The Tallaght Factor

COMMUNITY:IT'S A FEW HOURS before the semi-final of Tallaght's Got Talent and singer Aisling Connolly is getting nervous. "I think I'm getting the flu," she says. "I'm not even practising today. This is the only talking I'm going to do all day!" Connolly is one of 12 performers, from singers to modern dancers, who will be taking to the stage that night in Captain Americas restaurant in Tallaght to participate in the weekly talent show that has been attracting southwest Dubliners of all ages since it launched more than a month ago.

She needn't have worried about the fiendish flu. Later that evening, in front of a packed house, the vibrant young Tallaght hairdresser takes to the stage with affable host Rory Campbell, who, throughout the evening, keeps the contestants relaxed and reminds the noisier sections of the audience that they should be quiet when their own friends and relations aren't performing. After that morning's conversation it's hard not to worry that Connolly's voice will fail her – but then the backing track kicks in and she launches into a pitch-perfect rendition of the complex intro to Eurythmics' There Must Be An Angel (Playing with My Heart). The crowd goes wild.

There are more than 150 people in the room, and the audience includes everyone from proud grandparents to small children, many of whom sit cross-legged on the ground at the edge of the dance floor in order to get a good view. There are shaggy-haired indie kids and glamorous girls in snakeskin leggings. And the performers are equally eclectic. One of the most popular acts of the evening is Star Struck, three 11-year-olds and one 12-year-old who perform an energetic dance to Lady Gaga’s song of the same name.

“We’re best friends,” says Star Struck’s Sophie Fitzgerald, who says that if the group wins the first prize of a trip to Los Angeles for two and $1,000 (€670), they’ll sell the holiday and split the profits. “Only two people can go so it wouldn’t be fair,” says fellow member Jasmine Byrne.

Most of tonight’s competitors are singers, and two are siblings. Not only are Chris and Liza Keeley both performing, but their two brothers are taking part in the other semi-final the following week (they have another sister who isn’t competing).

“There’s no rivalry,” says 15-year-old Liza. “We all help each other.” Their mother Liz, who modestly says she “used to sing a bit”, is proud of them all, but there’s a downside to having so many talented children – the audience votes for their favourites at the end of the evening, and she can only vote for one offspring per show.

The level of talent on display is impressive. Nadine Kinsella (11), who dances to Chris Brown's Forever, is one of the night's highlights. She's an astonishingly natural dancer with a lot of charm and perfect timing, and her performance wows both the audience and the judges. Afterwards, Kinsella tells me she choreographed the impressive routine herself. She admits she was "a bit nervous, but I try not to show it". She has been enjoying the competition and isn't afraid of constructive criticism.

“If the judges tell me I’ve done anything wrong I just try to do better.” The judges – musicians Richard Glynn and Callum McAdam, dancer Kayleigh O’Neil and Sean Ferrick, who has a theatrical background – strike the perfect tone, not gushing or uncritical, but kind, especially when dealing with the younger kids. “On the rare occasions when we genuinely don’t like an act, there’s always something good to say, too,” says Ferrick.

The atmosphere in the crowded room is warm and friendly, the children are lively and funny but never unruly, and the sense of community spirit is strong. “There are people from different backgrounds from all over Tallaght in the competition,” says Aisling Connolly. “But everyone’s getting together. When I left the stage the parents of the kids who were on earlier were coming over telling me I did well. They were brilliant. There’s no negativity.”

The event’s welcoming spirit extends to new arrivals – during one performance, a small girl called Niamh, sitting on the ground near my feet, solemnly offers me a chunk of her Twirl bar.

It’s a joyful event. But outside, things look a little more bleak. Following the collapse of Liam Carroll’s property empire, the people of Tallaght now have to live with the increasingly derelict buildings he erected and the social problems they attract.

After the show, the manager of Captain Americas, Matt Ryan, shows me around the Tallaght Cross development where the restaurant is situated. There are, Ryan says, more than 1,000 empty apartments in the complex, and there are only three active businesses – the restaurant, Marks and Spencer, and Aldi – amid the countless dusty-windowed shopfronts.

We approach the abandoned Tallaght Cross Hotel. Like many of the buildings, it wasn’t locked when the staff left – two armchairs are merely stuffed into the revolving doors to prevent entrance. Inside the deserted foyer, soft lighting still shines on the luxurious jewel-coloured chairs. There’s something genuinely unsettling about it all; it looks like a scene from The Shining. Ryan points out a boarded-up ground-floor unit nearby – drug addicts have started to break into buildings and use them for shelter. Several lights shine in the upstairs windows, the laundry hanging from one indicating the presence of one of the junkies within. The whole district feels like something out of a zombie film.

And yet despite all this, the determination of local people to make their home a better place is still evident. Tallaght is one of those long-neglected Dublin suburbs, like Ballymun, that has become a byword for deprivation and anti-social behaviour. People who have never set foot in the place make smug jokes about “Tallaghfornia”. But the people who live there know better. There is a long tradition of grassroots community activism in Tallaght, and residents are rightly proud of their area and of the community spirit that drives these endeavours.

In fact, Tallaght’s Got Talent is just one of the talent shows springing up in the area. Many of these events are organised by youth groups, of which there are 150 in the area. Tallaght’s young people are determined to shake off the negative stereotypes, and organisations such as Tallaght Youth Service, a Foróige initiative, provide a range of services and spaces to help them do just that.

“There’s concern about the prevalence of drugs and alcohol and the need for alternative spaces to be provided for young people so they don’t engage in those things,” says Valerie Scully of Tallaght Youth Service.

Many of the local performing arts events are not just about showing off your performing skills. Following the success of a programme that explored suicide awareness through drama, further workshops will take place in the coming months in which young people will address different social issues, from disability to people’s perceptions of those who are disadvantaged, through the medium of the performing arts.

“Events like are good for the area,” says Scully. “But there are a lot of social issues that can be addressed through performing arts and we would encourage young people to get involved in more of the issue-based work.”

Over the past few decades, community groups in Tallaght have tackled everything from drug abuse to long-term unemployment. But many people in the area are worried that the forthcoming budget may remove much of the funding many of the community organisations need to survive.

“I’d hate to think what would happen if they were gone,” says Mary Clare Wallace of Tallaght Partnership, a development company that works with local groups to tackle social exclusion and poverty. “If you talk to local activists they’d say these groups are the glue that keeps the community together. There are people who fought very hard to get these services in place over the past few decades and if you pull the projects you’ll seriously damage the whole fabric of community in a very working-class area.”

But the optimism that drove these projects is still there. “The people here see as a challenge,” says Scully. “But it’s something they can do something about, that will draw on their creativity rather than complaining. There always has been a spirit in Tallaght of ‘let’s work together’. And if we work as a community we can make it better.”

Both the creativity and determination are evident in Captain Americas on this cold Thursday night. The kids there are proud of their area, and Tallaght is proud of them.

"Everyone here is proud of where they're from," says Captain Americas' events manager Edward Porter. "It's not like 'Oh, God, you're from Tallaght andyou can do this?' It's more like 'We're from Tallaght, we're doing this, and we're brilliant at it.' "

The final of Tallaght’s Got Talent takes place next Thursday, November 26th, in Captain Americas, Blessington Road, Tallaght, 01-4141426.