More than thirty years after it was built, another of the Ballymun towers was reduced to rubble today in the latest stage of the area's regeneration.
Minister of State Noel Ahern, who was in Ballymun, north Dublin, to lead the countdown to the controlled implosion of the 15-storey block of flats, said it was "another symbolic day" for the area.
The Minister said: "The demolition of the McDonagh Tower will allow for the construction of the new Civic Plaza which will make a huge difference to the landscape of the main street."
Mr Ahern said the plan was to give the area social, physical and economic regeneration which would attract people into the area, create a mixture of social and private housing and generate employment.
He said local residents were being consulted on a permanent way to remember the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, after whom the seven 15-storey towers were named.
The Minister of State was joined for the detonation by Muriel McAuley, grand-daughter of Thomas McDonagh - after whom the tower was named - and her eight-year-old grandson Oscar McAuley.
There was a 30-minute delay to the implosion after concerns were raised that somebody had been seen inside the exclusion zone mounted around the block of flats.
Then there were cheers as the 42-metre, 8,500-tonne building crashed down, covering spectators in a cloud of dust, but leaving the newly-built axis civic centre intact just eight metres away.
McDonagh Tower is the ninth of the Ballymun flat blocks to be demolished and the second to be destroyed by controlled implosion. The 90 families who lived in McDonagh Tower have already moved into their new homes in the area.