Ballymun: From high hopes to broken dreams

Ballymun residents had reason to dream big in 1966, when ‘everybody wanted to live there’, with a number of high rises being built. Fast-forward to the present day and they are readying for the last remaining block to be demolished. Tom Farrell and Seamus Kelly report on where it all went wrong

As the last of the notorious tower blocks face imminent demolition, there is the sense that Ballymun is coming full circle. In a few months the community will mark the 50th anniversary of the high-rise North Dublin estate, conceived by the local government minister, Neil Blaney, as a solution to the housing crisis in the inner city, characterised by squalor and overcrowding.

In 1966 Ballymun seemed state of the art. Ballymun consisted of seven 15-storey tower blocks. Rising at intervals around them were 19 eight-storey spine blocks and 10 four-storey walk-up flats.