The Ballymun Flats referred to a number of flats—including the seven Ballymun High-tower blocks—in Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland. Built rapidly in the 1960s, there were 36 blocks in total, consisting of 7 fifteen-storey, 19 eight-storey, and 10 four-storey blocks. The complex was built in a Corbusian style known as towers in the park, which was popular in European and American cities in the mid-20th century.
The 15-storey blocks actually had 17 storeys, including the entrance floor and a plant room on their roofs. Joseph Plunkett tower, named after one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, was typical of the taller tower blocks. It was a 42-metre, 8,500-tonne building that housed 90 families in 30 three-, two-, and one-bedroom units.
The entire complex was demolished in the early 21st century. By October 2013, there were just three remaining blocks, all of which were empty. The last block was demolished in September 2015.
History
The Ballymun Flats were built in the 1960s to accommodate the rising population, particularly to accommodate former residents of inner-city areas which were being cleared in the process of 1960s urban slum clearances. Whilst suffering from a lack of sufficient public amenities, several schools served the area (Holy Spirit N.S. and Ballymun Comprehensive(now Trinity Comprehensive School)), as well as an Eastern Health Board medical centre and a purpose-built shopping centre. The area suffered from many social problems such as drugs and rampant crime. The causes of these social problems, and the subsequent discrimination faced by many people with Ballymun addresses when seeking employment outside the suburb, have been disputed, but Ballymun generally paralleled the experience of many working-class people in the 1960 and 1970s when placed in high-rise locations.
Despite the negative perceptions of many non-residents of Ballymun, many of the residents insist that there is a strong sense of pride and community in the area. Lynn Connolly, whose 2006 memoir The Mun: Growing Up in Ballymun detailed her raising there in the 1970s and 1980s, readily acknowledged the problems there, and that during those years she wished to leave; however, she later came to realise that there had been much that was good at the towers – in terms of a collective wit among residents and a helping sense of community – which had been ignored by the media.
The Ballymun Flats were the first homes with cable television in Ireland. RTÉ Relays Ltd, a subsidiary of the national broadcaster RTÉ, installed cable television into the flats in 1963, giving each residence access to Irish stations such as RTÉ Television and UK stations such as BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, and from 1982, Channel 4.
Four-storey flats
The four-storey flats were situated on Sandyhill Avenue, Sillogue Avenue, and Shangan Avenue. They were the earliest complexes to be demolished. The former flats of Sillogue Avenue are now open land, whilst the former flats of Shangan Avenue have been replaced by new complexes. A new area called Marewood, consisting of houses and apartments, is now situated where the Sandyhill Avenue flats once stood.
Eight-storey flats
The eight-storey flats were situated along Balbutcher Lane, where there were two blocks; Shangan Road, where there were three blocks; Coultry Road, where there were four blocks; and Balcurris and Sillogue Roads, each of which had five blocks.
The flats had two different designs, the more common being with the lift on the opposite side of the stairwell, Balbutcher and Shangan were the only ones to feature this design. Balcurris contained one of the alternative blocks, Sillogue contained the alternative blocks and three of the other blocks, three of the four Coultry blocks were made contained the lift on the side of the stairwell. Balcurris was the only row of flats to have its blocks separated by a road, the latter three blocks faced a different direction to the first two blocks and were the most visible from Dublin Airport.
Balbutcher Lane was upgraded in the 1990s where only residents were allowed to enter and had to buzz their way in, visitors needed permission from residents in order to enter. Windows were placed on the balconies and post would be delivered similar to how an apartment block would receive their mail. Railings were also placed around the flats and a playground was built at the back of the complex.
Sections of Coultry and Balcurris were demolished first, with the latter becoming the first complex to be completely demolished by 2009, it was originally noted that the Ballymun Shopping Centre and Metro North would be situated on the old Balcurris site, although these plans failed to materialize. Many of the complexes were demolished by 2012, after the removal of the Sillogue flats. Balbutcher Lane were the last eight-storey flats to go in 2015.
Fifteen-story flats
The Ballymun tower blocks were seven landmark residential towers built in the 1960s. The seven towers were named after the seven leaders of the 1916 rising; Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Seán Mac Diarmada, Éamonn Ceannt, Thomas Clarke, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett.
In 2004, demolition of the first tower began. The Pearse tower was demolished slowly by mechanical means, while MacDermott and MacDonagh Towers were demolished by controlled implosion. Ceannt, Plunkett, Clarke, and Connolly towers were demolished by mechanical means.
The red aircraft warning lights on these structures were not connected to any form of back-up power for many years, leaving the towers completely dark during any power outage.
Joseph Plunkett tower, along with Balbutcher Lane, got railings and an entrance around the perimeter of the building (buildings, counting Balbutcher Lane) in the 1990s.
Construction/demolition Patrick Pearse tower (1966–2004) was the first tower to be erected, in 1966. It was halfway through construction when the construction of MacDonagh Tower started. Pearse Tower was the first one to be demolished in 2004. Thomas MacDonagh tower (1966–2005) was the second tower, built in 1966, and in 2005 was demolished by controlled implosion. It was the third one to be demolished. Éamonn Ceannt tower (1966–2005) was the third tower, built in 1966; in 2005 it was demolished. It was the fourth one to be demolished. James Connolly tower (1966–2007) was the fourth tower, built in 1966. In 2007 it was demolished. Seán MacDermott tower (Seán Mac Diarmada) (1966–2005) was the fifth tower to be built, in 1966. In 2005, it was demolished by controlled implosion and collapsed in less than eight seconds. It was the second fifteen-storey to be demolished . Thomas Clarke tower (1966–2008) was the sixth tower, built in 1966. Four weeks before it was demolished in 2008, the top floor was turned into a short-stay hotel. Joseph Plunkett tower (1967–2015) was the last one built, in 1967. The tower's demolition began on 22 September 2015.
Gallery
In popular culture
Several films have used the flats as a filming location. Alan Parker's film adaptation of Roddy Doyle's novel The Commitments, and Into the West both used the flats as a backdrop.
U2
The 1987 U2 song "Running to Stand Still" was inspired by Bono's view of the flats from his childhood home on Cedarwood Road, which has one end in Ballymun, and one in Finglas. "'I am partly that because of the way I grew up in Finglas' [...] Bono stated 'when we moved to Cedarwood Road everyone was saying we lived in Ballymun [...] I asked my dad, who worked in the postal service, and he said, believe it or not, one part of the road is Ballymun and one part of the road is Finglas, so you can say what you like'" Far-right columnist John Waters has described his house as being on the "faultline" between Finglas and Glasnevin. "Bono, who was born on the faultline between Finglas and Ballymun" The line "I see seven towers, but I only see one way out" refers to Bono witnessing drug dealing and addiction and it reminding him of the flats. According to Sean Murphy, writing for the Southern Edition of the Sunday Independent, many Ballymunners were honoured by the mention. In the book Memories Milestones and New Horizons Reflections on the Regeneration of Ballymun, Waters said that U2's origins in Finglas, Glasnevin and Ballymun were "crucial to what they would become", and that the quote from "Running to Stand Still" was the "most particular song [Bono] would write about his childhood in the shadow of the Irish Babel".
In 2004, after an unofficial U2 fan website called the area a 'bad area', warning "do NOT go here on foot", a spokesperson for Bono said that Bono is proud to be from Ballymun. The caption accompanies an image of a Ballymun flat taken from a car driving through Ballymun. In the aforementioned book, Irish poet John Montague starts his chapter by saying that the image and caption speaks volumes about Ballymun's negative perception. "There is a photograph on the internet with an accompanying caption that speaks volumes about how Ballymun was/is perceived: 'A Housing Project north of the city: do not go here on foot. This is a bad area.' The image [comes from a website made about a fan's "U2 pilgrimage"], and is even more evocative of the negative sentiment demonstrated in the text. [..] The digital photo was taken from the back of a moving car [..] speeding through the [Ballymun] estate with the windows firmly closed"
In her book The Mun: Growing Up in Ballymun, Connolly was highly critical of Running to Stand Still. Connolly attributes the song to an "enormous [amount of] damage to the tenants' morale", calling the song 'bleak despair', and referring to the line "I see seven towers, but I only see one way out" as an ignorant remark from Bono. "I couldn't wait to leave; and regardless of what U2 say in their song, 'Running to Stand Still', there was certainly more than one way out. And yet again, once I got out... I only ever hankered to go back." She also says "Bono never lived in Ballymun. And yet website after website says that is where he hails from. How can anyone possibly confuse Ballymun with Glasnevin?". In The Construction of Dublin, McDonald interpreted the lyric "I see seven towers, but I only see one way out" as referring to the "only way out of Ballymun [being] via drugs", saying that "at least a thousand of the tenants were drug addicts". "'I see seven towers, but I only see one way out', Bono sings on one of U2's earlier albums, The Joshua Tree. The only way out for too many young people in Ballymun was via drugs. At least a thousand of the tenants were drug addicts, one in six were unmarried mothers, a further 10% were deserted/separated wives, unemployment was reckoned to be 45%, and up to a third of the estate's population of 12,000 was on the waiting list for housing elsewhere"
Carry Me Down M. J. Hyland's Booker-shortlisted novel Carry Me Down (2006), is set in Ballymun, with the main character John Egan moving from Gorey, County Wexford into the Ballymun tower blocks. Dermot Bolger, writing for the Irish Independent, criticised the book's depiction of Ballymun as being akin to someone who researched Ballymun in books that "record details like the fact that the heating could not be turned off by tenants or that people urinated in the lifts" as opposed to the reality of 1970s Ballymun.
The Ballymun Trilogy