The Strand is a small patch located near the Five Lamps in Dublin 1, a place where children and others kick a ball, play or train. Dublin City Council plans to build a 49-unit housing development on it. This part of town like everywhere needs housing. But it also needs amenities.
The campaign to save this small site in Portland Row is illustrative of a problem in the city where what’s needed in one realm is pitched against what communities are trying to hold on to in another. The question for the council and the Government is: why can’t communities have both?
In a tension such as this, housing holds the trump card given the current shortage of homes, but communities should not have to lose a space that matters to them, especially when their amenities are already threadbare.
A similar issue is playing out in the same postcode area at Mountjoy Square.
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The plan to restore the Georgian square to its original circular lawn and footpaths is welcome news to those invested in prioritising Dublin’s heritage, character and architectural integrity. But these plans will also remove a sports area and a community centre.
In previous plans, a playing pitch was proposed. Is a sports pitch the right plan for Mountjoy Square? Perhaps not. But there should still be one in the neighbourhood. Here, the same issue as the Strand is being raised: where will children and young people kick a ball?
While the council has been reported as saying the new housing development would include a multi-use community facility, that is not the same thing.
Surely the solution is simple. Given the dearth of public pitches in the city, any play or sports area that is earmarked for removal during development or restoration of a particular site – no matter how seemingly rudimentary it is – should be replaced in the immediate area before the existing one is removed.
Local heroes such as Kellie Harrington and Troy Parrott are advocating for the retention of the Strand. It’s embarrassing that we are in a situation where a double-gold Olympian , and a man whose five goals in two matches sent the country into raptures, should have to advocate for the retention of a small stretch of tarmac in their community for kids to play on.
This is in a context where €10 million was spent on a hooley for American tourists to enjoy an NFL match in the same area and where Government is spending €58 million of taxpayers’ money for a golf tournament in Limerick.
What about grassroots amenities for people who aren’t just visiting Ireland? What is the legacy benefit to children in Dublin or Limerick from such grand celebrations of sport?
Communities in Dublin 1 have produced some of the greatest talent this country has seen across soccer, GAA, music and other creative endeavours. We all love talking about their Olympic medals and Oscar prospects.
In the aftermath of the 2023 Dublin riots, when the tension was still vibrating through that part of the capital, I recall asking a young man from the area what was it about Dublin 1 that sees so many people excel in music, theatre, on screen, on pitches and in boxing rings.
He spoke about connection to community and said it was because they had to work twice as hard to get anywhere, so of course when they cut through they were more talented on the other side of the graft.
In the same conversation, he spoke about his concern for kids younger than him who were hanging around with nothing to do and getting caught up in the drug trade. These are not bad kids, he said, they’re in a bad system.
That system is not just political, economic or educational. It’s spatial. There are no public pitches in the city centre between the Grand Canal and the North Circular Road. There are just two public swimming pools in the city centre: one on Sean MacDermott Street and, on the south side, at the Markievicz Centre, which is set to be demolished for the Tara Street MetroLink stop.
In a city it is important for play and games areas to be within view of housing where children feel safe and where parents and relatives can throw an eye down from a balcony or front door to see if all is well. This is basic stuff, and every kind of housing in the city – estates, flats, cottages, terraces – needs it.
Across the city, new developments are going up that very obviously do not have the level of amenities that match the level of housing. There may not be a monetary profit for developers in providing them, but there is a profound social profit for us all. We are losing space where that should not just be provided, but also prioritised.
In the 10 “big moves” cited in the Taskforce for Dublin report of October 2024 in the wake of the riots, there is nothing about the lives of children and young people who live in the city.
Unless the powers that be address proposed improvements for the city from a point of values – for example, enhancing the lives of young people so they are happier, safer and healthier by making Dublin a child-friendly and young-people-friendly city – then changes become superficial.
The baseline for improving Dublin city needs to be rooted in improving the lives of working-class communities, both Irish and immigrant, who live in it. If those needs were listened to and met, the entire fabric of the capital would improve.
