
Oliver Bond Flats (Apartments) in Dublin 8.Over the next few weeks I am going to feature some of the different types of housing in Dublin and also other parts of Ireland. When I go abroad I always marvel at how different people's homes are in other countries compared to what I am used to seeing in Ireland. For instance last year I visited
Polska and saw these amazing huge timber houses, all along the main road outside Krakow as I traveled to Lódz by coach. They were unlike anything you would see in Ireland. In Lódz I saw massive high rise blocks of social housing apartments with Soviet era type architecture, probably dating from the 1950's.
I am starting this project with a look at
Oliver Bond - a social housing scheme near the river
Liffey on Dublin's
southside. And although they may look
idyllic in the photos the "flats"(Dublin people don't call them apartments - and also the "t" is silent) are
synonymous with social problems, drug abuse, lack of facilities, overcrowding, unemployment and generally a lack of opportunity for it's residents. The Flats are built in blocks, usually with eight homes on every level - ground, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. There are no lifts, so you can imagine how difficult it must be for someone with small children living on the top level.
(Oliver Bond was a revolutionary member of the United Irishmen, who had the objective of ending British rule in Ireland. But he was betrayed, arrested and died in prison in 1798.)