Case Study: Dublin Inner City Urban Decay 1960–1990
Dublin’s inner city experienced urban decay between 1960 and 1990. Causes
Effects
Industrial development: Due to a need for more land and space to develop, industries and factories relocated to the outer areas of Dublin.
Rehousing project: The government began programmes to rehouse people from poor inner-city slums to new developments on the outskirts of the city.
Traffic congestion: Increased traffic caused congestion in inner-city Dublin and made it an unattractive place to live.
Abandoned factories and other buildings fell into disrepair.
Housing began to deteriorate as people began to leave the inner city.
Schools and inner-city businesses, such as shops, closed as a result of the population decrease.
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Ballymun was developed in the 1960s to rehome inner-city residents. Can you think of two advantages and two disadvantages of this scheme?
Dublin Inner-City Urban Decay post-Celtic Tiger
During Ireland’s Celtic Tiger period, inner-city Dublin experienced significant renovations as it was redeveloped considerably. Some, but not all, of the buildings (housing and business) in the inner-city area were improved.
In 2008, however, the ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom ended suddenly. This had several effects:
1. Ireland’s economy fell into a state of recession (its economy declined for a sustained length of time).
2. This had an effect on inner-city Dublin. People had less money to spend, which decreased profits for shops in the inner city.
