Taking back Tyrrelstown
The new Dublin suburb was facing a desolate future — until residents took matters into their own hands
IT wasn’t that long ago that the clocks going back struck sheer terror into the heart of Tyrrelstown. A marauding gang of around 15 young men stalked the streets, terrorising locals.
A young mother pushing a buggy was attacked for her phone in broad daylight, an elderly man was violently set upon, taxi drivers were held up with imitation firearms, and locals took to social media to say they felt trapped in their homes, too terrified to even take their dogs for a walk.
Until early this year, Tyrrelstown — part of Blanchardstown, in north Dublin, straddling the Meath border, between the N3 and the M2 — was dogged by bad news stories about its spiralling ‘gangland’ culture.
One of the most horrific stories was the stabbing to death of 15-year-old schoolboy Toyosi Shittabey following a racially-motivated argument with a number of men who didn’t live in the area, but were attending a party on Good Friday in 2010. The chief suspect in Toyosi’s murder died before being brought to trial.
But after a massive backlash by the community, this year Tyrrelstown finally threw off its bad boy image.
A push by fed-up residents culminated in the last of the ‘core’ gang leaders being finally moved out of the estate in March. Such was its dramatic impact that when Tyrrelstown Residents Association (TRA) recently met for their regular chat with gardaí in Blanchardstown, they struggled to find things to talk about.
‘We couldn’t find anything to give out about,’ says Jonny Ahearne, who coaches Tyrrelstown GAA Club, which has 130 members and kids aged four to 13, and is a founding member of the TRA. ‘We’d a dumped car and people parking on the footpath. That’s how well we’re getting on now. The trouble is gone.’
However, it’s been a bad few weeks for the area. In the past month alone, Tyrrelstown Plaza, the busy village ‘centre’ — home to a selection of shops, a dry cleaners, a chemist, takeaways and an estate agent — was targeted in a spate of hold-ups. On different nights, armed robbers stormed Paddy Power, Hickey’s Pharmacy, SuperValu and O’Briens OffLicence. But the gang hasn’t regrouped, say businesses, who believe the criminals came from outside Tyrrelstown.
Then, last month came the dramatic shutdown of St Luke’s National School and Tyrrelstown Educate Together, after structural problems were found in buildings constructed by Western Building Systems.
Some 1,200 pupils had nowhere to go after the mid-term break, with a lot of uncertainty and anger among parents.
The temporary shutdown of the busy adjacent community centre — the town hub, booked out seven nights a week by sport and social groups — sparked chaos, with the basketball club taking to social media, fearing for its future, and the GAA club also worried it would be left homeless. Largely, those fears have been assuaged with the partial reopening of the schools and locals are keen for the Department of Education to fix the problems.
Yet the recent trouble only serves to highlight how loosely woven the delicate strands of a new community such as Tyrrelstown actually are — and how easily they can be pulled apart.
The reason the schools and community centre debacle rattled parents so much is because they’d been down this road before. They’ve seen first-hand what happens when kids have nowhere to go and nothing to do.
Now, with vast tranches of land being parcelled up and sold off for more high-density estates in the area, residents — terrified their years of hard graft building desperately needed facilities will be unravelled — are calling on Fingal County Council not to repeat the same mistakes. Plans are afoot for 1,100 social and affordable houses on a land bank in nearby Damastown and earlier this year another land bank of 260 acres with a guide price of €45million hit the market with the potential to accommodate close to 900 new homes in Tyrrelstown.
Around 17 acres attached to the existing town centre have also been earmarked for development housing and offices.
Built from nothing during the boom into a sprawling ‘small town’ of 2,300 apartments, townhouses and houses, there were big budgets and bigger promises, but no money for facilities once the crash came. There were always going to be teething problems in a new estate like Tyrrelstown, where the first houses were built in 2001.
But Tyrrelstown was unique. With 40% of residents born outside the State and some 67 nationalities attending its schools, it’s not only a first in Ireland but one of the youngest and most ethnically diverse areas in the EU.
Creating community cohesion was always going to be a challenge. But residents met it with gusto.
The TRA started out with just a few members but in a decade it’s branched out into a hugely active and energised network of 70 members operating in smaller groups, under a common umbrella, minding their own patches but coming together for communitywide events. The TRA started in 2008, with an aim to secure the most basic community facilities.
‘Our main objective was to get permanent school buildings, a park and a community centre,’ explains Rob Webb, the father of a 12-yearold daughter. ‘There is a fundamental flaw in planning in this country that facilitated schools to be built after the houses.’
But it’s down to the TRA’s hard work and sheer doggedness that things got done. The community centre opened in 2011, and is now packed out seven days a week, with Sonics and GAA training and everything from Zumba classes to Taekwondo. In 2017, the ribbon was cut on Tyrrelstown Park, a green haven amid the concrete jungle, and children flocked to the new playground there.
A skate park for the older kids is next on the agenda and a cricket ground for its busy club is also on the wishlist. But locals say it’s a constant fight with the powers that be.
Next May, the GAA club will be forced to leave its home pitches. The club used NAMA land for years, but now that is being sold. Fingal County Council has assured them two new pitches will be made available but Jonny has another battle on his
67 nationalities attend its schools, a first in Ireland
nds there too. ‘They say we can y games there but we can’t train re — that’s not going to work,’ he us. eanwhile, local kids can only look gingly over the fence at a multillion state-of-the-art full-size tro-turf pitch built for the mmunity at Le Chéile Secondary hool, but which remains mostly e because of red tape, a wrangle und the finances and who’s going run it. Fingal County Council spokesn said the all-weather pitch in rrelstown is owned by the Departnt of Education and Skills but e transfer of its ownership to ngal County Council is at an vanced stage and looks likely to ppen in the coming weeks. e continues: ‘Once the ownership ue has been resolved the council l engage with local councillors d interested stakeholders to sure the facility is managed propy and is open for use of local sportclubs. he council has developed a mber of grass playing pitches in rrelstown Park comprising two l-sized GAA pitches, two soccer ches and a cricket pitch, all of ich will be open for use in 2019 d will be allocated to local sports clubs. These pitches are in a public park and are allocated to clubs for competitive games.’
For these facilities and more, residents will keep fighting as going back to the bad old days isn’t an option.
‘I moved here for the price but if I won the Lotto tomorrow I wouldn’t leave. I love it here, it’s a brilliant community,’ insists GAA coach Jonny, dad to an eight-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl.
Jonny is typical of the influx of early residents in the mid-2000s. Priced out of buying in Cabra, where he grew up, the self-employed courier moved here with his wife to get their foot on the property ladder. They hoped to eventually move back to Cabra but the crash killed that dream — and now they’d never leave.
‘Coming from Cabra, I knew everyone and could drop into the neighbours so coming here it was strange as I knew nobody — nobody did. There were so many nationalities. People would say hello but then they’d close the door. Now that’s happening even in settled areas like Cabra, as the older people are passing on.
‘In the pub we came up with ideas to get the neighbours together. We got street clean-ups going and wanted neighbours to get to know each other, so if you wanted a ladder, you’d know who to call. I wanted to make it like the old Dublin I knew.’
Rob Webb, who grew up in Yorkshire, explains: ‘Tyrrelstown is unique — among ten houses, you’ll not find two of the same nationality. It’s so varied and that’s a huge plus but that’s us older people talking.
‘For the younger ones, there’s no Africans or Indians or Eastern Europeans, they’re all just Irish. They’re best friends who met in crèche — they’re all just human beings, they know no different.
‘Kids naturally get together and that opens the door for their parents too now, and they’re getting more involved in the community. We’re getting great traction now and a core group of ten to 15 people in eight areas who are really engaged. Now when we meet up for a drink there’s Polish, Indians, Romanians, Englishmen.’
Noel Quigley, who has no children but is a TRA founding member, smiles: ‘When we have events or a bouncy castle for the kids everyone brings their own food and they love to share their culture and we make sure there’s an option for Muslims who don’t eat pork.’
But residents are frustrated they are forced to spend so much time playing watchdog at Fingal County Council — an oversight role that’s ramping up now the diggers are on their way to Tyrrelstown again.
‘It’s a constant fight but if proper strategic planning by local councils were in place as part of the build as opposed to residents’ associations having to round up numerous volunteers to camp down at various meetings to actually drive facilities to be delivered, we’d be able to get on with what we need to do,’ says Noel.
Rob agrees: ‘It’s a planning issue — the governance wasn’t there. Developers should have been told after 300 houses, the school goes up, then after another 300, the community centre goes up instead of being told build as many houses as you like and when you do, hand over the keys.’ They all agree current facilities are already bursting. Jonny says: ‘The community centre is full and there’s no capacity there to expand. There’s an astroturf pitch with weeds growing on it. Will they set that up so local groups can rent it out at a price they can afford?
‘There could be another 2,000 houses linking to us but there’s no foresight and you’ve got NAMA selling off all the green space around for housing but what about kids’ health? How will we keep all these kids out of trouble going forward?
‘My fear is they’re going to make the same mistakes again. We’re so lucky as we don’t have many issues. There was a huge social issue here until March but it’s lovely now. We don’t have a drug problem or car robbing or gangs. The gardaí are doing their best. In nine months we’ve built a lovely quiet neighbourhood, we’re just coming to the end of the trouble.’
Noel adds: ‘There’s huge pressure on councils to deliver housing but let’s not forfeit proper planning — don’t shove in houses with no facilities. They’ll pack all the houses in and leave them with nothing, then we’ll be in trouble all over again.’
Policing is another concern. Residents say more resources and community gardaí will be vital to cope with the growing population.
‘We’ve sympathy as the Garda numbers went down when the population shot up, but you can’t plough ahead with all these new houses with no extra gardaí. We have two community gardaí but we don’t see them much as they’re so busy. We had a bike patrol but that’s gone.
‘It’s simple things, if they put money in now they’d save a fortune down the road.’
And residents know all too well how just a few out of control ‘bad eggs’ can wreak havoc for everyone.
Noel says: ‘This group started as small kids beating other kids in the playground, but they got braver and bolder, throwing stones then assaulting people. They were all minors. Police did their best but they were acting with impunity as the justice system isn’t fit for purpose.
Jonny says: ‘When the ringleaders left, the rest fell away. They’ve all gone now, causing trouble elsewhere and we’re making a community again. We can’t go back to that.’
When Jonny needed a kidney transplant last year, the strong community he’d helped to build rallied around him and his family.
‘Everyone was brilliant — I was blown away. It’s like the Dublin I remember growing up in where neighbours looked out for each other. I wouldn’t move out of here now for love nor money.’
‘It’s a constant fight. There’s no proper planning’ ‘My fear is they’ll make the same mistakes again’