember that there was only the one church untill the late 70’s when two more were built and then a third in 83 and that mass was held in the school halls. The swimming pool was only built because of local pressure and also the Library.

Repairs and maintenance were barely adequate and there were long waiting lists. The public transport system was poor. The 36 36a/b routes operated from Parnell Square and while CP is right about the single deck operation there were plenty of Duoble deckers in the 70’s. When the Bonbardier buses came in all of the routes became single deck. People often walked to Santry or Glasnevin to get a 16 or 19A.

Fire doors and enterence door on the blocks becase vandalised and were simply never repaired and eventually removed. This is a good example of what happened in that things like the playgrounds were removed as the Coproration either did not have the money or the inclination to repair them. I remember as a very young child hearing all the other children playin in the playground when I was in bed trying to sleep during the summer time. 10 years later there was silence because there was no playground to play in.

The green open spaces I perosonaly think were a good idea. There was plenty of places to play football band a few golf balls around and just mess. It was only when the horses came around that it became a disaster.

CP will remember that there was a track worn out on the ground by people walking from the bus stop at the roundabout to the shopping centre as no-one wanted to sue the underpass and the sixty crazy steps. It was muddy and dangerous. It took 15 years for the corporation to actaully put some tarmack on it and turn it into a proper path. This is a good example of who the corporation took no notice at all of this place which they were the landlords of. CP will also remember that there were rose gardens in the middle of the old roundabout. These were also done away with, why? Ask the landlord.

The real main reason why Ballymun went bad was the building of Poppintree and later the Coultree houses. Most of those houses were taken by people in the flats who moved out en masse. Eventually in 1987 we also did likewise. By then, in a 96 flat block only 17 were occupied. My brother and I counted the number of empty flats on Balcurris on day in 1989. There were 80 occupied flats in the entire road of over 500 flats.

A lot is made of the heroin epedemic. It was real but not worse then in other parts of the city. People strung out on heroin were not the reason why there were so many empty flats. The reason was that the go-getters who were the people who led the campaigns for the area all moved on elsewhere. The reason is down to the refusal of the landlord to properly maintain the flats. When I was an apprentice Solicitor I had the joy of seeing a former neighbour in Balcurris taking an action against the landlord due to the damp and mould in the flat whcih was affecting her ashmatic son. My old flat had water appearing in the cormers where the prefabs joined up whenever it rained so it want just basic maintenace it was structural.

An interesting sub note you might all find interesting. The original tenants all had to pass an interview to be placed in the flats. This was never followed up with subsequent tenants and would have prevented the place becoming the dumping ground it became in the 80’s. Also the Mater Hospital set up a Child Psychirtry service as soon as the place was built. Why? To evaluate the effects of high rise living? I dont know. Also, tranquilisers were handed out like smarties in the seventies and I think Tony Gregory has made the connection between this and the drugs explosion in the 80’s. If mammy was possing Roche’s all the time why cant I shoot up sort of thinking.

Anyway,

If Ballymun failed it was due to the landlords neglect. If you accept the theory it was built for a purpose as I stated above then it succeeded in it’s original aim. Care was taken at the start. However, once the people were out there it was neglected. Just to sum up, imagine the money the City Council would have made if they could have carried out the current redevelopment, and sold off the flats without demolising them. Imagine how must a 24 hour centrally heated flat with hot water on demand also 24 hours a day, three bedroom, seperate kitchen and living room, private balcony, only four apartments each floor…………. it could have paid for itself.