In Drimnagh, Bosco youth centre looks for ways to expand to meet growing needs

As Patricia Ryan strolled through the corridors and rooms of Saint John Bosco Youth Centre in Drimnagh, it quickly became apparent that the building does even more than the name suggests.

Ryan, the liaison officer of the local community network Dynamic Drimnagh, proudly pointed out their podcast and recording studio, and a large, colourful mural depicting different users of the centre. 

“The youth did that,” she said.

As she climbed a small stairs into the main body of the building, she pointed to one doorway, saying until late last year, the Philippine Embassy’s outreach operated out of there.

Walking down one of the centre’s many corridors, she greeted a tall man in a black tracksuit as he pushed a bike through a set of double doors.

Inside, there were rows of gym equipment, benches for weightlifting and treadmills.

The gym is open from 5.30am until 9pm seven days a week, she said. “This funds 60 percent of the building.”

Then, she entered an echoey hall with shiny wooden floors.

Many groups used this room as a space to hold masses, she said. “They will be here over the weekend; Friday, Saturday, Sunday, because there is little space elsewhere.”

 This was a part of the original building which was built in 1946, she said. “Everything is block, and there’s very little insulation.”

It’s an old building, she says, as she continues the tour, pointing out damp spots in the roof. “We’re getting to that point where: will it be viable in the next ten years?”

The building is going to require renovations to bring it up to modern standards, says Independents 4 Change Councillor Pat Dunne. “And there isn’t a proper community facility that could include the youth services, and indeed services for all the community.”

One of the many challenges, though, would be keeping services going as they build a new place.

Local councillors and members of Dynamic Drimnagh approached the Dublin City Council officials in late April to propose a land swap. 

The group, which works with the centre, suggested that they take over a council depot site just down the road where the council plans to build 70 homes, Dunne says.

Although the council deemed this idea premature – the depot is still a functional facility – they have agreed to support a feasibility study to decide on the best possible outcome for the centre, a council spokesperson said on Tuesday.

That report is expected to be completed within a year, they said.

Super depots and housing projects

At the council’s South East Area Committee meeting on 11 May, Dunne, the councillor, told chief executive Richard Shakespeare that St John Bosco’s needed a bigger, modern facility to cater for Drimnagh’s growing population.

The centre’s board have said before that they were willing to offer the council a land swap for the current site next to the Luas stop once they could transfer their remaining 150 year lease, Dunne said in a written question to the executive.

“Can a feasibility study be arranged to look at this possibility?” he asked.

Dunne’s question pointed to the council-owned waste management depot, just 600 metres away, also on the Davitt Road.

A swap could help create a new civic and sports centre on the current youth centre site, Dynamic Drimnagh’s submission to the council’s development plan for 2022 to 2028 says. 

“The new centre could also have a bigger community creche, senior facilities and could be used for music and art facilities which are currently lacking in Drimnagh,” it says.

The Davitt Road depot site, according to the council’s May 2026 housing delivery report for the South East Area, is earmarked for the development of 70 homes.

But, the report also notes that the date of completion for these remains to be confirmed, nor does it specify whether the council or an approved housing body will lead the delivery of this project.

However, at the moment, the depot is both fully operational and required for the council’s operation needs, Ruth Dowling, the council’s executive manager for Housing Management, said in a written response to Dunne’s query.

These lands had been flagged as suitable for housing when work was done in 2018 towards consolidating many of the council’s smaller depots into two “super depots”, she said.

The idea was for the northern part of the city to get one, and the south would get another. But the South City Operations Consolidated Depot project in Marrowbone Lane has changed significantly since then, she said.

There’s a pitch planned for part of that site now, and a depot on the rest of it – although decisions around what operations will be run out of that new depot haven’t been made.

For the Davitt Road lands to be developed for housing, the waste management depot there would either need to re-locate to a consolidated depot on Marrowbone Lane, or an alternative location, she said.

What is feasible

The original idea for a land swap probably isn’t viable, and the centre’s board need to re-consider their options, said Ryan.

They could rebuild on this existing site, she says. “But if that’s the case, you lose your services for two years. So what do you do?”

Even without a feasibility study, they know the area needs a bigger community centre, she says. 

They aren’t looking for something as major as the civic centre over in Ballyfermot, she says. “We’re looking for something on this plot of land that could maybe go up three storeys.”

On 27 April, council officials from both the South East and South Central areas met with local councillors and representatives of Dynamic Drimnagh to discuss the Bosco, a council spokesperson said on Tuesday.

It was agreed, during the meeting, that the council would support a feasibility study, they said.

Dowling, in her response to Dunne at the area committee meeting on 11 May, said this study would examine potential locations, funding, demand, needs, multi-purpose usage, future demographics and overall financial viability.

Support facility

Ryan climbs up a staircase and enters a spacious room which is used for Dynamic Drimnagh meetings, she says. “Board meetings, whatever.”

She strides across the room to a set of windows that face west across a vacant, slightly overgrown site with some shipping containers.

There are only some gulls there, all of whom are facing south as they rest until a fox and its cub slink across the yard, prompting the birds to scatter.

All of that land is owned by the Health Service Executive (HSE), she says.

The HSE has plans to turn the campus into a facility for outpatients and diagnostics, as well as an acute mental health inpatient unit, according to their 2026 Capital Plan.

The project is currently at the detailed design stage, the plan says.

The community centre here could play a vital role in supporting that facility, she says. “Knowing that you have a gym here, they could do a referral service for physio, particularly with the likes of COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] projects, and cardiovascular and just general fitness.”

“But, in terms of the community space, we’re restricted with this particular space,” she says.