Sitting in the boardroom at the Dublin Port office, a hefty slice of the 1,500 acres of docklands spread out in various shades of grey outside the window, community liaison officer Charlie Murphy recalls his first meeting as a representative on the docklands council, writes Roisin Ingle.
He was doubtful that the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), with their suits and their big ideas, could work alongside the community with their insecurities and their fears of being overlooked by developers.
"I remember it clearly. I looked at them and I looked at us and I said to myself, 'this is never going to work'. I really did not think it could happen," he says.
He takes it back now, saying that while the struggle to achieve gains for the community has been tough, his initial scepticism was unfounded. Since that first meeting eight years ago, tenacious locals have managed to influence the regeneration of the area in a positive way winning, among other measures, a 20 per cent social and affordable housing clause and implementing a local labour charter. "I was wrong," he says. "I admit that. But we have had to fight hard for everything and we are still fighting now. It marked the first time community representatives on the north and south side of the river began to work together and we were able to get results."
Back then, unemployment stood at 60 per cent in some parts of the docklands. While a strong community spirit has always been a feature of the area, much of the land was derelict, and docklanders were suffering the effects of serious social and economic deprivation. The goal, as stated by the DDDA, was "the development of a world-class quarter of sustainable inner-city regeneration in which the whole community enjoys the highest standards of access to education, employment, housing and social amenities." Or as director of the social regeneration unit of the DDDA, Gerry Kelly, puts it, "This is not just a bricks and mortar project, this is a people project."
Still, halfway through the 15-year life of the regeneration scheme, which has seen €4.5m invested in more than 160 community programmes, there are mixed views on how successful the regeneration has been, particularly in relation to housing. In addition to criticising the lack of cultural development in the area, community activist Gerry Fay, an outspoken critic, is adamant that the plans for the controversial private development at Spencer Dock is fraught with dangers. He says experts from housing schemes in Glasgow and Liverpool have expressed concern about plans for eight-storey buildings, citing problems associated with that style of high-rise family accommodation.
"I am deadly serious when I say we could be creating the next slums of Dublin," says Fay, adding that neither the proliferation of "wining and dining" emporiums or prettification can disguise the fact that "the entire docklands project has been developer-led".
Kelly rejects the idea that the accommodation at Spencer Dock will not work. "Why shouldn't the social housing in the docklands have the best quality design and finish? Why shouldn't it be a success? We are working hard at the moment to identify the community's needs and to ensure that the right facilities are worked into the design. There is no basis in presuming it isn't going to work out."
He does accept that when it came to the social housing blocks in Clarion Quay, where basic amenities for young children were not worked into the design, "we may have got things wrong".
A mother of one of the 40 young children living there now says kids are not allowed to play on the grass of the apartments. "But you can't tell a child not to play on the grass outside their door, so I don't," she says. Development in the area has also been slow, another source of dissatisfaction for those waiting to take up social and affordable housing places.
What everyone seems to agree on is that huge strides have been made in the area of education. Schools in the docklands now feature some of the most progressive and innovative teaching programmes in the country, some of which have never been tried before outside the United States. Last year, primary school students travelled to Yale University to learn about the Comer School Development Programme, which has proved successful in disadvantaged areas of the US. Teaching staff have taken part in emotional intelligence and literacy training, while funding for psychological assessments of pupils has resulted in more specialist teachers being employed. Drama programmes have boosted confidence of pupils, and the Jenny Mosley positive behaviour management (Quality Circle Time) approach is already working well in many of the schools. The area is twinned with the Normandy town of Eu in France and most primary school children in the area receive French lessons in anticipation of their regular trips to the town.
"It was a different place obviously when I came 31 years ago," says Brendan Gallagher, the principal of City Quay National School. "We were surrounded by derelict sites and derelict housing, it wasn't a place you'd be encouraging people to visit."
He says if you can sell the social regeneration unit an idea, "they will run with it" and that the principals in the area have developed a trust with those working in the unit as a result. Many of the innovative ideas have come through the successful school principals' forum which has seen education staff from docklands schools working together at the regular teachers conferences.
Back in 1997, education statistics in the docklands were bleak. About 65 per cent of pupils had left school by the age of 15 while only 10 per cent sat their Leaving Certificate. Just over 1 per cent who sat the Leaving went on to further education.
"There has been a huge change in attitude. Local people really see the value of education now and a lot of it has to do with the programmes introduced that have been introduced and is being driven by the children themselves," he says. These days almost 60 per cent of young docklanders complete the Leaving Cert, while 10 per cent go on to third-level education.
With so much development in the area, however, there are inevitable problems. "We feel our school may have to be relocated because soon there will building sites on all sides. The disruption for the children could be too much," he says.
"We are also keen to ensure the new population in the apartments that are being built on the quays send their children to school locally. We have to make our schools so attractive that the new community can't afford to bypass us. That's the challenge at the moment. We want to give people a real dilemma when they are deciding where to send their children to school."
Employment is another major issue. Scholarships, job placement programmes and apprenticeships have all played a part in changing the expectations of young school-leavers in the area. When the DDDA was set up, there wasn't one person from the area employed in the fledgling IFSC. Now there are 130 young docklanders working in financial institutions in the area, all in jobs outside of the security, catering or cleaning sectors.
"It's all very positive stuff," says Betty Ashe of the St Andrew's Resource Centre on Pearse Street. "The downside is that with the development many of the small to medium businesses have left the area. We need to make sure we are replacing those jobs." Another major challenge in the area now, she says, is in integrating the new population with the old. "We are not going to allow two separate communities to exist," she says.
As the new Sean O'Casey footbridge is opened at City Quay this evening, it seems there is still plenty to play for in the ongoing regeneration of Dublin's docklands.
Gerry Kelly says that at the beginning of the regeneration programme he couldn't walk down the street in a particular area of the docklands without some young fella shouting, "There goes the f***ing suit. I walk down the same place now and there are fellas who have been over to Eu saying 'Bonjour, Gerry'," he smiles. "That's what is different with the young generation coming through and that's what inspires confidence in me that we are going in the right direction in creating a dynamic, sustainable community."
Speaking to community representatives it's clear there are concerns about sustainability and about how more vulnerable groups will survive when the social regeneration programme comes to an end. There is a suggestion that a docklands trust fund may be established to ensure smaller projects remain viable when, as Charlie Murphy puts it, "the slates start to become loose". "What we have to ask is at the end of the regeneration project what will be our legacy," says Murphy. "If it turns out not to be sustainable, we have to take the blame.
