DARNDALE

(Redirected from Belcamp)
'Darndale' is a northside district of Dublin, Ireland, north of Coolock. It is part of the Dublin 17 postal district and took its name from a large house off the Malahide Road.

Contents

Location and access

Today

Social issues

Recent developments

Priorswood

Cultural References

Location and access

Located to the north-east of Dublin city, Darndale is bordered to the north by the N32 and Balgriffin, and otherwise by Coolock, to the south by the Riverside housing estate, to the west (beyond Priorswood) by Clonshaugh, and the east by the Malahide Road, the Clare Hall estate on the Donaghmede/Coolock border, and Ayrfield. It comprises the housing estates of Buttercup, Marigold, Primrose Grove, Snowdrop Walk, Tulip Court and Belcamp.
Darndale is accessible by the Malahide Road and the N32, as well as from Donaghmede and Coolock, and is within 3km of Dublin Airport. It is served by Dublin Bus.

Today

Darndale has a planned village centre, small industrial units, including a bakery, and is home to a major Traveller settlement, on the N32.
Immediately adjacent are the large Clare Hall Shopping Centre (anchored by Tesco Ireland), a Shell petrol station and a Hilton Hotel (the "Dublin Airport Hilton").

Social issues

Darndale was built as a social housing experiment comprised 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 Crickiter's Way, located in Birmingham, England. This housing plan has not been repeated in the Republic of Ireland since the construction of the Darndale estates. Problems involving the courts began to surface, they became centres of anti-social behaviour and residents complained to the local authority. Improvments have been made recently in the housing plan - lane ways have been closed and backgardens extended, CCTV has been installed in the estates and residents believe this has had a positive effect. However, the sheer size of the Darndale area has created problems (much like the ones found in Ballymun). Coupling this with the lack of youth and other facilities early in the development has led to the area becoming associated in some quarters with crime and drug abuse.

Recent developments

Lately the area around Darndale has seen significant development, most notably the Hilton hotel, which is located in Belcamp / Balgriffin on the border of the Darndale area. Attempts by hotel management to pass the hotel off as being located in far away Malahide failed miserably with the hotel being named locally as 'The Darndale Hilton' (the hotel's official name is The Hilton Hotel - Dublin Airport). This trend of new development in the area dis-associating itself from Darndale continued with the new housing estates being built literally yards from Darndale (at Balgriffin) yet estate agents advertising the new developments as "near" Malahide (5km away) and Portmarnock (4km away) and making no reference to the Darndale area.

Priorswood

The area west of Darndale is known as Priorswood (or, historically, Friarswood), named after a large house standing there before the modern housing was constructed in the 1970s (the house was itself named for a historic priory). The housing estates that comprise Priorswood are Moatview, Fairfield and Ferrycarrig.
The socio-economic profile of the Priorswood area are similar to those of neighbouring Darndale, the housing stock in the area is almost totally local authority housing and so, although always defined distinctly from Darndale, the two are often linked.
St. Francis of Assisi J.N.S and S.N.S service the Priorswood area and are noted locally as the most well presented national schools in the Coolock area.

Cultural References

Darndale is the setting of the generic northside, working class housing estate home to the Rabbite family in the film 'The Commitments'.