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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Efrem Gidey: ‘If you challenge yourself, you are always the winner'
In the packed school hall where Efrem Gidey is speaking, there is a question from the back about injury and recovery. It's pertinent and astute, especially coming as it does from one of the fifth-class pupils. Because Gidey knows all about such challenges, and not just running-related. At 24, his career is soaring, and over the last nine months, he's broken three Irish records between the track and the road, finished fourth in the European half-marathon, then won the European 10,000m Cup in Pacé, France. 'With injuries, I'm not any different,' Gidey says. 'Everybody has to recover, so healthy food, also some physiotherapy, ice bath. Then to never give up, to be better, and to improve. And I'm so proud to do that, and so grateful.' It's Thursday morning at Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál in Inchicore in Dublin and the entire school of 300 pupils, from junior infants to sixth class, are hanging on his every word. Gidey had arrived on his Trek racing bike and is here as guest speaker with The Daily Mile , the now global campaign that promotes basic physical fitness in primary schools, encouraging 15 minutes of activity each day, or the equivalent of running one mile. READ MORE In introducing Gidey, school principal David Gough emphasises the simplicity of running and the benefits for physical and mental health. Gough also hangs on the injury question, the two-time All-Ireland football final referee having suffered a torn hamstring in the Down-Louth game last Saturday, likely ruling him out for the rest of the championship season. Gough talks of Gidey moving from Eritrea to live in Ireland in 2017, at 16, keeping it understandably subtle for this audience. But then no one, only Gidey, can truly understand or even imagine what he endured during that time, fleeing war-torn Eritrea in 2016 and ending up in a series of refugee camps, including several months in the northern French port city of Calais, where conditions meant it was branded as 'the Jungle'. From Calais, Gidey travelled here as one of several unaccompanied minors under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme , put under the care of Tusla, and housed in temporary accommodation in Hollystown in Mulhuddart, in northwest Dublin. He attended Le Chéile secondary school in Tyrellstown, while a care worker in Hollystown also contacted Clonliffe Harriers athletic club in Santry regarding Gidey's possible athletic potential. Within two years, he was Irish Schools champion, on the track and cross-country, and later in 2019, just days after gaining eligibility to represent Ireland, Gidey won bronze in the under-20 European cross-country in Portugal, that race won by a rising Norwegian star named Jakob Ingebrigtsen . 'It's not running only, it's about being healthy, and being happy,' Gidey says, when asked by another pupil what he likes about running. 'And being positive. Just for five minutes, or 10 minutes, when you run, you are healthy. Efrem Gidey addresses pupils from Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál in Inchicore as part of The Daily Mile campaign. Photograph: Ciarán Conlan 'When I started running, I was 16 years old. At that time, my first 5km time was around 25 minutes. Then with consistent training, and other people's help, I just keep improving ... And then in a race, if you challenge yourself, you are always the winner.' It hasn't been all smooth running since he arrived in Ireland. Gidey has had several knee and hip injuries, one sustained after falling off his bike while he worked for Deliveroo, often seven days a week, and long into the nights too. A year after his European under-20 success, his coach and Clonliffe stalwart Joe Cooper, who had also become a father figure to him, died after a short illness. Later, Gidey joined the fifth-class students for a mile run around the beautiful gardens of the Oblate House of Retreat and Church of Mary Immaculate, adjacent to the school, where the benefits of The Daily Mile are further evident. Promoted here by Athletics Ireland , and now run in 1,424 primary schools across the country, it also helps when an athlete like Gidey is leading the way. He is fast becoming an inspiration and role model for young Irish athletes; not yet at Rhasidat Adeleke levels, just not as far off as you might think. Two days before he was invited back to Clonliffe, after his victory in the European Cup, the juvenile club athletes lined up out the door to greet him. The run ends with more high-fives and more rapturous applause. 'It's exciting, the high-fives, they are so happy,' he says. 'It's nice when you can make other people happy running like that, and not just yourself. And I am happy to help them get a little bit more motivated. And you know, they can always get better, maybe someday break a world record.' Back inside the school, Gidey sets out his ambitions for the rest of the season. Since running 60:51 for the half-marathon in Copenhagen last September, breaking the Irish record by eight seconds, then finishing his studies in business and logistics at Cathal Brugha FET College, he's been training full-time with the Hoka elite group, guided by London-based coach Andy Hobdell. Efrem Gidey has increased his weekly running total from 60-65 miles to 100-115. Photograph: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile Under Hobdell, he's significantly increased his weekly running total from 60-65 miles to 100-115, as well as spending weeks at a time at altitude training camps in the French Pyrenees and Arizona. This enhanced dedication is paying dividends, Gidey clocking 27:26.95 for 10,000m on the track in California in late March, breaking the Irish record by 13 seconds. That still doesn't get him to the World Championships in Tokyo in September, so he'll race the UK 10,000m championship in Birmingham next Saturday, hoping to go a little faster again. 'I'm working hard for that, I still need to get a better time,' he says. 'With Andy [Hobdell], he's one of the top coaches, not just for me, for the whole Hoka team. He makes the plan to add some mileage. 'And to win the European 10,000m Cup, I think to win that, it wasn't my personal best. So it wasn't a big surprise for me. Because I knew my time [27:26.95], how hard I'm working, and to win, by just being smart.' For all the difficult twists and turns in his journey, he gives the sense he's still just starting out. Still, there are unimaginable challenges. He's never been reunited with any of his family, who live in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. He says his father is dead, and though he sometimes speaks to his mother, he feels he doesn't know her after so long apart. 'Yeah, sometimes it's difficult for an athlete, it's hard. As an athlete, you need to be happy, to be healthy, mentally. But in everything, there is hurt. In life, there's hurt. 'You know my journey, but you don't have a choice. If you need to have something, to be successful, need to change your life, to get on in life, there is sometimes hurt. To live life is sometimes painful. But it's good, you know?'
RTÉ News
29-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Megan Connolly loving the colour and passion of life in Serie A
There's a history of Irish female footballers plying their trade in Italy that goes back to the late 1970s, when Inchicore trailblazer Anne O'Brien won a Scudetto with Lazio. O'Brien broke the mould. In a remarkable career she won further Italian titles with Trani, Reggiana and Milan Salvarani. Louise Quinn (Fiorentina), Stephanie Roche (Fiorentina) and Niamh Farrelly (Parma) have all played in Serie A Femminile more recently, and now Megan Connolly is flying the flag, following in O'Brien's footsteps by representing the Biancocelesti. Connolly has never been afraid to embrace a challenge. Having broken through at College Corinthians in Cork before moving to Florida where she played college football, she's always shown an appetite to broaden her horizons. Moving to Italy was simply too good an opportunity to turn down. "The league is great, the football is great." "I've really enjoyed it," she said of her switch to Lazio, completed in the summer of 2024 after Bristol City had been relegated from the Women's Super League. "At the start it was quite difficult, a big change moving from England after being six years there and then going to a new culture, a new everything. So yeah a shock at the start. But now I'm absolutely loving it. "The league is great, the football is great. Lazio is fantastic, the training is great, the players, the staff. While I took quite a big risk to go there, I look back on it as such a great decision for me personally and for my career. "You can turn any corner walking through the city and find a new landmark that you didn't even know." It's a split season in Serie A. Ten teams play each other home and away during the first phase, with the top five going into the championship round and the bottom five consigned to the relegation round. Lazio missed out on the championship round, and thus a shot at the title, but they comfortably topped the relegation phase ahead of Como (home of ex-Peamount United and Shelbourne midfielder Megan Smyth-Lynch), Sassuolo, Napoli and Sampdoria. The standard is good - and when it comes to derby day, the atmosphere is intense. "When we played at Roma with all their fans, you have grown men shouting at you," said Connolly, who recently penned a new two-year deal to stay in Rome. "It was quite a shock. But a nice one. A good atmosphere. And yeah we played well in both games so that made the atmosphere really good and hopefully we can beat them twice next year. "You have some fantastic players there, Italians and other international players who relocated last year. "It is a growing league and would compete with WSL for sure. Obviously you have some of the best teams in Europe, Arsenal and Chelsea and City and stuff in the WSL, who it's hard to compete with. But there are some fantastic teams in Italy and yeah the level is top." Connolly was injured for the double-header against Greece in April. She's itching to get back into Carla Ward's first XI as they enter the final window of this Nations League campaign. A tricky test in Turkey awaits on Friday; then it's back to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for a rematch with Slovenia, who thumped the Girls in Green 4-0 in Koper. Ireland must win both games to have any hope of earning automatic promotion to League A. "These are two really big games for us to try and get back into League A," Connolly added. "We know that it has an effect on the World Cup qualifying campaign. So the focus for us is on Friday, get the result, and then go for it Tuesday and try to get another good result. "We know it's going to be difficult. We've seen it throughout this campaign in this group. The games are difficult and in a lot of the games you have to be patient and kind of trust in our game plan, trust in the process, and then make sure that we're solid at the back. They will be tough games, but I think we'll have a good prep this week and go into Friday ready."
The 42
22-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
St Pat's threatened with partial stadium closure following fan incidents
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC have been hit with a suspended partial stadium closure by the FAI's Disciplinary Control Unit following multiple fan incidents. The Inchicore club could see a section of Richmond Park closed if there are any further incidents throughout the remainder of the 2025 season. 'St Patrick's Athletic have been informed by the FAI Disciplinary Control Unit of a suspended partial stadium closure for the remainder of the 2025 League of Ireland season,' a club statement on Thursday read. Advertisement 'This is due to spectator conduct and pitch encroachments, the most recent of which was at our home game against Cork City on 16th of May. 'We have also received substantial fines throughout the season for these incidents. 'An incident of a similar nature in the future could result in the enforcement of a partial stadium closure. 'Whilst all at the club understand the emotion of scoring a last-minute winner, we remind all spectators that conduct such as pitch encroachments, use of pyrotechnics and the throwing of missiles leads to fines and sanctions for the club.'
Irish Times
18-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Buying a home on your own: ‘I was being outbid on every property'
We all know how hard it is to be able to buy and call a place your own; for buyers doing it by themselves, making the sums stack up is that bit harder. And it's not just about buying your own home : the dream of upgrading and adding your own personal touches often requires a practical approach, and will probably take longer than you'd hoped. Real life is different from the reels of social feeds, where a 15-second video online shows work that took months to complete with very little of the slog and financial despair that went into the end result. Two first-time buyers, both pragmatists, tell their stories, explaining how they managed to get the keys to their own places – and what still needs to be done. READ MORE A surprise find in Dublin 8 Thirtysomething Eleanore Hutch, who works in marketing, got more than she bargained for when she bought her two-up, two-down terraced house in Inchicore. 'I found a gun in the attic, a Lee Enfield rifle,' she says, referring to the standard service weapon of British armed forces during the colonial era. While it makes a great icebreaker story to recount over dinner, it isn't on display in the colourful home she has designed for herself. So what did she do with it? She brought it to the local Garda station. The officer in charge didn't ask her any questions and she doesn't know what became of it. To save for the purchase, Eleanore moved back in with her mother for 2½ years, before buying the house in August 2022. Probate, however, didn't come through until the following March. The delay gave her time to process a vacant home grant, and by the time it came through, she had a builder who was ready to start. She took on the renovation project separately, project-managing the subcontractors and paying on a job-by-job basis, including insulating the exterior walls. The house needed work, including rewiring. 'There were burn marks on the plugs,' she recalls. It also needed to be replumbed. The works brought the house from a G Ber rating, the worst kind there is, up to a D1. The 68sq metre (731sq ft) house had opened into a very small hall, with glass panelling dividing the stairs from the front room. Removing this helped bring light into the space, so the front door now opens directly into the room. She kept the polished stone fireplace and put up timber shelving with scalloped edges, inspired by an idea she saw on Etsy. She painted the walls in a deeply pigmented shade, Blue Pearl, from Paint and Paper Library, that's been teamed with a gold velveteen sofa from DFS. 'It had good back-to-waist ratio and a good back height,' she says. All told, she removed three doors from the ground floor to create a greater sense of flow, from the front to the back. Eleanore Hutch's kitchen. Photograph Nick Bradshaw By installing skylights to both kitchen and bathroom, each enjoys more daylight. In the latter, she took out the existing bath, plumping for a large shower stall instead and reduced the width of the room by about 20cm. This small change made a difference to the sense of space in the kitchen. As did the reconfiguring of its units. New kitchen cabinetry in a dark design from Howdens looks stylish against the brick slip wallcovering that she found in Tilestyle. The original back door was located in the utility room, a triangular-shaped second space off the kitchen, which meant you had to go through two rooms to get outdoors. A new door in the kitchen leads directly to the back garden. For now, the utility room remains in its original condition and will be tackled only when she has more money to pay for the works. Upstairs, the principal bedroom has a feature wall papered in Tibetan tiger print. She uses the second bedroom as a home office, and there is now an attic ladder to the loft space, where the gun was found. Tibetan tiger print wallpaper. Photograph Nick Bradshaw 'The garden is still awful,' she says. There are sheds in it that span the width of this surprisingly large space. She looked into renovating these, but all professional advice was to knock them down and start again from scratch – at a cost that is beyond her means for the next while. So, she's taking a staggered approach and leaving it for now. She paid €322,500 for the property two years ago, according to the property price register . The upgrading works cost an additional €70,000, she estimates, and she received about €25,000 through the vacant home grant. 'The vacant home grant was a huge, huge help for all the unexpected things, like a waste pipe in the bathroom that was damaged and added to the cost,' she says. 'It did take a year for the grant money to come in. I had to borrow money from my mum to finish jobs.' Adding personality through thrifting For the first 18 months of her home-hunting journey, Chelsey Killen was looking in the second-hand market. 'I was a single-income buyer and looking at one-bedroom second-hand apartments, stretching to two where I could, but I was being outbid on every property.' This was nearly 2½ years ago. She says she compromised on location, casting her home-hunting net to include 'everywhere south of the Liffey, across west Dublin and all the way to Arklow', she recalls. Chelsey Killen in her kitchen. Photograph Nick Bradshaw I thought second-hand was the only affordable option. New homes just weren't on my radar. I thought of new homes as three- and four-bedroom residences on large estates that were for families.' Chelsey had spent six to seven years saving solid for a deposit, working as a brand manager for Sherry FitzGerald, Ireland's largest estate agency. Due to her job, however, she wasn't allowed to buy a second-hand home from any of the branches, as this is against the estate agent's staff policies. As a result, she wasn't allowed to bid on many of the properties within her price bracket. But there was an upside to this limitation. 'I had access to experts, and by being curious and asking questions, I also had access to mortgage brokers and their advice,' she says. They counselled her to buy new. 'We're allowed to buy new homes because the prices are fixed by a developer and there isn't a bidding war.' She subsequently searched high and low within Wicklow and Dublin for any new home within her price bracket. She had about €300,000 to spend, but using the First Home and Help to Buy schemes helped bridge the gap, getting her to about €400,000. Seven months later she was picking up the keys to her new home in Altidore Gardens, Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow. As she bought off-plan, she'd never even seen the property before. 'There was no showhouse. It really was a gamble – after all the viewings and bidding – to decide over the phone. It was the fastest and biggest decision of my life.' Chelsey Killen on the sofa she bought in a thrift shop. Photograph Nick Bradshaw The upsides were that it had a brand new kitchen, and new appliances. 'The bathrooms were tiled. The bedrooms had wardrobes. The only thing I had to purchase urgently was a washing machine. All I needed was floors and a mattress to sleep on.' Her savings obsession turned into a second-hand obsession for the house, she says, and she used the seven months before she got her keys to make purchases that cluttered up her rental. She found a handmade bespoke couch in Second Chance in Wicklow town, that is grey in colour with black piping. She also shopped at Facebook Marketplace, where she found another couch. Other favourites included South Dublin Auctions, Le Zeitgeist in Phibsboro, Pete's Antiques, Gaff Interiors and the Vision Ireland warehouse in Cherry Orchard.
Irish Times
10-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Gentrification in Dublin: ‘Young people are coming in, buying the houses and gutting them'
The arrival of a new cohort of homeowners is obvious from the facades of the homes on the Bulfin Estate in Inchicore , Dublin 8 . Built by Dublin Corporation in the 1920s, the estate is populated by three-bed semidetached and terraced houses, some of which retain their original pebble-dash exteriors with wood-effect or white PVC window frames, while others have been recently upgraded; they are freshly plastered with millennial-grey window frames, trendy chrome house numbers and mounted electric vehicle chargers. There is an unmistakable sense of transience here, with for-sale and sale-agreed signs dotted around the estate. This mix of the old and the new on the Bulfin Estate is an example of Dublin gentrification in action, a term used to describe the movement of the middle classes into an area that was formerly working class, originally coined by sociologist Ruth Glass when describing London in the 1960s. 'It was probably five or six years ago when house prices started to really go out of the water, but definitely in the last two years it has gone [mad]. Now, nobody knows their neighbours because it's youngish people coming in and they keep very much to themselves,' says Mary Fagan, a resident of the estate since 1988. READ MORE 'Now, so do I, you know, so I can't really say a word about that,' she adds, with a laugh. Fagan marvels that her new neighbours' houses had asking prices of around €360,000 but ended up selling for half a million. She stresses that they are 'probably lovely people' who are likely to bestruggling financially. A three-bedroom semidetached home of 73 sq m in modern, move-in condition on the estate, for example, is currently on the market with a €395,000 asking price. Bidding for the house at the time of writing is up to €433,000, according to selling agent David Brock of Brock DeLappe. Similar houses would have had an asking price of about €325,000 before Covid, he says. Mannix Flynn , an independent councillor for Dublin's southeast inner city, claims gentrification has 'pulverised' former working-class areas in Dublin. Using Stoneybatter in Dublin 7 as an example, he says young couples with some money are moving in and creating 'hipster hell'. Flynn argues that they may 'think it's edgy and cool' to live in these communities, but they are 'eroding the working-class culture' there. Mannix Flynn says gentrification has'pulverised' former working-class areas in Dublin. Photograph: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos Rather than gentrification being a good or bad thing, although invariably that's how it tends to be experienced by residents, Philip Lawton, assistant professor of geography at Trinity College Dublin , says it's an inevitable result of investment moving from one area of the city to the next. 'In Dublin's case, investment might have gone to places like Ranelagh and Portobello first and then it starts to move and expand up the canal, and now that's why you're seeing it happening in Inchicore. 'So, where you see investment happening, property prices go up, people then get pushed to the next inevitable location in terms of investment, and so gradually this starts to move around the city,' Lawton says. 'Gentrification is an inevitable outcome of the ways in which property markets operate within urban space.' Fagan, who volunteers in her community, says: 'What seems to have happened [on Bulfin Estate] in the recent past was a lot of residents have passed away; when we moved in, it was an older area. Now, the young people are coming in, they're buying the houses and then gutting them, even if they're very well done, they're being gutted.' She observes: 'First the builders move in, and then they all move in and live happily ever after.' Dr Philip Lawton, assistant professor of Geography at Trinity College Dublin The renovation of homes is a common factor in the gentrification process and inevitably has a knock-on effect on the value of those properties when they are resold. Lawton says: 'Coming into the 1960s, with what we might see later –deindustrialisation coupled with a shift to a services-based economy –you see what we would define as middle classes moving back into central areas.' These homeowners then expended time and hard work – termed 'sweat equity' – to upgrade period homes in working-class neighbourhoods. This became the 'cliched image of the gentrifier' at the time, says Lawton, 'whether it be in Dublin, London or the brownstones [town houses with steps], for example, in New York.' On Bulfin, the profile of the new residents moving into the estate seem to be mostly office workers, although many work from home, Fagan says. 'You're not talking about Bob the builder or Paddy the plasterer, who used to live here when we moved in first. Like, if you wanted something done, if you needed a plastering job done, well, somebody four doors up would know somebody six doors up. 'Now, I think there's an awful lot of them working from home. You can see that. Cars don't move and they come out in the evening to go for a walk,' she says. Mary Fagan in Bulfin Estate, Inchicore. Photograph: Alan Betson Asked if she thinks her daughter's generation could afford to live in the area, Fagan says she knows they can't, citing examples of her and fellow residents' grown-up children who are living abroad, living with their parents or renting apartments elsewhere. When younger middle-class buyers start moving into an area, speciality coffee shops offering high-quality brunch fare and pastries often follow close behind. Riggers in Inchicore, which opened about six years ago, could be taken as an example of such an establishment. It attracts queues of the 'three-wheel-buggy crowd' on the weekend, says Fagan. [ Older people and downsizing: 'We hated selling our home but it became a necessity' Opens in new window ] She prefers the more traditional cafe at the top of her road. 'You walk in there at any stage and there'll be somebody there that knows you. They'll say, how are you, and you can have a quick chat if you want to talk, or not if you don't,' she says. On the northside of Dublin, new cafes were the first thing Phibsborough native Rachel Quinn (32), a brand designer for a software company, noticed about how the area had changed after she returned from spending more than a year abroad between 2015 and 2016. 'Bang Bang and Two Boys Brew opened during that period and they're obviously extremely popular and people travel to Phibsborough to go to them, whereas, when I was younger, I don't think people would travel to Phibsborough to go to places,' she says. Rachel Quinn says the profile of Phibsborough residents has not changed. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times With a growth in popularity in League of Ireland football, more people come to Phibsborough to see Bohemian Football Club play. Photograph: Tom Honan The growing popularity of League of Ireland football has also drawn people to the area, she says, with Bohemian Football Club attracting sports fans to Dalymount Park. 'I found that when I was younger, if you said you're from Phibsborough, people would always think it's like this dodgy area, which I never thought, anyway. If you met somebody from the southside, they'd be like oh, I didn't think you were from there,' says Quinn. 'It [still] wouldn't be thought of as a fancy area, but people would be like, it's more of a cool, hip area now.' Quinn has recently bought a house close to where she grew up and her sister (34), a civil servant, lives in a house on the same street as their parents with her young family. She says Phibsborough looked a bit 'grottier' when she was growing up, and men standing outside pubs would sometimes say 'creepy things' to her as she passed after school, which she doesn't think would happen now. Apart from that, she doesn't see a huge difference in the profile of residents, although she has noticed a huge rise in house prices. '[My husband and I] have been immensely lucky to be able to buy in the neighbourhood I grew up in, which is obviously a huge privilege, but we were only able to achieve that because we were both lucky enough to have parents who were able to give us a bit of help, so we would have had to probably move a bit further otherwise,' she says. She notes an appreciation of the arts as a common value among Phibsborough residents, and references Phizzfest, the community and arts festival established in 2009. 'A huge amount of the people who live on the street are artists and academics [and] there is a huge appreciation for being able to walk to the theatre, walk to the art gallery in the city centre, and to walk to the cinema, like the Lighthouse Cinema [in Smithfield].' St Peter's Church, Phibsborough. Photograph: Tom Honan Bang Bang Cafe in Phibsborough has opened in the past decade. Photograph: Tom Honan She believes the gentrification of Phibsborough probably began in the 1990s when her parents' generation were buying. She describes them as 'becoming middle class' at the time, having grown up in working-class families and being the first generation to go to college. 'My mam's from Cabra so she always looked at the red bricks in Phibsborough and thought, that's where I want to live, and just about managed to swing it. And my Dad's from Longford and so he moved up when he was in college, but I would say growing up most people on the street, their parents were from the country and they had moved to Dublin for college and then stayed. '[So] it was probably already gentrifying, it just wasn't necessarily visible to people because there weren't the cafes,' she adds. 'I do think it's probable that people living in Phibsborough have found a really nice place to live that they want to stay in for decades and it's just now become trendier to outsiders.' [ Artists in Dublin: 'The lack of space is the core issue. We're all fighting for the same thing' Opens in new window ] She and her husband also note the prevalence of local landlords selling their properties, thus leaving many long-term tenants unable to stay in an area, which will no doubt lead to a lack of a mix of classes in the community. 'There's been a good few houses sold recently and a mix of those are ones that were rented and so obviously that's going to be a loss of more accessible housing ... So, I suppose it's probably true that it's becoming maybe a little bit more uniformly middle class,' she says. Back in Inchicore, Fagan also notes prohibitively high rents in the area, where she says a three-bed house on the Bulfin estate was recently being rented out for the 'astronomical' sum of €2,400 a month. The Bulfin Estate area of Inchicore. Photograph: Alan Betson The Thornton Heights area of Inchicore. Photograph: Alan Betson Michael Pidgeon, a Green councillor for Dublin's southwest inner city, says: 'If you want to preserve an area's character, or at the very least aim for something which has class mix, I think at the core the thing you need to focus on is housing.' 'To my mind, a fixation on cafes or what kind of shops are in the area, that's downstream, that's a symptom of what is often something that is ultimately driven by housing costs. 'And without rooting your analysis in housing, I think what you end up with is sometimes debates weirdly opposing investment or renewal in a village or a new park or something like that, on the basis that it will make the area nicer and thus more prone to gentrification, and you end up almost arguing for underinvestment in the area because it's working well. 'So, for me, that means, in part, generally being supportive of new-build housing in an area, which sounds like it brings forward the gentrification in some ways, but the research I've seen indicates that that's the best way to keep rents or property prices down.' [ Why are most new housing schemes in Dublin city so terrible? Opens in new window ] With that in mind, Pidgeon says he welcomes the new development of 500 homes on the old St Michael's Estate site, where a third of the homes will be allocated as social housing and the other two-thirds will be cost-rental. 'That to my mind is a really good way to try and moderate the kind of stuff you see from just purely a market-based approach, where you end up with whoever can afford to live in the area, does,' says Pidgeon. 'So I think that's kind of a model for that sort of thing because yes, you're going to have social housing tenants in there, you're also going to have people who are earning a little bit above that, but who are effectively priced out of the Dublin property market for rental or purchase. And so, you're going to have a mix there, but it's a hard thing to get right. 'And while I do try to centre things on housing, I haven't come across anywhere where they've really dealt with gentrification and it's quite difficult to know beyond public housing, in practice, what policies you could actually put in place to mitigate it.' On whether she thinks Inchicore is losing its working-class culture, as described by Flynn, Fagan says: 'No, I don't think we are.' 'I think we're moving into a different time, but what's a working-class culture if you think of it? Everybody that's living here goes out to work or stays at home to work, you know. Okay, they may not be Paddy the plumber and Bob the builder, but certainly they go to work. I don't think we're losing anything. 'And I'm not saying we're gaining anything either.' Sex for rent: the hidden side of Ireland's housing crisis Listen | 25:05
