Dig Blacon: Test Pitting Report (original) (raw)

Community Safety in Ballymun - Shangan, Coultry and Whiteacre Crescent

The DCU in the Community Papers , 2015

Ballymun, in North Dublin, was the most significant high-rise housing estate project conceived in the Republic of Ireland. It was developed to address a severe housing crisis that erupted in the 1960s, leaving hundreds of families in unsafe living conditions. In an attempt to solve the problem, Dublin Corporation (now Dublin City Council) built one of the largest public housing estates in Europe to accommodate these families. The Ballymun Towers, comprising seven separate buildings, were built between 1966 and 1969. Each building was fifteen stories high, with ninety flats to each tower and six to each floor. When the families first arrived in 1966, they were delighted to have luxuries such as hot running water, central heating, flush toilets and lifts. However, this enthusiasm waned as the area became victim to lack of investment, with poor public amenities and services and increasing unemployment. By the 1980s, Ballymun was experiencing severe social problems with increasing levels of drug dealing and crime. This triggered widespread community mobilisation to address these issues. The objective of this research was to obtain the views of the residents of the electoral district of Ballymun C - Shangan, Coultry and Whiteacre Crescent (referred to throughout this document as Ballymun), regarding the positive and negatives of living there and to elicit opinions as to what was necessary to improve the quality of life in the locality. It also sought to collect information around people’s perceptions of crime, safety and well-being, and to establish the levels of community involvement among the participants. Ballymun C was chosen because of the high level of general public order problems in this area. This research will serve to support the implementation of the Integrated Offender Management Programme (IOMP), as the Ballymun Local Drugs Task Force intend to monitor the community’s response during the first 24 months of the programme in order to evaluate its effectiveness.