February / March 2012
IN YOUR FAVOURITE LOCAL PAPER…
Aisling Keogh writes about voluntary work in India. See page 7
Ringsend Active Retired love a good party. See page 19
Is graffiti art or vandalism, asks Sandy Hazel on page 24
Meet budding cricket bowler Josh Little on page 39
COMMODITY VERSUS COMMUNITY
W
By Joe McKenna hen the Celtic Tiger ran away to lick its wounds, it left behind a very changed society. The thirst for financial clout and the race for elevated social status among regular people caused a mass shift in the way housing was viewed. A house was no longer a home, it was a commodity. Up until late last year, the Gasworks building in Ringsend (right) was reported as being available to buy for €43 million, which equates to a price of €205,000 per apartment. In 2006, the asking price was €750,000, with a parking space coming in at €40,000 extra. Developer Liam Carroll chose to delay launching the apartments in the belief that rising property costs would work in his favour. His judgement turned out to be flawed. Average rent for a two bedroom apartment is now reported to be €1,300 per month. During the boom, rather than value the roof over their head for the shelter it offered, the vast majority of people became enthralled by the breathless chase for that apartment or house which would rise in value and line their pockets as they parked their Maserati on Easy Street. “Buy a property wherever you can,” was the advice from many, and if aliens had landed they surely would have come to the conclusion that bricks and mortar were worth more than gold. When large complexes started springing up all across the country and people camped out in hope of securing a unit, it was not for the need of housing. In most cases it was the want for a foothold in the race to the top. The property zeitgeist took hold and greed began to eclipse the importance of community. Given the times that are upon us, it is wholly expected that modern Irish society will have to embrace the idea of community, but with many people handcuffed by debt and landed with properties they
can’t afford, or don’t even want in a lot of cases, there is a prevalent morbidity surrounding those trying to make the best of what they have. In many areas neighbours are strangers to one another and the corridors of most modern apartment complexes are eerily quiet as people duck in and out of their overpriced dwellings. It’s almost as if community relations now need to be taught. Thankfully, there are communities with long-standing strengths that can do just that. Julia Behan was one of the first residents of George Reynolds House in Irishtown. With a family of eight children to look after and their tenement accommodation in Ringsend becoming unsuitable, Julia’s parents moved into George Reynolds House in 1950, having been granted a flat by the Corporation. Their move was not fueled by any desire to sell on and make money, but simply to have their children grow up in suitable confines surrounded by a strong community. Julia was kind enough to speak with NewsFour. “The people in the flats are great and they always have been. If you
need anything you only have to ask them. That’s something that was bred into you growing up here. We had to maintain the flats and we had to help each other out. You don’t get a lot of that anymore, people don’t seem to behave like that in these big new complexes. When I go outside on the balcony I can see people and have a chat, but most of these new places, when you walk out your door you’re looking at a wall and people don’t know their neighbours. There’s no atmosphere about them. “When I was young we didn’t have what the kids have now, but you played outside and people were very thoughtful to one another. That’s what kept us together, we all looked after each other.” Perhaps the ethos of people like Julia, who were reared in such a
comforting environment, will serve as a model for people attempting to piece together a community from the jagged fragments of the halffinished game of Monopoly that Ireland has become. Perhaps people will now begin to understand the importance of something that was so quickly disregarded whilst they were in the grip of financial fever. “There’s people who moved out of the flats over the years and went off to buy expensive apartments or houses, but now they want to come back and they can’t get back. They want to live in the community again but they can’t. It’s very sad. All that greed did no one any good.” Below: Community celebrations after the recent upgrading of George Reynolds House.