Dumb Riffs » recession

Open space: walking the boundaries of Tallaght

Karl Whitney — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 09:33:41 +0000

My essay about a walk I undertook around Tallaght last November is online at Some Blind Alleys.

This is how it begins:

‘On a frosty morning at the end of last November, I set out from my parents’ house to walk around the edges of Tallaght: it was the day the government was due to announce cuts ahead of yet another emergency budget, but I wasn’t much in the mood to pay attention to the news. The idea was to try to stitch together my memories of the places I knew with less familiar areas. I also wanted to see if this far-flung zone was still traversable by foot – seeing it by car would not suffice, and anyway I can’t drive.’

Continue Reading here.

Keep it concrete

Karl Whitney — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:42:50 +0000

I’m currently sitting on a sofa in an apartment in the Clongriffin development, to the far north of Dublin city (the dividing line between Dublin City and Fingal County is almost literally visible from the front windows of the apartment, across a vast expanse of scrubland that had been marked for development, but is now, quite excitingly, being reclaimed by nature as wetlands, the area’s natural state).

This zone has, to some commentators, become shorthand for the mistakes of property developers right at the end of the boom. And, in many ways, it is something of a wasteland (the half-built main street, is one notable example). However, in terms of transportation links to the city and beyond, Clongriffin is excellent. Recently, a DART station opened (see facile broadsheet colour piece here) at the east end of the development, and this serves commuters to the city well. A bus service, the 128, which runs through the city, terminating at Rathmines, runs every ten minutes during peak hours, and last night, when I jumped on one in Rathmines, the next bus was due only 20 minutes later.

The 128 bus

In addition, there are many good things about the place: the large park, located fairly centrally in the development, that locals run and cycle around; the decent positioning of the apartments in relation to the street, which resembles a small boulevard, or narrow dual carriageway. There’s no doubt that many residents like it here.

However, because of the comparatively low density, shops in the development are few and far between: there’s a small Centra shop, an off licence, and a chemists. Numerous commercial units stand unoccupied along street-level, and a large building near the DART station, which was to have been occupied by Superquinn, remains spookily empty. At night, no lights shine from within the building, and the image is disarming.

A view of the wasteland wetlands, with the Superquinn building beyond

On the edges of your town: Looming Hulks of Gothic Horror

Karl Whitney — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:10:38 +0000

An article I wrote for the Guardian about Bram Stoker’s missing plaque and Ireland’s baroque property disaster here.

Karl Whitney — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:57:45 +0000

Things have been, and continue to be, quite hectic as I work on the final stages of my PhD.
In the meantime, post Lisbon Treaty, have a look at how the Irish are being portrayed in a cartoon by Jeff Danziger, with commentary from Laura, here.

Karl Whitney — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:36:33 +0000

Seen in Naul, Co. Dublin last weekend.