Darndale
| Darndale Irish: Darndál | |
| County Dublin | |
|---|---|
 Our Lady's Church, located in Darndale | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | O202405 |
| Location: | 53°24’4"N, 6°11’38"W |
| Data | |
| Postcode: | D17 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Dublin |
Darndale is a planned village, forming an area on the Northside of Dublin, featuring a high concentration of social housing. It is located in the north of the sprawling suburb of Coolock.
The areas is to the north-east of the city centre. It comprises the housing estates of Buttercup Park, Marigold Court, Primrose Grove, Snowdrop Walk and Tulip Court.
The area originally comprised farmlands in the northern part of the civil parish of Coolock, and took its name from either a large house situated to the west of Malahide Road or from the townland of the same name. It was intensively developed by Dublin Corporation in recent decades.
Development
Darndale has a planned village centre which contains a newsagents/off licence, pharmacy and take-away restaurant. Within the village centre is Darndale Belcamp Integrated Childcare Services (known locally as the Jigsaw Centre); one of largest community childcare centres in Ireland and a HSE Primary Care Unit.
The main building in the Darndale Belcamp Village Centre is the Bell Building, designed by Michael O'Shea, which is a unique and collective combination of integrated community services operating in and around a multipurpose building. The Bell Building provides many services to the local community including adult education, youth training, information and support, older people support services, environmental programmes and administration and job seeking services to the local community.[1]
There is a large traveller community located close to Darndale, by the R139, and in a separate compound, Traveller school facilities. This site is mentioned in Christy Moore's song, Go Move Shift.
Social housing concept
Darndale was built as a social housing experiment consisting of low-rise, courtyard-based houses to encourage stronger community links in large, and largely resettled, communities. The idea of the "courts" was to create neighbourly bonds among the new residents. This idea of a communal space fostering community spirit was based on a large housing scheme called Cricketer's Way, located in Andover in Hampshire. This housing plan has not been repeated in the Republic of Ireland since Darndale.
Problems involving the courts began to surface and some became centres of anti-social behaviour. Changes were made to the housing plan: laneways were closed and back gardens extended. In 1993, Martine Franck, a Magnum photographer and Henri Cartier-Bresson's second wife, did a project on Darndale, showing deprived children in their environment.[2]
Popular media
Since September 2014, a documentary-series about the housing estate, named Darndale: The Edge of Town aired on TV3 and also in March 2015 it featured on 'The Benefits Estate' a reality documentary-series on Channel 5 in Britain.
The Irish crime film Cardboard Gangsters, 2017, was based in Darndale.
References
- ↑ Darndale Belcamp Village Centre
- ↑ Franck, Martine. "IRELAND", Magnum Photos. http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&STID=2S5RYDQ11KK