Kids in the north inner city list what they want fixed in the neighbourhood

When Dublin City Council staff asked 40 children living around the northwest inner city to draw what they disliked about their area, more than 40 percent of the pictures were of dog fouling, litter and dumping.

Too many cars, anti-social behaviour – including drug dealing and scramblers – and poor public realm each accounted for around 20 percent of the pictures,  says a council report. 

The consultation is being done under the council’s climate action challenge, the council report says. 

The active travel team in the council wanted to find out whether children can move safely around the inner-city – walking, cycling, wheeling, or scooting –  and then use the information to work with the kids to design safer routes to and through public spaces, the report says.

At a meeting of the Central Area Committee on 8 July, councillors welcomed the initiative to get children involved in designing their neighbourhood, although some also spoke of their concerns at children’s exposure to serious anti-social behaviour. 

Notably, none of the children had visited the new Royal Canal Greenway, part of which runs from Sherriff Street Upper to the North Strand Road. It was considered unsafe due to anti-social behaviour, the report says. 

That strip of the greenway cost around €9 million to build.  

Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis says that people have been avoiding it due to open drug dealing. 

“People are changing their routes, just not walking down there,” he says. “It’s a green space in our area that we are not allowed to enjoy, in the heart of the city, it’s madness.”

Rob Hughes, an administrative officer in the council’s Active Travel Office, said that the council plans to improve the entrance to the greenway, which should draw more people to use it. 

The entrance to the greenway is one of nine locations that the report mentions have the potential for community interventions, to “integrate colour, creativity, movement, play, sport, biodiversity and community into these mostly unused spaces”.

Hughes said that artists are currently working with the children to come up with ideas to improve the area. “Interventions based on sport, based on environment and various different things,” he said.

Said Ennis: “There is a vicious lack of green space in our area. I love this initiative, I can’t wait to see it rolled out.”

Consulting the kids

As part of the consultation, council staff, including architects and community development workers, talked to 40 children at the Laurence O’Toole Community Centre in April, the council report says.

Kids flagged several issues with the area when asked to draw what they didn’t like about it. 

Litter, dumping and dog fouling was raised by almost all children, the report says. “And impeded play and movement within their community.”

Drug-dealing and scramblers were prominent concerns too, they said. As is the “large levels of on-street parking in the area, much of which comes from workers and college students from the IFSC”, it says, and speeding cars.

Public realm concerns raised included street lighting, noise, pollution, green spaces and places to play. 

Brainstorming solutions, the children said that they wanted more bins and benches, green spaces, more places to play and sports pitches, the report says.

Other ideas the kids pitched included more colour, pavement games like hopscotch, climbing walls, safe walking and cycling routes, and fairy trails. 

The report promises to deliver by employing three artists – David Beattie, Anne Bradley and Ruan Van Vliet – to work with children and the community to come up with ideas to trial changes at nine locations in the area, incorporating colour, movement, play and biodiversity. 

Not mentioned in the report are how the council plans to tackle directly some issues the kids raised, such as speeding cars, dog fouling, rubbish, street lighting and stray animals which alongside active travel are also part of the council’s remit. 

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner said that while this report was commissioned by the council’s active travel unit, all relevant council departments should take actions as a result of the consultation. 

“Its really valuable work,” she says. “It requires a wider response. It shouldn’t be just up to the active travel team.”

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said that the project focuses on children's movement. "The solutions will cut across both infrastructure. behavioural and social norms."

The creative ideas that the artists work on with children will feed into the design of public services, they said. "This will entail an integrated approach across the relevant service areas within [the council]."

Any chance of a pitch?

By phone on Thursday, Leonard Russell, a secretary with Sheriff YC football club, says that there is no full-size soccer or GAA pitch in all of Dublin 1.

State agencies own plenty of vacant land in the area, he said. Some of that should be used for proper sports facilities that could be shared by soccer, GAA and rugby clubs, he says. 

The Sheriff Street area is residential, he said, and the council needs to see it more from the viewpoint of children and families.

The council could clean the streets more, he says. He thinks that they are cleaned more regularly where he currently lives in Artane, he says. 

But, says Russell, local residents must take responsibility for picking up after their dogs as well. “People should do it,” he says. “It’s shocking.”

Traffic is a major problem in the area, says Russell. “All the area is so built up and commercialised, it’s just gridlock.”

He has asked, through public representatives, for the council to reduce the speed that vehicles travel on Commons Street, near Sheriff Street he says.

Both astroturf pitches that Sheriff YC uses for under-8s and under-11s matches can be accessed from Common Street, he says, which is a narrow road used by a lot of double-decker buses. 

The buses go fast, and he fears a child could be killed if they run out, he said.  “It needs ramps, it needs traffic calming,” he says. “It’s very, very dangerous.”

Gardaí should also increase their visibility, he says. “There is a lot of open drug dealing in the area.” 

At the committee meeting, Hughes of the council’s active travel unit, said that the council will consult more children in other areas going forward to explore, “how do we design our city for young people to be able to get around safely?”

Avoiding the greenway

“The greenway exemplifies to me how we are not including children’s perspectives in how we plan the city,” said Horner, the Green Party Councillor, at the meeting of the Central Area Committee. 

The council needs to find ways to attract people to use the greenway, she says.

More seating, she said. “Creating space for children, older people, families etcetera has to be front and foremost of what we are doing.”

Later by phone, Horner said that she thought the report is great. “It’s an excellent report, really interesting and really valuable.”

The council needs to do consultation after it builds new facilities, she says, to figure out what is and isn’t working. 

Horner said that given the biggest issue raised by the kids was litter and dumping and the council does need to address those. 

Ennis said that he has been flagging safety on the Royal Canal Greenway for a year, since he was elected in July 2024. 

Locals have complained to him, as have residents from all over the city who have used the route, he says. 

Around six weeks ago, he met with senior gardaí at the Docklands Oversight and Consultative Forum, he says, and he pushed the issue of the Royal Canal Greenway and drug dealing. 

Gardaí have increased patrols of the greenway and that seems to have worked, he said. “The last few weeks has been very, very clear down there.”

[UPDATE: This article was updated at 8.39am on 1 August with responses from Dublin City Council.]