Awn of a new era as urban areas to get taste of continental living
MOVE out of Dublin they said. It’ll be grand, they said. But the Government’s blueprint to transform rural Ireland omitted one crucial detail, there are almost no houses available to buy and woe-betide anyone trying to build a one off house under incoming regulations. As a homeowner I’m grand, but I know someone trying to get on the property ladder and am painfully aware of how stressful this can be.
Getting everyone to shift to remote working hubs in derelict former grain stores (which will soon be transformed into Googlesque geometric designed beehives of activity no doubt) is all well and good, but where are people going to live?
Living in Dublin is a dream for many. I tried it for a summer in the late 90s and found it grand, but city living wasn’t for me. For time immemorial it was the case that if you wanted to work in a certain industry you had to live in The Big Smoke. That came with a price tag, for which your boss may or may not pay you enough to afford without having to knock on Mam or Dad’s door like a beggar to stay afloat. The spectre Taoiseach in waiting Leo Varadkar has conjured is one of more affordable, better lifestyles in rural Ireland. There’s even a tax break to lure people away to the quiet backwaters he probably seldom frequents.
But I’ve a few questions:
1). Do we want a huge influx of people back living among us?
2). Do we have the infrastructure and the fancy coffee machines to keep them happy?
3). How can us lesser beings on less wages afford to buy a house when fresh cash rich Dublin ex, ex-pats land on our shores raising prices by the ten thousands?
I, for one love living in a sleepy town where a traffic headache is idling in a row of four vehicles waiting to get onto the quay at school rush hour.
Under the plan town centres will be revitalised. We’ve already heard about Cork’s plans to pedestrianise half the city to create an outdoor dining Mecca in the People’s Republic. Dublin has followed suit over recent days with plans to pedestrianise Merrion Row, Mary Street and part of Capel Street.
County councils are being given hundreds of thousands to develop outdoor dining pavilions. All this is great but house prices are getting ridiculous.
Just because we get a lot of rain it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the outdoors. For too long we’ve been slaves to living in fortified houses like besieged landlords of old. John B Keane wrote about it eloquently in The Field and there is still a mentality that we HAVE TO OWN A HOUSE and HAVE TO BE WARM INSIDE IT.
Embracing a continental way of living by investing in fire pits, outdoor heaters and fantastic gardens is something that is only dawning on us now. Having spoken with garden centre and DIY shop owners they’re definitely not complaining having recorded a record month since they reopened.
Between horsebox cafes, paradisal gardens, remote working hubs and hairdresser, home offices and food truck stops, you’d have to wonder if we’ll ever get back to any kind of normal. There are times in life when I regret not investing in stocks. Bitcoin recently, but now umbrella and awning companies, hand sanitiser manufacturers, chairs and tables. My great-grandmother was a whizz at this so I really have no excuse. But you can’t have it all and so long as my town isn’t overrun with flat white drinkers in amazing leisure wear anytime soon, I’ll be happy out.