Ireland …. It just doesn’t feel like home!! 🙁

Facthunt

I lived in Dublin North side about 20 years ago and loved areas like Drumcondra, Dorset Street, Phibsbourough etc ….. had great memories! However I was back recently during the summer and the same love just wasn’t there for the place! It felt it is neglected, dirty and even felt these areas have become a slum to a certain degree! I know this post could ruffle feathers …. But I’m curious what others feel and are all our towns and cities becoming like this.

To me it felt like areas of England which are dirty, scary to be in and people walk past you looking at the ground! Also a lot of the old pubs I used go to have been boarded up and there seems to be a low of low quality shops in the centre!!

lbunnae

What on earth??? Phisboro and drumcondra being a slum compared to 20 years ago? Hahah

Yakov P. Golyadkin

İs it the foreigners? İt's always the foreigners.

francois

Phibsborough and Drumcondra have become gentrified over the last 20 years.

Facthunt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328396#Comment_121328396

Never suggested it was? Do you think that’s the reason why it’s gone to s**t? Why do you think that?

Hamachi

Agreed OP. In the past the north inner city was rough around the edges, but still fun to go for a stroll or a pint around Phibsboro or Dorset street. Some of this area is now just plain unsavoury and best avoided. The underlying reason is obvious and widely discussed outside online forums of this nature.

Facthunt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328421#Comment_121328421

A lot of new flats seem to have gone up? But as I say pubs like Quinn’s and Big Tree seem to be gone? And the takeaway Some like it Hot gone too!!!! Where do folk drink around match or concert day at Croke Park?

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328436#Comment_121328436

You never suggested it was, but yet you're straight in on a response mentioning foreigners which was quite clearly a sarcastic one. Poor trolling. 2/10.

Facthunt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328456#Comment_121328456

Excuse me? 🤔

Augme

The only person who thinks phibsboro ans Dorset Street were better 20 years ago is a person who never once set foot in Phibsboro and Dorset Street 20 years ago. Phibsboro especially has since a massive improvement in the last 20 years.

Facthunt

Maybe I am wrong …. But I used enjoy Phibsboro on match day when Bohs were playing! Pubs used be buzzin !

McGowens was another great spot! Didn’t get down around that area when I was over so can’t comment there!

Psychedelic Hedgehog

Lived close to Dorset St 25 years ago and had the flat (shared, btw, couldn't afford it on my own) cleaned out by light fingered locals within a couple of months. Me b0llix it was better then than now.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328444#Comment_121328444

Big Tree is still there. But opens Thurs to Sunday I think.

There are still loads of pubs and bars around Phibsboro & Drumcondra.

But realistically, there is an over concentration of social housing in the north inner city and not enough mixed developments.

I am not sure that will ever change.

Yakov P. Golyadkin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328436#Comment_121328436

You're trying to say it without saying it. Man up and spit it out.

Facthunt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328558#Comment_121328558

Why do people always try pull the race card if they don’t agree with something? Pathetic really but it is what it is with the Trolls!

Facthunt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328491#Comment_121328491

We must have been around there at the same time maybe ….. used be on the 19/19A bus route!

gotaf

Absolute nonsense OP.

Potatoeman

The Drumcondra side at the end of Dorset street has a few empty shops, Quinns closed and knocked the three buildings next door, still nothing happening with the land, there was Perki chicken(?) chipper that closed and the Diep restaurant(which shut a few branches around Dublin). The spar also closed a few years ago and is still sitting vacant but the larger centra is still there a few doors up. If you go by on a Monday a few of the other shops are closed on Mondays so it looks like a ghost town. Not sure why those places are vacant so long. Dorset is an odd area, just a mash of odd businesses. Nothing there to attract footfall. Kinda of like Caple street in that regard.

Facthunt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328676#Comment_121328676

Exactly what I was getting at …. Until a few unfortunately tried to bring the race card into it for whatever reason!!!!!

I’m still waiting for those people to explain themselves!

Facthunt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328676#Comment_121328676

What’s holding up developmenting the site where Quinn’s used be? Some like it hot was next to it. I think there was a William Hill there too!

Potatoeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328701#Comment_121328701

There was Quinn’s, their off-licence, a betting shop and two takeaways. I presume Quinn’s (or the new owner) owned all the land and were planning something there and that’s why the knocked them down but that could be pre Covid? It goes a long way back, plenty could be done with it. I’ve no idea what’s going on with it though.

edit: great location for match days and concerts. You can make enough money then for the whole year.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328676#Comment_121328676

Capel St is one of the busiest streets in the city centre in the evenings.

Its very much a bar/food night time location now and once the resurfacing of the pedestrian area is complete, it should generate even greater footfall.

A few new hotels in the area help keep it busy and another one opposite the Staycity isnt far off opening.

Once the Smithfield Market reopens, Capel Street should be hopping, day and night.

Dorset Street has nothing like that future to look forward to, sadly.

Basically, the two streets could hardly be more different.

Potatoeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328757#Comment_121328757

It has lots of restaurants but not that many bars for the area. Outside drinking is seasonal too, once it gets cold people don’t want to hang around the street. I frequently pass by it and it’s not that busy for the size.

Drumcondra is a good location for events at Croke Park not year round but those days are money printers. I’m surprised no one has pick up the locations for those days alone as the rental price must be far lower in comparison.

Jizique

Once the Smithfield market reopens.....

I remember hearing something solar about the Iveagh market 25 years ago, I even remember some fantastic gigs in Mother Redcaps

I.R.Y.E.D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328676#Comment_121328676

Phil Ryan was OK but he was an alcoholic, and once the smoking ban came into place Quinn"s day time trade just stopped going there.

He preferred working in the Hogan Stand to Quinns at that stage so his son in law took over Quinns and he had contacts in St Pats and a few other colleges and got their business.

But he fell foul of the banks in the crash of 08 and NAMA took Quinns over and it became the pub everyone who was banned from everywhere else went and got shut down.

As for 20yrs ago having worked in Dorset St and the surrounding areas they were bigger kips back then

Yakov P. Golyadkin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328588#Comment_121328588

"Play the race card

idiom disapproving

If someone accuses someone else of playing the race card, they think that person is trying to gain special treatment because of their race."

You're awful at this. "He'S pLaYinG tHe RaCE cArd".

As stated above, the area is demonstrably better than it was twenty years ago.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328797#Comment_121328797

I think the new street pedestrianisation will allow for outdoor heaters, more inviting spaces for bars etc.

At the monent, Capel St is still a little in flux. Although its busy now with the restaurants as you say, once the street works, new hotels and the market reopen, It should kick up another gear.

It has a bright future.

Drumcondra isnt really on a development path in the same way, but I agree that businesses are mad busy whenever there are events on.

Isnt there a restriction on the number of gigs that can take place at Croke Park?

If that restriction was ever removed, the area could be a goldmine.

Potatoeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328951#Comment_121328951

I haven’t seen anything planned past the pedestrianisation of it. I don’t think they have a plan past that. Seems like they just expect it to sort it self out past that.

Drumcondra is further from the city centre so should have far cheaper rental costs, I’m just amazed that these buildings have been left empty so long. The owners are getting nothing from the lying idle and the location can generate a lot of revenue on those few days at a much lower cost.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121329040#Comment_121329040

Yes. I really wish the council would tax those vacant properties more heavily.

Properties lying idle for years just shouldnt be an option that landlords would entertain.

Open it or sell it, basically.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328814#Comment_121328814

Smithfield Market is being refurbed by the council early next year.

It has taken an embarrasingly long time to get to this point, considering it was sold 4 yrs ago.

But it has been put to use for various one off markets, Halloween events this year etc.

The part i dont understand is if a private venture can make the space work today, why does it take the council so long to do anything with it.

pappyodaniel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328396#Comment_121328396

Bleedin' muderers, rapists, pedophiles....