Fergus Finlay: The community that showed what a difference it can make in a day
Difference Day at Dolphin House last week. The relentless, miserable rain didn't stop anyone from transforming the area. Photo: Denis O'Reilly
I’d say it might be two years ago when I asked Denis O’Reilly if he’d ever heard of Dolphin House. I know it very well, he only knew it vaguely. And when he came up to visit, he was a bit doubtful. Which is not like Denis.
Dolphin House is a large local authority housing estate, built on the banks of the Grand Canal in the south inner city in Dublin. It’s more than 70 years old and crumbling badly. It’s a mix of some houses and mostly apartments. Up to recently it also featured a group of “bedsits” where older people lived.
There’s damp and mould in many of the apartments, ill-fitting single-glazed windows, poor insulation, and more than a bit of overcrowding. It’s fair to say it wouldn’t pass anyone’s idea of a modern housing standard today.
There’s always been drug activity in the area. Perhaps it was worse in the past, but when it flares up it’s accompanied by violence and fear. It’s utterly destructive of the life of a community, and essential that the Gardaí are on top of it for that reason. (Luckily, although they’re not always appreciated, the Dolphin community is supported by really good and well-led local gardaí.)
Dolphin House was promised regeneration 20 years ago. It was needed, deserved and overdue then. I was made chair of the Regeneration Board, a body whose job it was (without any executive power), to reconcile the interests of the community, the local authority, and the government. No biggie, right?
The regeneration plan we drew up – and everyone agreed – was based on a human rights model. But the entire promise of regeneration collapsed when the banks, and then the economy, collapsed. It took years of struggle to get in on the agenda at all during the years of austerity.
We did eventually get a first phase built and even though it has been bedeviled by teething issues I believe it will come right. And we replaced the bedsits with a purpose-built senior citizens complex which has been a genuine and happy success.
We have an agreed masterplan capable of providing more than 600 additional high-quality housing units on our site. These are desperately needed not just in Dolphin but in the context of a national housing crisis.
We have sites within our sites that are shovel ready, to use the builder’s phrase. And we have countless issues of law and process – themselves I think a legacy of the economic collapse – before we can even go for planning permission.
So, most of our community has been left waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Twenty years of promise, and at least 10 more to go. And at the heart of our site there is a community centre where stuff goes on all the time.
On one side of it there’s a little worn-out football pitch, loved by our kids but really only useable in good weather. On the other side there’s a really large patch of useless scrub land covered in rocks and rubble. Both neglected sites, one at the point of dereliction.
I said the community is waiting. I didn’t tell you what kind of a community it is. I will never give up on this community because they are simply brilliant people – gutsy, together, proud, stand up for each other at all costs kind of people. At the heart of the community there is real leadership. They know who they are so I’m just going to say Manus, Debby, Bobby, Una and Susan.
And this is where Denis O’Reilly comes back into the picture. Denis runs a company called Difference Days. The premise of this company is to offer other companies in the corporate sector a chance to make a real impact with any corporate get-together they are having, or any approach they might have to team building.
Difference Days does the planning and preparation, the company’s staff volunteer to complete the task. It’s a different form of corporate social responsibility. You don’t just write a cheque. You get really stuck in for a day.
“Build a workable community garden on a neglected site as large as this? Replace this muddy sunken football pitch with a proper level astro turf pitch that will serve the kids for years? In one day? Are you serious?”
That was Denis’s response when the community’s leaders put their proposition to him. Their meanwhile project, they called it. Something to serve the community and lift their spirits while the battle to build the masterplan went on.
But Denis came back, and little by little a plan formed. It would have to involve a great company, with hundreds of potential volunteers, and the co-operation of Dublin City Council. Finding the company was Denis’s job, getting the buy-in of the City Council was ours.
And here’s the truth. Taking over a bit of public land and changing it into something else – even if you’re in a position to turn dereliction into paradise – represents a huge challenge to public authorities. Issues arise. Planning. Legal. Procurement. Finance. Licencing. And more.
I can still remember a certain public servant’s face when I told him, last November, that we’d secured the agreement of a substantial corporate to do the project on June 12. His face went pale, and his voice cracked. “You’re only giving us six months’ notice,” he said.
But we got there. I’m not really supposed to tell you the names of the people who helped us through the bureaucratic minefield. But Linda, Michael, Stefan and Bruce, you know who you are.
And then there was the company. SMBC Aviation Capital it’s called, a huge aircraft leasing company that operates all over the world but is headquartered in Dublin. They didn’t get stuck in to our project for public credit, and I know that.
But I spent that Difference Day with them, and in all honesty I can tell you I’ve never met a more decent and honourable group of people, from top to bottom. They have earned their success in spades.
The day we picked was last Thursday. It started raining at 4am, and it never stopped. Relentless, miserable rain. But it didn’t matter.
It’s actually hard to describe what happened to a couple of neglected and derelict sites in less than a day. It was like watching a miracle unfold.
In continuous rain 300 volunteers laid lawns, planted gardens, built raised beds and allotments, beautifully tarmacked pathways throughout, built and arranged musical instruments everywhere, erected a greenhouse, and laid a purpose-built all-weather astroturf football pitch for the kids. In one day.
It will transform the spirit of this community and should last for years. I don’t usually get emotional about this stuff but I’m wrecked by what has been achieved.
And then at the end I met the CEO, Peter Barrett from Cork, and his team. Peter was in serious need of a shower by then. Mind you he had just finished wheeling around 120 barrows of tarmac for the immaculate paths they had built throughout the garden.
It's going to be called 'Croí an Phobail' – the heart of the community. My hope is that it will serve as an enduring symbol of what’s endlessly possible. Of the community, for the community, by the community.
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