Tidal waves of change are on the way for Donore Parish!

How do you prepare a community for three decades of construction? Sit and think about that for a few minutes.

When I stood on the roof of my block in St.Teresa's Gardens as a teenager many years ago I could see as far as the eye could see in every direction. Fast forward to adulthood, I have watched the area I grew up in being carved up like the proverbial Christmas turkey.

The reality for residents of this area in 2024 will see the beginning of a massive wave of construction in the Donore parish and its surrounds, not seen since the days of Herbert Simm's original Donore Avenue scheme, and the new Coombe Maternity Hospital have residents witnessed such large-scale developments in such a close-knit space.

For some, it will be a welcome change. For the many long-term indigenous families who have lived here for over two hundred years, it will be difficult to comprehend what the impact of 30 years of construction is likely to be like in and around the streets and alleyways of Donore Avenue.

This place wreaks of community. The community spirit is strong and proud. People from around here look out for each other. We are a village in a city. That has always been the way. We have always been stronger together than apart.

Within a 1km radius from Donore Community Centre on Donore Avenue, 17 sites will be transformed over the next three decades.

Community leaders across this parish now have to come together again and engage proactively with others from the local authority and construction sector to create a workable flexible plan to lessen the impact on life in this community when these construction projects start to ramp up activity.

Community Engagement and meaningful consultation must be a core pillar of the process. Especially on the three major projects located at St.Teresa's Gardens, The Land Development Agency, Player Wills, and Bailey Gibsons. As experienced community leaders will tell you the quality of engagement and consultation on any new project can be sniffed out in the first series of meetings with the other stakeholders of the project. You get the measure of the man or woman facing you across the table by their gestures, comments, and actions very early on.

As Community Leaders we are experts in our own communities.

Through Community Development, we bring a lived experience, For many of us, who have followed this journey along with the frontline staff of Dublin City Council over the last thirty years we have transcended their perceptions of what they would like us to believe around engagement and consultation.

The one thing I have learned is that the failures have outweighed the successes over our past history. The successful results have only been delivered by having the right people around the table in an environment of trust, equality, transparency, and respect for each other's positions.

What next for the Donore Project Consultative Forum and its members?

The question in my mind as we head into 2024 is what role the Donore Project Consultative Forum members will play in effecting change in the lives of the people it is set up the represent. What will its first real steps be in 2024? How will it affect any changes that may be needed? It can't and shouldn't just be a nodding dog. Neither should it hinder progress! Are its foundations strong enough to meet the needs of the job ahead? Its hands seem pretty tied up in the terms or references regarding how much it may truly be able to change regarding the Player Wills and Bailey Gibson sites. These were decisions made before it was set up!

Are there ways for its terms of reference to be amended and strengthened? Will it need to be legally incorporated as an entity for the period of its lifetime? Can the people of this area suggest changes to its structures? As it was not established by the people of this area what is its legal footing? What power does it have? Will it hold Annual General Meetings every year? Will it publish its annual accounts every year? Will it provide training to those who sit on it?

What training, evalution and review mechanisims will be built into the forum for the work it undertakes and the money it spends? What accountability mechanisms will operate?

These are important questions that must be addressed in order for the community to feel that the governance, transparency, and accountability of this forum are worth rowing in behind.

I think the DPCF has a massive amount of work ahead and I think in early 2024 there will be time and space to discuss, review, reinforce, and strengthen the structure of the DPCF so it best engages with the three massive projects waiting to commence. It makes sense to have one overarching vehicle to coordinate across the three major projects. There is no point in having 3 separate wheels rolling down the South Circular Rd! This is our one chance to get this right!

Andrew O'Connell

St. Teresa's Gardens Folklore Project

10.NOV.2023