Singing stars, beef barons and cross-Border traders - Dundalk, is a town difficult to pin a label on. It's also a town with plenty of buzz and is enjoying a run of commercial good luck from the upturn in sterling rates. There have been nothing like the long petrol queues at filling stations on weekends since the Gulf War crisis. Shops are booming and the pubs are doing a roaring trade. So it's not all doom and gloom in Dundalk, despite sometimes negative publicity.
The town is the centre for an area stretching from Co Monaghan to Co Down. People from Newry cross the border to work in Dundalk and some southerners live in Armagh or Down. There is a positive relationship between Newry and Dundalk, with joint local authority committees and business associations, according to the local Chamber of Commerce. There are about 20,000 people living in Dundalk and this figure is expected to treble within 10 years. It's a young town - more than 70 per cent of the population is under the age of 44 - with an expanding Institute of Technology and a host of arts activities. The Corrs are probably the best-known entertainers from here, but there are many other local stars on the verge of fame.
Alvaro Lucchesi has just returned from Malta, where he played the part of Claude the jailer in the film, The Count of Monte Christo, while Nevan Finnegan is in Rome working on Martin Scorcese's The Gangs of New York, starring Leonardo Di Caprio. Dundalk violinist Aileen Dullaghan, who has achieved international success as a leading member of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, is giving a recital in her home town tonight.
There is a healthy amateur dramatic scene in the town, with many productions staged in the 700-seat Town Hall theatre. This is ideal for larger functions such as the annual pantomime, but a more flexible performance area in a purpose-built arts venue is needed for local drama groups and visiting professional companies. The urban council plans to upgrade the Town Hall theatre by installing new sound equipment, a reception area and offices. The Arts Office in Market Square is a one-stop shop for finding out what's happening in town. Don't miss Clare McAteer's exhibition of sheep's wool wall hangings now on show. Towns like Dundalk on the Belfast-Dublin rail link are the envy of commuters from midlands towns, who are putting up with single-line tracks and shabby, out-dated trains. Dublin-bound residents can be in the city in 50 minutes from Dundalk on the fast Enterprise train. Overcrowding is a problem for those getting on at Drogheda, but Dundalk commuters can usually find a seat.
The dining car of the seven o'clock train every evening is packed with young office workers relaxing over a pint on the way home. Employment has always been good in Dundalk. For years, the big employers in the town were the tobacco and brewing industries. These have suffered a downturn of late and companies such as Xerox, ABB Industrial Systems and Heinz are taking up the slack.
With so many new industries and hundreds of college students looking for accommodation, letting potential in Dundalk is first-class. First-time buyers who can't afford Dublin prices might be wise to buy here, rent the property and wait for their equity to grow. The town is affluent, so house prices are not as low as a few years ago. However, they are still cheaper than Drogheda and superb value compared with property anywhere in the city.
You can get a two-bedroom terraced house with all mod cons on a fairly new estate for around £90,000, and £110,000 will buy a three-bedroom semi. Cheaper still are ex-council houses in Muirhevnamor or Cox's Desmesne, where a three-bed mid-terrace can be bought for under £70,000. Bargain-hunters should take a look at older, more settled ex-council estates like St Michael's Crescent, Father Murray Park and O'Hanlon Park, where the houses, built about 50 years ago, are selling for between £80,000 and £100,000 depending on condition. These "fly out the door", say local agents, so go on a mailing list to get in early.
Most striking in Dundalk is the abundance of period redbrick houses close to the town centre. These were popular even in slow years and smaller houses can fetch up to £90,000 in good condition. There are whole streets of old terraces, many unspoiled by PVC windows or painted brickwork. Look at St Mary's Road, Castle Road, Park Street, Stapleton Place and The Crescent. Some large houses in good condition go for big money - Gunne acquired £300,000 early this year for a fine period house on The Crescent - but most can be bought for £90,000plus.
Blackrock, a few miles south of the town, and Ravensdale to the north are the most upmarket areas, where large detached one-off houses on large parcels of land sell for £300,000-plus. Blackrock, positioned on the coast, has experienced some new development, but is still essentially a quaint village. Sandymount, home to Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Dermot Ahern, is probably the most sought-after part of Blackrock. Near here, new four and five-bedroom detached houses are selling through Hooke & MacDonald, priced from £185,000. Ravensdale has not yet been targeted for development and this area's proximity to the scenic Cooley Mountains is an added attraction. One-off detached houses on large plots fetch up to £300,000. A large racecourse development north of the town, on either side of the Inner Ring Road, will include a new racecourse, greyhound track, hotel and housing.
The long-awaited Western by-pass for Dundalk is still at public inquiry stage. This will eventually join with the new stretch of motorway from Dundalk to the Dunleer bypass, due to open in January 2001. A new link road to Ardee opened recently.
A new development plan for Dundalk will be ready within the next year and transport and retail studies are currently under way. In the meantime, the UDC is building a swimming-pool complex beside the County Hall, a Government Department is decentralising to new offices in this area and the North Eastern Health Board plans to set up a medical centre. A £50 million sewage treatment plant is also under construction. The centre of Dundalk still has a way to go to reach the standards of urban perfection seen in some midlands towns. The market square area could do with a revamp, parking is scarce and traffic steams through the town centre despite the Inner Relief Road. The dock area is still relatively undiscovered. Like all waterfront areas, once developers realise its commercial potential, this area is likely to become the most desirable real estate in town.
The Spirit Store pub on the docks has been recently revamped. When new owners Mark Geary and Mark Mulholland took it over, the pub had a seven-day early closing licence. Now it is the trendiest place in town, with live jazz, Irish music and comedy on Wednesday nights. Eugene McEntegart and Ann Smyth, who got married last Friday, paid "about £160,000" for a three-bedroom cottage on half an acre in the village of Blackrock. Eugene drives to his job as an operations manager in Sandyford Industrial Estate in south Dublin. He gets on the road at 6 a.m. because traffic is light at this time. The road is clear as far as Swords, then it's bumper-to-bumper all the way to the East Link. The journey home is "a nightmare", says Eugene, who is thinking of buying a city apartment to use occasionally during the week. Used to driving long distances when he worked in the UK, he finds the beautiful view of the Cooley Mountains from their cottage worth the long commute.
"Over the next five or six years, if the economy continues as it is, Dundalk is going to be a boom town," says Frank Pentony, the town clerk.
