Background and History
John Heagney (Senior Architect,Dublin Corporation), Mary Whelan (Chairperson, Ballymun Housing Task Force, Brendan Bent (Chairperson, Ballymun Community Coalition) and Valerie Langstone (Community Delegate to the Task Force) at the launch of the proposals for the refurbishment of Balbutcher Lane (eight-storey flats)and Joseph Plunkett Tower.
In the mid 1960s,a "solution" to the serious housing shortage in Dublin was agreed by government and the local authority (Dublin Corporation). It involved building a "new town" called Ballymun on the northern outskirts of the city. However,many of the promised social facilities were never built and the decline of the national economy at the time reinforced these deficiencies so that the area entered into a cycle of decline which was not reversed until recently.
Ballymuns greatest strength lay in its vibrant campaigning, voluntary and community sectors. In particular the Ballymun Community Coalition led the way in establishing the Ballymun Housing Task Force in 1987 and the Ballymun Job Centre both of which campaigned vigorously for greater public and private sector investment.
The Ballymun Housing Task Force was established in a housing context(20,000 pop) where one in ten flats were vacant and vandalised and one third of the lifts in the flats were out of order at any one time.There was also a huge turnover of tenants from the flats and this resulted in a significant change in the social mix in the area.For example,in 1985,455 of all lone parents housed by Dublin Corporation were allocated homes in Ballymun.In 1986,59% of all single people(many of whom were men who had recently been moved from institutional to "community care") and 28% of all homeless families were housed in Ballymun. Yet the area accounted for just 10% of the Corporations total housing stock. Many of these people were unemployed and living on low incomes.
In 1988, the Task Force persuaded the local authority to implement its plan for a pilot refurbishment of 282 flats in three blocks.The evaluation of this work by Craig Gardiner/Price Waterhouse led in turn to a decision by government to regenerate the entire area. It was this committment that provided the basis for the current regeneration programme which was announced in 1996 by the then Minister for the Environment, Mr. Brendan Howlin TD.
This page was updated on 20th July, 2006