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Towns deserted around the Country?

  • 16-05-2011 6:13pm
    #1
    RobitTV
    Registered Users Posts: 4,517 ✭✭✭


    Has anyone else noticed how dead it is in your Local town lately?

    I Live near a seaside town, 10,000 people live there, And the place is dead at night, years ago it would be very lively and busy.

    My heart sinks when i see the place so dead, Bar's shut down, arcades closed, The Recession has also closed these bar's and has contributed to Towns being so dead and quite.

    I Would be the only car on the road sometimes when im driving around, Also Our five main cities have also been dead lately.

    Dublin must be the Only place in Ireland, where you see people loads of people walking around, im not joking.

    What about your towns? are they deserted?


Comments

  • #2
    veryangryman
    Registered Users Posts: 5,528 ✭✭✭veryangryman


    RobitTV wrote: »
    Has anyone else noticed how dead it is in your Local town lately?

    I Live near a seaside town, 10,000 people live there, And the place is dead at night, years ago it would be very lively and busy.

    My heart sinks when i see the place so dead, Bar's shut down, arcades closed, The Recession has also closed these bar's and has contributed to Towns being so dead and quite.

    I Would be the only car on the road sometimes when im driving around, Also Our five main cities have also been dead lately.

    Dublin must be the Only place in Ireland, where you see people loads of people walking around, im not joking.

    What about your towns? are they deserted?

    Lots going through/passing, not many going out if not Saturday.

    House/Dinner parties the order of the day as people become stingier (by force in the main) unfortunately. Still, most other countries across Europe have been that way a long time.


  • #3
    munchkin_utd
    Registered Users Posts: 7,819 ✭✭✭munchkin_utd


    veryangryman wrote: »
    Lots going through/passing, not many going out if not Saturday.

    House/Dinner parties the order of the day as people become stingier (by force in the main) unfortunately. Still, most other countries across Europe have been that way a long time.
    yup!

    It's a pity theres no sociological research into irish drinking culture from the 80's and before.
    You'd probably see many reasons for boozing out of home like :
    - older men escaping a wife they have no time or love for, but married the wrong woman young and couldnt get legally divorced from nor was it socially acceptable to separate either
    - older men and grown up kids at home escaping a mental house with a dozen screaming kids where drinking at home wasnt an option nor a pleasure
    - young people not living with their parents lived in crappy houses/ horrible bedsits so pubs were far nicer place to drink (and an escape from the drabness of the hovel you lived in)
    - you could drink a few pints and drive home
    - you could smoke in the pub

    AND in general, the difference in cost between boozing at home and in the pub wasnt as stark in Ireland as it is now.
    IIRC a tin of beer back in '95 in the off licence was 1.20 punts or the likes.
    A pint in the pub was 50% more, 1.80 punt
    Now you can pay 70c for a long neck in the supermarket and five euro+ in a pub - so the pub is 710% more than drinking at home.

    anyhow, my point is that the towns may not be as un-occupied as they seem and theres more to the quietness in towns than plain emmigration or empty houses.


  • #4
    kelko1916
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭kelko1916


    RobitTV wrote: »
    Has anyone else noticed how dead it is in your Local town lately?

    I Live near a seaside town, 10,000 people live there, And the place is dead at night, years ago it would be very lively and busy.

    My heart sinks when i see the place so dead, Bar's shut down, arcades closed, The Recession has also closed these bar's and has contributed to Towns being so dead and quite.

    I Would be the only car on the road sometimes when im driving around, Also Our five main cities have also been dead lately.

    Dublin must be the Only place in Ireland, where you see people loads of people walking around, im not joking.

    What about your towns? are they deserted?

    i walked around sligo when i was over there at easter and it was scary the amount buisness that were closed for rent etc ,all of them were somebodys dream gone wrong , yet when i listen to rte radio online i hear huge fanfare about 100 jobs here 50 jobs there , its nero fiddled while rome burned syndrome . noticable influx of young irish into new york area in last few months many illigeal so i guess they are voting with their feet


  • #5
    Sponge Bob
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 25,234 ✭✭✭✭Sponge Bob


    munchkin_utd wrote: »
    AND in general, the difference in cost between boozing at home and in the pub wasnt as stark in Ireland as it is now.
    IIRC a tin of beer back in '95 in the off licence was 1.20 punts or the likes.
    A pint in the pub was 50% more, 1.80 punt
    Now you can pay 70c for a long neck in the supermarket and five euro+ in a pub - so the pub is 710% more than drinking at home.
    And to add to that excellent post bottled guinness was not the same as pub guinness were you a porter drinker as many/most were in the 1980s.

    The majority drinks lager now and can get the same beer in the supermarket ..or better beer.

    The big minus is that underage drinking is not done in pubs where they had to behave and blend in, it is done in groups and there is no societal context to drink any more. Half the 20 somethings in my village are barred from the local for some mad drunk escapade or other in the past.


  • #6
    JohnMarston
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,881 ✭✭✭JohnMarston


    Are you talking about Tramore perchance?


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  • #7
    RobitTV
    Registered Users Posts: 4,517 ✭✭✭RobitTV


    JohnMarston wrote: »
    Are you talking about Tramore perchance?

    Yeah :)


  • #8
    JohnMarston
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,881 ✭✭✭JohnMarston


    RobitTV wrote: »
    Yeah :)

    Wait until june - august . You wont call it a ghost town then


  • #9
    OurLadyofKnock
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 558 ✭✭✭OurLadyofKnock


    They are probably back to being normal towns again.

    Pubs packed with people getting drunk and screaming at their beloved British sports team before staggering home via the Chinese every night of the week is not a normal or psychologically healthy community.


  • #10
    Heroditas
    Registered Users Posts: 9,437 ✭✭✭Heroditas


    JohnMarston wrote: »
    Wait until june - august . You wont call it a ghost town then

    My mother is from there and, as a child, I used to spend the whole summer there.
    I hadn't been there since 1993 until I brought my mum down to have a look around in August in 2009.
    In many ways, the place hadn't changed but I was amazed by all the housing estates that had shot up behind the church and out towards the golf course.... along with the big Tesco that is also there.
    What saddened me most was when I walked down towards the seafront and around places like Queen's Street, nothing has changed bar a lot of the houses and shops looking a bit dilapidated. It reminds me of a town where half of it has stood still for so many years while the other half has developed.
    I find it hard to express properly but I was a bit upset to see so many parts of it that look a bit run down compared to when I was a kid.


  • #11
    Harps
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,548 ✭✭✭Harps


    Much the same here, Letterkenny is a student town so generally at least a few nights a week are busy but Mondays & Tuesdays are dead and weekends aren't much better. Its a town of 20,000 yet take away the student population and it'd be a ghost town most of the time. Like most towns we've suffered from disastrous planning with the town centre largely ignored and massive retail parks prioritised so during the day the traditional town centre is largely dead as well.

    You could come up with plenty of reasons for all it, the lack of urban centre density being an obvious problem as well as ignoring traditional centres in favour of out of town retail developments. As for night time, as mentioned already the attraction of socialising at home means most people dont go near the town aside from a nightclub followed by a taxi home


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  • #12
    Aard
    Registered Users Posts: 4,905 ✭✭✭Aard


    An Bord Pleanala's chairman, John O'Connor, said recently that retail parks have been a huge mistake, and have been largely the cause of many a town's demise.

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0507/1224296377728.html


  • #13
    BrianD
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,221 ✭✭✭BrianD


    Aard wrote: »
    An Bord Pleanala's chairman, John O'Connor, said recently that retail parks have been a huge mistake, and have been largely the cause of many a town's demise.

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0507/1224296377728.html

    Not only that we had the benefit of hindsight from lessons learned in the UK. But of course Celtic Ireland was different - the same rules wouldn't apply!

    Bottom line is that retail is down everywhere. The sheds sucked the life out of a lot of towns and even they're finding it difficult. No doubt people will end up driving further and further away from their home town to buy their goods.


  • #14
    DWCommuter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,032 ✭✭✭DWCommuter


    Aard wrote: »
    An Bord Pleanala's chairman, John O'Connor, said recently that retail parks have been a huge mistake, and have been largely the cause of many a town's demise.

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0507/1224296377728.html

    No ****!


  • #15
    DWCommuter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,032 ✭✭✭DWCommuter


    BrianD wrote: »
    Not only that we had the benefit of hindsight from lessons learned in the UK. But of course Celtic Ireland was different - the same rules wouldn't apply!

    Bottom line is that retail is down everywhere. The sheds sucked the life out of a lot of towns and even they're finding it difficult. No doubt people will end up driving further and further away from their home town to buy their goods.

    Yes retail is down everywhere alright and I'd agree that the retail parks are finding it very hard. But in terms of towns I can only comment on the one I live in - Naas.

    From the mid 90s onwards it was very clear that both residential and commercial development (essentially the fabric of the town) was spiraling in different directions. At that stage there was massive residential development while commercial development was stalled amid debate and procrastination. Once commercial development gained momentum it was based on random sites that lead to the local authorities playing catch up in terms of infrastructure to serve it. Meanwhile the town centre was becoming the forgotten son as retail parks sprouted up. In all fairness both Superquinn and Tesco's held it together despite the traffic chaos. However once Tesco's moved to their new "out of town" site and Superquinn surrendered, the final nail was driven into the coffin that is now Naas town centre.

    Ironically, while all of this was going on, the Celtic Tiger was promising a fab new "in town" shopping centre which is now a relic to the aforementioned economic period. As in half built and heading for dereliction. Herein lies the problem that Naas has burdened itself with. Its local authority allowed free for all planning for a myriad of major stores, while it blindly supported its new shopping centre that was supposed to be a focus point for the town centre itself. So after years of accepting that the property boom would role forever, Naas now has a white elephant (Newbridge has the White Water) and a major Tesco site on the fringe of the town, plus two retail parks, while the town centre itself is slowly being exposed to death. In fairness there has been some recent development in the town centre such as high end sweet/coffee shops, but its a mere shadow of its former self.

    If you want to enjoy all the shopping that Naas has to offer, you may take your place in the traffic chaos that requires you to drive all over the place to experience it all. The town centre has died. Its full of taxis waiting for a call, pubs that don't open until at least 6pm and people that need to drive from pillar to post just to visit a post office and supermarket in one swoop. Naas is truly an example of where it all went wrong.


  • #16
    CerebralCortex
    Registered Users Posts: 3,809 ✭✭✭CerebralCortex


    DWCommuter wrote: »
    Yes retail is down everywhere alright and I'd agree that the retail parks are finding it very hard. But in terms of towns I can only comment on the one I live in - Naas.

    From the mid 90s onwards it was very clear that both residential and commercial development (essentially the fabric of the town) was spiraling in different directions. At that stage there was massive residential development while commercial development was stalled amid debate and procrastination. Once commercial development gained momentum it was based on random sites that lead to the local authorities playing catch up in terms of infrastructure to serve it. Meanwhile the town centre was becoming the forgotten son as retail parks sprouted up. In all fairness both Superquinn and Tesco's held it together despite the traffic chaos. However once Tesco's moved to their new "out of town" site and Superquinn surrendered, the final nail was driven into the coffin that is now Naas town centre.

    Ironically, while all of this was going on, the Celtic Tiger was promising a fab new "in town" shopping centre which is now a relic to the aforementioned economic period. As in half built and heading for dereliction. Herein lies the problem that Naas has burdened itself with. Its local authority allowed free for all planning for a myriad of major stores, while it blindly supported its new shopping centre that was supposed to be a focus point for the town centre itself. So after years of accepting that the property boom would role forever, Naas now has a white elephant (Newbridge has the White Water) and a major Tesco site on the fringe of the town, plus two retail parks, while the town centre itself is slowly being exposed to death. In fairness there has been some recent development in the town centre such as high end sweet/coffee shops, but its a mere shadow of its former self.

    If you want to enjoy all the shopping that Naas has to offer, you may take your place in the traffic chaos that requires you to drive all over the place to experience it all. The town centre has died. Its full of taxis waiting for a call, pubs that don't open until at least 6pm and people that need to drive from pillar to post just to visit a post office and supermarket in one swoop. Naas is truly an example of where it all went wrong.

    You might as well having being describing Limerick. :) It seems to be the exact same situation.


  • #17
    patneve2
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,576 ✭✭✭patneve2


    The truth (I think) is that the planning system in Ireland is development led (and plans are there merely to advise on what should be built)...on the Continent the level of planning is much more detailed, and very strict so both the council and the developer knows exactly what a whole new area will look like and exactly how it will function.

    Ireland-the plan is servant
    Germany, Holland, Denmark...-the plan is MASTER

    Another factor that contributes to this spatial unbalance is the fact that large swathes of land around cities on the Continent are owned by the state/city council, whilst most land is privately owned in Ireland.

    Planning HAS to be more forward and more detailed to ensure that these problems don't occur again. Retail parks, bleah...vibrant town centres win!


  • #18
    DWCommuter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,032 ✭✭✭DWCommuter


    patneve2 wrote: »
    The truth (I think) is that the planning system in Ireland is development led (and plans are there merely to advise on what should be built)...on the Continent the level of planning is much more detailed, and very strict so both the council and the developer knows exactly what a whole new area will look like and exactly how it will function.

    Ireland-the plan is servant
    Germany, Holland, Denmark...-the plan is MASTER

    Another factor that contributes to this spatial unbalance is the fact that large swathes of land around cities on the Continent are owned by the state/city council, whilst most land is privately owned in Ireland.

    Planning HAS to be more forward and more detailed to ensure that these problems don't occur again. Retail parks, bleah...vibrant town centres win!

    We shall see.


  • #19
    JohnMarston
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,881 ✭✭✭JohnMarston


    I would think the planning authority lost most if not all credibility when they decided to let any tom, dick and harry apply for and get planning permission in the countryside.
    Now our once untainted countryside (apart from farmland) is dotted with houses or bunches of houses. :mad:

    As well as that, the celtic tigers carcass left behind hundreds (if not thousands) of empty houses on new estates. Sterling work.


  • #20
    Sponge Bob
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 25,234 ✭✭✭✭Sponge Bob


    JohnMarston wrote: »
    As well as that, the celtic tigers carcass left behind hundreds (if not thousands) of empty houses on new estates. Sterling work.
    300,000 not counting holiday homes.


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