"The 4th Act" Ballymun Documentary

Ajouté : 2026-05-21

[00:00:54]This film wants to show living conditions in Balimon but from the point of view of the people who live here and not by the point of view of government bodies, big newspapers or television stations.

[00:01:09]This is the first time ever a film has been made by the people who live in Balmoon about Balon.

[00:03:04]There's a story that uh the architects must have been influenced by druids because of the circles and the columns and the way they're positioned north, south, east, west, and just seems to be always sunny in my memory, but of course it wasn't.

[00:03:34]a typical family at home in Baliman.

[00:03:39]These young people are inheriting all the amenities of this modern age. They live in a community where the basic facilities for their >> The day after we moved in A neighbor stood at my door with neck curtains for my whole house and her words were, "You're a young mother and there you go. Welcome to the neighborhood." I went, "Oh, >> for me growing up, what I loved most was the green spaces and the flats, the warmth, climbing on the flats, you know, um the adventure of Bali M.

[00:04:22]We had a big football pitch the back of Shanghai Avenue. There would be 100, 200 people there day in day out playing football matches non-stop until it got dark. I suppose what we are doing an interview.

[00:04:40]We do an interview. We do an interview with you.

[00:04:42]>> It was a tough game. It was really tough.

[00:04:46]Stay here. You want to send yourself?

[00:04:48]You're bleeding m At last we are especially for the best possible reaching Now watching me.

[00:05:53]>> This place was absolutely booming when it closed.

[00:05:58]>> I remember the night before this place was closed, we were all up here. I'd say 50 people. Every snooker table was full, every pool table, the whole lot. And we were told, "Lads, bring these cues with you." This place was meant to be took down what, seven years ago, Martin.

[00:06:12]>> Yeah.

[00:06:15]>> We We thought we would had our new premises.

[00:06:18]>> Seven years. If you gave us them seven years back, >> you you sort of get a bit demotivated.

[00:06:29]I have to worry that you're knocking doors, you know, and there's nothing happen.

[00:06:45]Our own survey shows that nearly 75% of the people who are living in the community were happy. What also came out, however, was a picture of a massive neglect of the area by state bodies.

[00:07:28]In the area's only health center, there are just four doctors.

[00:07:33]There are two dentists, five social workers, and two community workers.

[00:07:38]There is no ambulance service. There is no casualty department.

[00:07:42]>> How long do you normally kill here when you come up? Um, you have to be here about half 12 and you're lucky it doesn't start to rain. You get in the car pasture >> and you're say you're standing here all that time. What about if it's raining or something like that?

[00:07:54]>> You're still here in the rain.

[00:07:55]>> I'm just lucky I had someone to mind the children today. They'd be here screaming with me.

[00:08:01]>> We don't need this. We really don't need this. We need people that go and say, "Yeah, family money is a problem. We'll do it." Most of us here are foundry workers giving up our hours small women.

[00:08:09]Yeah. They have children dropping the kids off. users still get paid every day to bach their office and our cars wait outside even the TD sit here I think detected because they'll never be here any other time they're not here when we really need them and after what happened here now it's typical I'm going to meet you at the door it's 11:00 hopefully have some successful day cuz after just [ __ ] >> well I had a choice whether whe I'm a minister for the whole country but I made you know I did want to come here I would love to stay it's always happened that way that the people had to take charge you know who knows best what's needed say in Balon they can make rules and regulations up there in the dog but the people who live on the ground know what's needed and it has in my experience has always been the people had to take charge of what was needed before anybody listened.

[00:09:20]>> The Balman swimming pool was built after a campaign where local people blocked bulldozers which were making that particular site into a car park.

[00:09:27]>> Give proven to the people in bad moon that if they get together, if they work together, they too can achieve a great deal more than southern corporation are prepared to give them credit for. If it's only half a dozen people and they want to do something in Valley for Balmon, then the Balmon will be behind them all the way.

[00:09:44]>> Pretty much anything that did exist that from my recall were set up by local people.

[00:10:42]When I see the empty flats, it reminds me of when they were doing something that they started knocking down Shamac down street. Don't know whether you ever remember Shamac down street. uh just >> the the houses gradually over the years the whole street it's a long street start to deteriorate they start blocking off moving people and I'm not saying they're doing that anymore but I think they have some plans because if you go down especially down the end of Burus that's an off state >> they're running down the >> I remember when I was 17 16 17 and uh a group of us teenagers walking through Valon and it was in October October evening. It was very very windy and they would put these when anybody vacated um a flat they put these uh metal sheets on the windows. All you could hear were them blowing and it was a eerious sound.

[00:12:10]But what are buildings without people?

[00:12:14]The success of Baliman in the final analysis will be judged by the happiness and well-being of the families living there. In any event, they're away to a good start in their attractive flats and homes.

[00:12:35]You don't give a [ __ ] about any of us here. You'll get the check every [ __ ] week.

[00:12:40]>> Please ladies, that's what I said to you and to figure out a house.

[00:12:43]>> How would you come on? I use the time style and antics of Dublin corporate. We all know ladies are totally empty when it comes to solve problems that you yourself cause. You like to sit there and look down on us poor selves whose life you decide on is make me sick. Come on, girls. Let's get the [ __ ] out of here.

[00:13:10]>> My name is John Fitzgerald, Dublin city manager. Dublin Corporation set up Balimmon Regeneration Limited to develop the new town of Balimmon. It has 350 hectares of zoned land for development which within centers uh is one of the most attractive areas in Dublin now for potential investors.

[00:13:32]The new town is hugely important uh from our point of view in terms of uh potential development but also in terms of the new community which uh is building up in that area.

[00:13:47]Traditionally, Dublin Corporation would have been seen as one of a number of institutions of state who had failed balon and its community. There was perhaps some lack of confidence at department level in the ability of Dublin City Council, the former Dublin Corporation to uh to plan the future because the history of the management of the estate wasn't terrific and therefore it was probably felt that a new broom needed to take on this enormous challenge.

[00:15:00]What I don't understand Mr. is he's spent 4 million down is they're going to pull it back for now. That is a lot of codsw.

[00:15:07]>> The leading authority on this would be perhaps Dr. Ran Power from the London School of Economics who has spent a lifetime studying the consequences of high-rise failed high-rise public housing estates and in her seinal work estates on the edge she features Balimon as one of five estates throughout Europe that best demonstrate the excesses of the time and the poor planning of of the time. the quick fix solution. What went wrong that created these ultimate ghettos?

[00:15:43]>> You could rescue these estates if you combine social with management with environmental and with financial remedies. You had to kind of get everything together in what I called a patchwork solution. I think it was the patchwork solution that Baliman regeneration bought into where Balimon regeneration and Dublin Corporation differed from any of the other estates was in the decision to go for wholesale demolition of the whole estate which wasn't actually a decision that I thought was in the best interest really of the country the estate the people or actually the finances of Dublin Corporation.

[00:16:28]I think the demolition thing wasn't something that people had really contemplated till till quite late.

[00:16:34]>> People still felt, you know, refurbish the flats and do it in this way or that way. And there was all sorts of proposals to, you know, sell them off to individual co-ops to manage individual blocks within a co-op and stuff like that. But I think the demolition thing hadn't really uh been seriously sort of contemplated as something that was going to happen.

[00:17:06]Deep shall devel.

[00:17:32]This is an opportunity to correct, I think, many things many of us believe have been wrong for for a few years. If we can uh look at this project and get it right, it'll be a model of best practice that we no doubt will use again in other parts of the country. uh I think in in good times to the economy it's an opportunity for us to see that we can do that uh where we can provide first class facilities uh for bringing economic rejuvenation uh bring in jobs bring in investors uh have top quality education and at the same time most important of all to give a high quality of life and uh second to nowhere else in this country to the people of Balon. Uh I look forward to that. The projects will take us some time but as soon as we get up and running it will come to fruition and it will happen. cancels.

[00:18:18]>> I think when once they decided to demolish it, it had to be a showcase.

[00:18:25]It's very close to Dublin airport and so it's very very conspicuous and what they did in Baliman would be noticed by international visitors.

[00:18:39]You've got a great sense of solidarity between you and this solidarity is um the the architectural side of it and the physical side of it is that you're living collectively in a building and going from this wouldn't you think I mean the question is that wouldn't you think that this solidarity would be broken up by the fact that you will all be living you know eventually in individual houses in the individual private houses.

[00:19:09]>> The foundation for me would be that solidarity with people with each other >> because of the collective living >> is is it's I think it's it's almost like it's almost like a a food a sustenance >> that keeps you surviving in a community.

[00:19:27]>> But do you think that this solidarity would be broken?

[00:19:30]>> It will be different. Yes. Yes. It will be it will be broken. It will be different.

[00:19:34]>> It will be >> it will be different.

[00:19:36]There's a very high risk that when they are starting to to um to build the houses and to demolish the flats that they will forget to uh that they that they will forget to build all the the other things.

[00:19:54]In the period of the Celtic tiger, it looked as though nothing would hold back Ireland's economic prosperity.

[00:20:01]It was a very very symbolic project. I think >> there was an echo always re resounding in in my head as I was talking about the plans for the new balon that hey this was done before in the 60s. They were talking about the fantastic new world that the high-rise would be and yet it went all wrong.

[00:20:24]was the older population in Balimmon who looked at this master plan and said in 1962 we saw a master plan that looked very similar to this and it never was built.

[00:20:41]We don't believe you. That looks lovely but we don't believe you.

[00:20:49]The plan was for the regeneration to take 10 years and people said that isn't possible. You will never ever do this in 10 years.

[00:20:59]>> And they haven't get your cup of tea. I'll give you about maybe two or three minutes. Get your cup of tea. Sit down.

[00:21:10]>> Okay. Sorry. The tea has been panned up there. We had to be very optimistic in the time frame that was established because to keep the community with us, if you if we were to go out to people who had been campaigning for 30 to 35 years for a redevelopment to happen and you were going if you had to tell them it was going to take another 10 15 years, uh that's an extraordinary long length of time for somebody who is at the end of their tether in campaigning.

[00:21:45]>> Are there any fears attached to it? I mean, are you in any way nervous of losing something that is in place now that might go with the new development?

[00:21:52]>> No, no, I have no fears. They can only improve anymore. There was if you take on board this community has survived as long as it's had survived and we have never even had the basic of a a cinema.

[00:22:05]That is basic. You know that that was a right for every community that I lived in as a kid. But if you look back on that now, we haven't even had that. So if this I mean, you know, you have a nervous breakdown if you to think that this wasn't for the benefit of this community.

[00:22:45]Heat. Heat.

[00:24:19]There is a tension for any organization that's involved in a social agenda but is governed by the company's acts to distinguish the two roles. So one is representative but under the company's acts every director of a company is there to further the benefits of that entity legal that's your duty is to that organization and to you know progress it in every way possible. Um well I remember the the big roundabout and the sunken roundabout uh and it was a shortcut to the airport. Uh and I and many other Dubliners had no reason to come to Balon other than as a shortcut. Um so it wasn't that I had negative perceptions. I just had never had caused a stop. I was president of the Chamber of Commerce in Dublin in 2007. At the end of that term, um the CA manager asked me would I be interested in taking on the role of chair of the regeneration company in Balimon. There had been earlier proposals that maybe it would be a change in name might um um facilitate um investment but we had a board meeting a board away day indeed in which we debated what um the branding of Balon meant and it was under the title Balon and the name of Balmon. Uh was it utopian? Um there was an opportunity there was a blank canvas to paint on.

[00:25:55]I think from certainly from what I would feel about urban design and um how towns and cities work um it was a place that wasn't really a place you know you know the the song the you song which is the place the streets have no name that's what to me very significant in terms of how towns and cities operate was a very typical example of development all across the world from the 60s. I mean that this type of development was was was very prevalent and seemed to be the thing of the future from Corbuzzier onwards.

[00:26:33]>> In designing the new balon, we wanted to get away from the monotonous large uh local authority housing estates or the urban sprawl like you had in the Northland Aans or West Talas that were developed in the 70s and 80s. What really does change though is the total rejection of things like uh social housing and particularly council housing. Uh the rejection of planning both economically and ideologically and more generally a sort of return to a 19th century idea of of of capitalism as this sort of um force of nature that if you hold back will do bad things.

[00:27:12]It remained an area which had, if you like, 5,000 housing units in the end, but not one of them was built by the private sector, which is so totally upside down and topsyturvy to Ireland in general.

[00:27:30]It has always been government policy to promote owner occupation. It's not that you have to own your house to be successful. it's that nobody who doesn't own a house really. Most people who who um have financial security own houses.

[00:27:48]So both socially and physically it it was quite out of tune with with with other places that tend to be more successful. People who were allocated in flats in Baliman were the people who were classed as too poor to buy, too vulnerable to buy, too transient to buy, just not able to to aspire to that level.

[00:28:10]>> I think the idea was that it would become a 50/50 area. So 50/50 uh for one of a better expression, working class and 50/50 sort of middle class or sort of split. That's what they were looking for. That's what I I heard discussed at a number of different forums.

[00:28:33]The idea is that that that that it's a sort of limiting um to be in somewhere where everyone in the particular area is is like you are in the same social position as you. I I guess you could connect it to the weird phrase which I don't think is used much anymore which was social exclusion.

[00:28:52]Like they didn't talk about poverty, they talked about social exclusion.

[00:28:56]you had a cycle where you were unemployed. Most people knew were unemployed. Um you didn't necessarily have hope or or to use the Blairite buzz phrase aspiration. But the idea is sort of excluded from what I guess Is it nice?

[00:30:26]I don't think that that um it was not it was the bad intention that that that that was the problem. Uh the problem was that this the sheer size of that organization uh not only the administration the bureaucracy inside but also on all the building sites all the it was a huge presence. I mean it was almost like a second balmoon that was kind of dumped on the balon.

[00:30:58]>> We had a strategy from the outset that we would counter the negative publicity with good news stories about the plans for the redevelopment and we used the the I suppose the mechanism or the vehicle of the arts uh to get that image across.

[00:31:18]Breaking ground is a new arts program in Balimmon. Workshops will commence in January with bronze casting by Dave and creative writing by novelist Leah Mills.

[00:31:27]>> This is what's called the percent for art scheme, which is interesting to reflect what that means. So what it means is that if you were involved in construction, a percentage of the money was set aside for artistic endeavors, which is very uh admirable objective to have. But because there was so much building work in Balon, the Balon present for arts game would have been the biggest one in the country. Those people who were in the business of artistic endeavor who wanted to sell their services, this wasn't lost on them.

[00:32:12]The work was called a map to care and my first question was in the communication who cares and it was uh you know if you care you pay something there's a little bit something about it you put your hand to your pocket.

[00:32:37]So that is a map and it would be the map of the new place and the whole plaza would be uh showing the names of the participants of the people. So it would be a legacy to that put your put your hand to your pocket into your pocket to to to take a stake in that place.

[00:33:00]Don't bicker only.

[00:33:06]And people of course they told me you make the poorest people in Ireland pay because I wanted to I wanted to get out of this loop of the goodness of the so-called goodness.

[00:33:36]You have a decanted building. Nobody's in there. And it's been stripped out and it was turned into a hotel for a month or something. And people from all around, in fact, we had visitors from the OECD who came to look at it and um money was spent to do this thing up and people stayed there for a little while then was demolished.

[00:34:02]I I didn't get that, you know. I I couldn't get that at all.

[00:34:10]>> What do you think it was trying to convey?

[00:34:14]>> Well, I have no idea.

[00:34:19]>> I think the project was in a sense it could kind of neutralize the situation in some sense.

[00:34:28]It's it's a kind of a neutrality. So whichever position you take, the project would allow that. The project could facilitate your position.

[00:35:23]I was a little bit obsessed to have an a Starbucks in Balimon because I thought that is the best sign that something really is is um um you could call it gentrified but but I mean it young people like it and to to create a place of attraction you know like a culture and coffee goes well together and uh where you know something a little bit like in Vienna you know >> really pleased to be here again this morning and Jenny when I drove in here this morning I thought it looks fantastic Bimon like it looks like driving in somewhere in just another country just looks really great so obviously part of that is the spirit of the people who live out here movement house is one of the most stressful things you can do, okay, in your life. They say it's one of the most causes of stress move house. Now, if you move a whole community at the one time, then there's huge stress in the whole community.

[00:36:24]>> Yes, there were incredibly raw exchanges.

[00:36:29]Uh people had to vent their frustrations. I often said in the early stages >> in the early days we knew that we had to exercise the pain and hurt of 30 years of perceived neglect. Neglect and hurt that had to be exercised. You had to be prepared to turn the other cheek. You have to turn the other cheek and to to take a lot of abuse before people would begin engaging in a rational way.

[00:37:04]There's not one bit of green left. My curtains haven't been pulled for over 18 months. When they took the hoarding down, they fenced us in like animals.

[00:37:15]They put a cage up against our walls and their gardens.

[00:37:20]You try and get BRL, they tell you, "We have permission. We can do what we like." And that is their attitude. the theorists in relation to public consultation will say that it should be the community making all the decisions. Uh now I think we struck a very good balance.

[00:37:42]>> I think consultation was also a word that was misread by the community and consultation can sometimes mean we'll consult with you but we mightn't always listen to you. What's important is that you the community have a process whereby you feel involved to the extent that you have confidence in the partnership approach that is delivering for you what the community needs are.

[00:38:10]>> There is far more consultation and real participation here than any in any project in the history of the state. But we have to be able to identify within that that there is another dynamic often taking place in in very sophisticated communities like this which is there are community activists and individuals who have their own agenda who don't always have the common good at heart.

[00:38:46]That that's a bit controversial. Okay.

[00:38:48]>> A bit of >> And people actually thought I think by the word consultation that their words would be heard and their concern and of course they some we all include myself might have got things wrong. Um everybody does but there was an awful lot of things that they would have got right. They had a planning day which was held in the shopping center in Balmon and on display they had some of the suggested models for the regeneration program as well as some elements from the master plan. Um my first thought is well this is already planned.

[00:39:25]>> There will be uh some very localized pressure groups who won't be satisfied with any of the options or solutions that we might bring forward. this has to be uh viewed in the context of the magnitude of the overall proposal and that we can't just compromise the plan.

[00:39:47]>> But land as as we speak, I'm sure there's deals and wheels going on at this particular time with companies who are dealing with the BR to buy up the land that's there in order that they can develop whatever it is. But it's being it is being factored in and the board has given a commitment like the board could have taken the stance that >> just in terms Yeah. Well, just in terms of Balon being built >> uh 20 years ago and no amenities or facilities were put in for the people, you would hate to think that we're going back down that road again. I'm not prepared to sit back and allow an economic investment program to take place in the absence of a social and cultural indigenous project.

[00:40:42]I remember the principal the housing officer for Dublin Corporation was saying to us, "We don't know what to do with the place. tell us what to do with the place. And people responded to that very positively. They didn't say, "Well, that's negative." She said, "Right, we will. We'll we'll work with you to plan a new future for Balon." What do we conclude about Balon?

[00:41:01]Firstly, the level of engagement between BRL and Dublin City Council and the community and voluntary sector is best described as tokenism in terms of international criteria. Secondly, BRL's style of engaging with groups has eroded trust both within the community and voluntary sector and between the community and voluntary sector and the local authority.

[00:41:25]>> The regeneration sort of inadvertently, I suppose is the right word, sort of did cause that sort of break up of the collective community voice.

[00:41:35]I think a lot of the time things like tenants associations um get split by these sorts of things. They they usually get very very starkly split into people that accept what's happening and people that don't. Um there's usually a certain amount of like you know the money's here and we're going to try and make it work and you know maybe it'll be good. But you know quite frequently you know other other people within those groups will notice quite what pup they're being sold and try and fight it.

[00:42:07]>> Okay. So the community action program in Balon is known locally as CAP. It was the only organization at the time that was seeing very taking very political issues. So you know you you knew that if you if something was going on you were worried about something going on in your area. you knew that if you came to CAP that you could perhaps be able to get to a point of perhaps campaigning on something. The good thing was the community trusted CAP to do that to take whatever idea and help them turn it into actions. And that's just the way it was.

[00:42:34]And I I I suppose I'm using the term the tense was because from next Friday the 30th of April, the organization will no longer exist. We are being forced and I mean forced to wind down the official company. The keys to the office are going to be handed back. The final audit will be complete and cap will no longer exist.

[00:43:47]They came along with an idea for a community which seemed you know fine probably on paper if you're looking at it you know from the outside in you don't understand how a community works and you they set up these sort of forums in areas and in those for there were people elected and nominated was like you know any politics. Actually, we all know if democracy works, it'll be banned. You know, the person that was representing this neighborhood uh got one vote.

[00:44:10]>> Forum elections are taking place on the 20th of May this year.

[00:44:15]>> Balon is changing.

[00:44:18]If you're interested in managing this change, managing. Isn't that the best way? Balon is changing. You can make a difference.

[00:44:26]>> Your vote counts.

[00:44:29]It's now 10 years on and unfortunately we're only starting to realize say in the last 18 months that they're here with their own agenda and that doesn't meet in with ours. They've never once taken on board anything that we have said in regards putting in local amenities, talking to people properly. They will talk and then when you're finished talking, whatever you wrote down, they throw in the dust bin. That's my firm belief. There were a number of people there from the Germany residence association who were saying well democracy you know the rights of the individual to take a court action or to lodge a a planning h appeal etc that you couldn't this that's what democracy is all about I heard nobody actually saying that democracy was about accepting the will of the vast majority of the people 99.9% the common vote Yes, our support.

[00:46:06]Heat. Heat.

[00:46:54]ground floor. This was the shop van.

[00:46:58]was kind of facing this way.

[00:47:02]One of the things I always done was if I wasn't ready to go, I shout out to the kids to go over and get uh stuff for me or milk or cigarettes in the van, the shop van. And of course, you can't buy cigarettes. Children can't buy cigarettes. But I could actually see the woman in the van. I'd signal over that for me. She'd go over and she'd get the children go and get them from. And then when he came back over to me, he would come up to S. He just I just lower down a bag and a bit of string and he sends cigarettes up in that like and I throw him down a few B.

[00:47:42]I think nostalgia is a double-edged sword. It's very important for us to know where we came from and to have that sense of belonging and being and inner confidence that I'm such and such and I belong to such a community. I certainly uh don't uh deny the community of Balimon that. But I think you also need to look forward and to embrace change.

[00:48:35]anything that's about workingclass people's experience in Ireland is going to be controversial unless people are just going sort of a we was poor but we was happy you know that you anything that goes beyond Dublin in the rare old times >> it's going to It's going to be controversial because it's going to upset the people with power and the people with money.

[00:49:03]>> For what it's worth, it is printed but not yet published. Oh, >> um it took us 6 years to get it printed because um initially um the the good people in the regeneration um obviously they're used to dealing with outsiders coming in and saying, "Oh, well, you know, it'll be a community event and blah blah blah and not actually meaning it."

[00:49:30]>> Yeah. Mhm.

[00:49:31]>> And when they discovered that it actually was being of wrote by local people and not the kind of local people they approved of, >> the funding for publishing the book mysteriously disappeared.

[00:49:42]>> So basically they ran out of money.

[00:49:44]That's why they didn't publish the book.

[00:49:46]>> No, they didn't run out of money. They chose not to go ahead with the funding.

[00:49:51]It was about choosing the story that was published.

[00:49:58]It was wanting to have editorial control.

[00:50:00]>> But can you not do that to publish the books and around?

[00:50:05]>> No, you can't wise, you know, if you're brought to court, >> you know, if that was published in the >> Yeah. But in about 20 years time, then people won't be around.

[00:50:14]>> Neither will we.

[00:50:18]>> People do want to be connected to their past. So I understand it totally.

[00:50:24]I've also met many people who would have said to me growing up in Dublin, one of the guys who worked with us in Balman, he grew up in the tenementss and he said there's an awful lot of rubbish talked about living in the tenementss. It was awful, you know, which is it's an interesting uh way of looking at something like that.

[00:51:53]Walk towards me.

[00:52:09]Sounds good, isn't it?

[00:52:25]People were very conscious of the media image because it it was very easy to depict if you talk about heroin just show a picture of the flats at the same time.

[00:53:00]So people weren't aware that they were bringing their kids up in an area that looked like, you know, Daddy Mo equals heroin.

[00:53:08]There was one guy had his name and address on his hand when he jumped, you know, and a contact number.

[00:53:15]Again, it was the flats of suicide, the flats of crime, the flats of drugs.

[00:53:19]>> Changan Road, we lived there for 24 years. I think we were south face and there was a lot of light in the flat. I used to go by sometimes and look up as well and I I don't think happened. I wouldn't like anyone to get in and mess in it or and people think that I'm on drugs and I get really embarrassed and everybody in the community should do more and leaders should come in and more activity should be put up. If I haven't been playing football or being doing all the activities in my community, I think that I will be on drugs myself. And in a couple of years, if I don't play football, I think I'll be on drugs as well.

[00:54:02]Heroin is really one one of the most dangerous drugs that that that people are using. And there are a lot of people here presently who are smoking it and think that they that that it won't affect the baby, but unfortunately it will. If you inject or smoke smoke heroin, it will affect your baby. Now, the short-term effects of heroin would be that it makes people sick.

[00:54:26]A camera system has now been installed.

[00:54:30]This camera system is a new aid for the Balon community. The camera system helps make Balimon a safer community where illegal activity will be dealt with.

[00:54:41]It allows people to go about their ordinary business with the knowledge that the area is supervised and their safety is heightened.

[00:54:52]Through their frustration with the authorities, the people themselves pulled together in their fight against drugs. They set up their own drug watch, policing the entrances of their blocks and preventing the dealing and the drug using. Although this was very successful, it must be said that the drug watch was inspired only by the lack of response by the authorities, the guard, the corporation and the government itself.

[00:55:15]>> Our attitude is if they can police um their blocks to a point of where they can get rid of drugs, then we see their future as uh excellent and it ties in nicely. It gels very nicely with the plan for the redevelopment of Bali Mall.

[00:55:37]Sand hill.

[00:55:56]I love this house, you know. It definitely is. It's It's me dream house, you know. It's everything that I've dreamed of.

[00:56:06]They say very happy for me to move in here, you know. Um they were very nice.

[00:56:12]Um on the day I signed for the house, you know. Um uh they were rushing me well in me new house, you know. Um no, I'm not saying that right.

[00:56:26]Um actually that's not that's not really what happened.

[00:56:35]I'm from Balmore for 45 years. You know, to me, it's an absolute honor and I'm very proud to be the very last person to be housed out of the Flats and Valley Moon. I love me flat know. It's where I read my two daughters, you know, good times in this flat and I'm heartbroken that I have to leave it, you know, but I know I have to go, but I'm not going to anything.

[00:57:03]We went to meetings and we were promised a house. We were promised a garden.

[00:57:09]And when I got my letter in the door of the property that I was going to, it was an apartment.

[00:57:15]I've lived in flats all my life. You know, for your grandchildren, I wanted a garden.

[00:57:25]Dear Miss Matthews, I am instructed to write you in relation to the proposed relocation of you and your household to a new accommodation. This arises from the intended demolition of Joseph Plunka Tower, the last remaining tower of Balimon, the next phase of the Balimon regeneration program.

[00:57:47]You are the remaining occupant of Joseph Plunka Tower and the situation you are in is unsustainable.

[00:57:56]Thanks to Dublin City Council for that.

[00:57:59]If you do not accept this accommodation, Dublin City Council will have no option but to take legal proceedings for the vacant possession of Torin Joseph Plunker which may involve considerable legal and other costs. It will be necessary in the public interest to seek to recover any such cost from you. And I know if I go down the road to court with Dublin City Council, I will lose.

[00:58:34]Dublin City Council are very powerful and I will lose.

[00:58:39]They will be awarded the adjunction to have me removed from Joseph Plunka Terror on this letter because it becomes because the terror block is an unsafe environment which Dublin city council have made it unsafe for me by taking out the concier by not maintaining the upkeep of the building.

[00:59:02]I can't believe that Dublin city council are putting me through this. I really really can't.

[00:59:12]I'm absolutely devastated.

[00:59:16]In order for positive change to become permanent, it is critical, therefore, that the residents of Balimon offer their support and encouragement to the representatives and agencies within the area so as to avoid their burnout and exhaustion. But their welfare is your welfare. This means removing the demonos scenario and working in joint partnership. After all, stressed out people make bad decisions. So, some of the glossy stuff that you hear from NLP basically you, you know, you'll find that we can literally sort out a phobia in 15 minutes. So, a person could have a problem for their entire life, 15 minutes, we've got rid of it because we know how the brain functions, how it operates. And once you learn how that operates, then you can actually begin to install change and create change. In the first instance, I was brought in when when the uh Dublin City Council uh were converting kind of their process from rent collectors uh really bad negative sort of perception to estate managers or community uh community I can't remember what was the term community officers.

[01:00:15]Okay. So the the I was brought in to teach them practical skills, interpersonal skills to be able to work with the community without alienating the community, to be able to bring them on board, to be able to deal with their needs, with their issues. Basically, to be able to to engage in a way where they can actually understand and read uh resistance or cooperation or uh acceptance signals or reject rejection signals, uh been able to profile people, been able to understand. So you can actually be able to influence people in a really effective way, in a very positive way, in a in a way that actually sustainable. So when they when I done that, when they recognized basically that that stuff was working, they said, "Okay, well really the best way forward with this stuff is bring that out to the wider community.

[01:01:07]Come on.

[01:01:18]Get out of here.

[01:01:47]Now, what are we going to do?

[01:01:50]We have a fine building.

[01:01:53]You can have a fine building, but it's no good unless all of us together work make it a real community. You can have the nicest house in the world, the best house, but unless there's a community in it, it's no good. The real foundations of anything.

[01:02:40]When the lift door opens, as you can see, water is dripping.

[01:02:47]Water is dripping.

[01:02:50]That's what you're faced with when you come out out of the lift. Water everywhere.

[01:02:59]That's the hallway to the entrance door.

[01:03:02]It's all full of water.

[01:04:09]the Friday that Bernie was moving out.

[01:04:14]I only live two floors down, so it was quicker for me to run up the stairs to Bernie to help her move than it would have been to get the lift. And they were using the lift to take both burner uh down.

[01:04:29]And uh there was a chop here and he was brought in to weld up that door for when Bernie moved out so no uh youths could get in to the unoccupied flats. And as I came up the stairs, the chap was cutting through the banisters and at first I thought nothing of it.

[01:04:59]When I came up the stairs, he sort of jumped back. He got a fray and um I asked who he was and he said he was here to weld up the door for when Bernie moved. And I thought nothing of it.

[01:05:16]On the Sunday night when I got flooded, Monday morning I had the ring Dublin fire brigades to get into me into me flat and the fire marshall came up to see where the water was coming from. And when he came down to me, he said they gained access through the banisters.

[01:05:37]And that's when it clicked with me.

[01:05:40]I had Carl put in the basters.

[01:05:48]>> Perfect. Now, that's it.

[01:08:33]All these are supposed to be basic rights. Yet when people demand these rights, they are treated as privileges.

[01:08:41]Experience from other areas has shown that these demands can only be met through people organizing and talking.

[01:08:49]People need to be aware of the conditions affecting their everyday lives so that we can begin to have some influence over them. We hope that this video will prompt some discussion on these issues in Balimon and in other workingclass areas.

[01:10:15]Hey, back up.

[01:10:52]Just watch.

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