A Place of Ruptures and Bonds: The (Re)making of a Dublin Suburb

The Ballymun neighbourhood of Dublin has, in the relatively short period of its existence, undergone major transformations. Built in the 1960s as a high-rise housing estate, its material features were complete­ly transformed when in the context of a revitalisation and regenera­tion process it was demolished and constructed anew at the turn of the millennium. These material changes, however, have gone hand in hand with the changes in the social fabric of the place. They, in addition, also affected the sense of place of its inhabitants. It is this history, and the ways it continues to inform the lives and experiences of people today, that this book is ultimately about. Writing about it, the author has tried to take into consideration both the perspective of top-down pressures on the inhabitants and their area, as well as their own, grass-roots actions and agency in making the place of Ballymun.