As the Dart eventually chugs into the new Clongriffin station and with a commercial space solidly reserved for Superquinn, hopeful locals in Dublin's fledgling town eagerly await the arrival of the butcher, bookmaker, hotel and cinema, writes RÓISÍN INGLE
LIVING IN a young town in a recession, even one serviced by a Dart station so new the lifts are noticeably devoid of spray paint or the whiff of stale urine, can be a surreal experience.
“I like the area but it does sometimes feel like living in one of those miniature planner’s models,” says local woman Sharon Devenney, waiting for a train to take her from Clongriffin Dart station into town.
Located beside Donaghmede and Balgriffin on the northeast fringe of Dublin, Clongriffin was talked up by builders Gannon Homes as “the new capital of the northside”. Walking around the area a couple of days after the station opens, there is a sense of a town that is waiting to happen. Unsightly plots of yet-to-be-developed land lie on both sides of the new station, the result of over-ambitious plans scuppered by the recession.
The plan was, according to Gannon’s Clongriffin marketing website, to create a town “with a heart where you can eat and drink, shop, work, socialise, relax and unwind locally”. Theirs is a website the recession forgot and while the potential is obvious – great location, high occupancy of the completed residential units – so far the economic downturn has put paid to the delivery of most of these aspirations.
The first residents moved in back in 2006 at a time when it was thought the Dart station would be up and running within a year. The station was a condition of the planning permission and Gannon Homes stumped up 65 per cent of the €22 million bill. Four years later the first trains are stopping to pick up relieved residents who were, until now, reliant on their cars or the number 128 bus. Now Connolly Station is a mere 17 minutes away and Malahide only 10.
Strolling down the steps from the Dart station, you walk into an impressive concrete plaza reminiscent of the development in Dublin’s Smithfield. The plaza is located above an underground Park and Ride facility with space for 500 cars. Dublin City Council has held “fair days” here and other community events are planned over the summer. It’s here that the first of many “coming soon” signs comes into view. This is the space reserved for Superquinn, an anchor tenant for a proposed shopping centre. The supermarket is eagerly awaited by residents and developers who are hoping other retailers will follow their lead.
The road slopes down from the square towards main street Clongriffin which, while it is probably one of the most well maintained roads in the country, is spoiled by the fact that one side of the street is made up of hoardings blocking off another undeveloped piece of land.
These, and the other empty plots dotted around the area, lend an unfinished air to the place. There is also the problem of two roads that go nowhere in neighbouring areas. For the moment Clongriffin is effectively a cul-de-sac with commuters in nearby Belmayne unable to access the town centre and the Dart directly because of delays in road completion.
In the Beaupark estate, there are problems caused by the mineral pyrite which was used in the construction of some apartments and houses. Large cracks are clearly visible in some of the dwellings. An ongoing legal battle has led to confusion over who is responsible for the unfinished public areas including an unsafe playground pockmarked by holes. Disputes over management companies, with residents wanting more of a say in how the estates are run, also need to be resolved.
MAIN STREET, Clongriffin, itself is peppered with more “coming soon” signs. A butcher. A hair salon. A bookmakers. A grocer’s. Elsewhere, a cinema complex and a hotel are ready and waiting for tenants. In the meantime locals have to make do with a Centra, a barber shop, a Chinese restaurant and a pharmacy and the shops in nearby Donaghmede and Clare Hall.
And then there is Fr Collins Park which on a sunny lunchtime mid-week is bustling with joggers, walkers and people pushing prams. It opened last May and now that the Dart has arrived could help turn Clongriffin into a daytrip destination for families from outside the area, a development that might provide the push nervous retailers need.
The 55-acre “sustainable park” has wind turbines, a skate park, fitness equipment, a running track, playing fields and two state-of-the-art playgrounds complete with bouncy surfaces made from recycled runners. While downbeat about the empty retail units, residents are, not surprisingly, thrilled with the amenity. It’s the kind of place we used to ogle while on holidays on the continent.
Denise McKenna, 29, has been living here for just over three years and is a regular visitor to the park. Clongriffin, she says, has “a great community spirit, there is no trouble and it’s very quiet . . . I won’t be here for the rest of my life but it’s a great starting point. I am up in the park every evening – it is fantastic to have it so close.”
CLONGRIFFIN IS full of 30-somethings, many with young families. A fledgling mother and baby group which meets every Thursday morning in “the hub” on main street, a community space beside Centra provided by Gannon Homes, is proving popular with young mothers on maternity leave. Anne Weber-Grange is a French mother of two who has lived in Clongriffin for four years. She brings her two-month-old son William to the group and believes things are improving in the area. “I love it here, the best thing is the growing sense of community,” she says. “I lived in another part of North Dublin before and it was hard to meet people and make friends. But here there are people meeting up to do things together, it’s great.”
Michael and Nuala Conway, who live in an apartment just across the road on main street, are both in their 60s. They moved here from Tallaght and have a son living close by. “We are some of the older residents and we are delighted with the place,” says Michael. “It’s easy to get around, you are near the sea and it’s really clean,” says Nuala, making tea in the apartment which has large balconies on two sides.
The couple remember what Tallaght was like when they moved there in the late 1960s. “We were just dumped in the middle of nowhere by the corporation – we had nothing, just a mobile shop for years. Things have been happening much quicker here. We were Tallaght people since we got married but we are happy in Clongriffin,” Michael says.
Seán Keogh, who runs the message forum Clongriffinresidents.com where locals vent about delays or share their joy about the Dart opening, has lived in the area since 2006. “I like the proximity to the sea, we are out in the park with our daughter all the time and the Dart opening has cut 20 minutes off each side of my commute,” he says.
Everyone agrees that the area would be enhanced by fewer “coming soon” signs and more shops or opportunities for socialising. Project manager for Gannon Homes Jim Kenny says he can’t confirm when the commercial fortunes of the area might turn around, only that “everything depended on the Dart opening, so we are hoping that might ramp it up”.
The developers are applying for planning permission for a Macari’s restaurant next week and a large Centra is also planned for the near future.
“We are not jumping for joy at the moment but we are not giving up either,” he says. Land belonging to his boss Gerry Gannon was recently transferred to Nama. “We are going after business, we are chasing it. God be with the days when people came and chased us.” Pressed on the elusive Superquinn opening date, he offers a cagey “within three months”. Only one thing appears to be certain when it comes to the commercial future of Clongriffin.
“There won’t be a headshop opening, that’s for sure,” he says.
