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Your Neighbourhood is a series of local area guides from TheJournal.ie, presented by KBC. We’re bringing you the best of city neighbourhoods combined with the latest property data.
DRUMCONDRA IS ONE of the older inner residential suburbs in north Dublin, with streets built before some of its neighbours were even a twinkle in a city planner’s eye.
Geographically speaking, it stretches north from the Royal Canal on either side of the N1, petering into Whitehall somewhere around Griffith Avenue. To the west are the redbricks of Glasnevin; to the east, Fairview and Marino.
Atmospherically speaking, it runs from wide and leafy streets north of the Tolka, to the tight rows of cottages around Croke Park. And there’s nowhere like it on a match day.
Take me there! OK, here you are facing north along the Drumcondra Road towards the main row of shops.
So what’s the big draw?
Drumcondra is mostly quiet, friendly and safe. It’s perched neatly between urban and suburban. Plus the last ten years or so have seen a renewed influx of small independent businesses that are bringing more of a community feel to the main road. It has its own market now and all.
Speaking of the main road… to certain wilfully unenlightened Southsiders, this area will always be ‘the way to the airport’. And yes, it is handy for the airport. It’s also very handy for town; for the M1 and the M50; for Croke Park (sometimes painfully so); and for anywhere along the railway line heading west. Basically transport links are a serious plus.
What do people love about it? The young population and the sense of activity, says resident Caoimhe Fahy – but also the more tranquil places.
Drumcondra is a very young neighbourhood, with a large student population due to DCU and St Pats. The large volume of people in the 18-30 bracket makes it a very lively neighbourhood, and there’s always a lot of people milling around. Obviously, if you’re into GAA it’s the place to be on weekends during the summer!Griffith Park in Drumcondra is a lovely escape, and the Botanic Gardens are only a short walk away.
And… what do people NOT love about it? Caoimhe highlights the relative lack of supermarkets, and the fact that some people find the trip through the O’Connell Street and Dorset Street areas a turn-off.
The supermarkets in Drumcondra aren’t the best. There is a Tesco Metro on Drumcondra Road, and a Centra beside the train station. The closest large Tesco is in Phibsboro.Although it’s very close to town, the walk isn’t through the safest areas so I wouldn’t be walking home in the dark or late at night.
What’s the story with house prices? The average property in the area has an asking price of just over €415,000, according to Daft.ie figures for September 2017. That puts it a good chunk above the Northside average, but slightly lower than the prices in neighbouring Marino and Fairview.
How long will it take me to the city centre? From outside Fagan’s pub, it’s less than half an hour’s brisk walk to Henry Street. The same journey is around 15 minutes on the bus – numbers 1, 16, 33, or 41 – or the train will get you into Tara Street in under 10 minutes on a good day.
Where should I get lunch? Shouk opened a couple of years ago serving Israeli and Middle Eastern food in a casual setting, and has quickly become a destination for brunch, lunch and dinner. Try the mezze for sharing.
Alternatives are: local institution Anderson’s; Lovely Food Co, just at the corner of the Archbishop’s Palace; or if you’re feeling fancy, twenty2 on Sion Hill Road and Restaurant 104 on the main drag.
And what’s my new local? Try McGrath’s next to the train station, a low-key pub that is known for its food - and an impressive off-licence selection for whenever you decide to leave.
Alternatives are: Carthy’s snug in the Ivy House; the Cat and Cage for a student crowd; or Quinn’s for *the* match day experience. Plus you can’t really mention Drumcondra pubs without mentioning Fagan’s.
Schools and supermarkets?
As mentioned, Drumcondra is in a bit of a supermarket desert. There’s a Tesco Metro on the main road – but otherwise you’ll likely be heading to Glasnevin, Phibsboro or Whitehall for the Big Shop.
Schools, however, are a different story. There are no fewer than 7 primaries: Lindsay Road (Presbyterian, mixed, 90 pupils); St Columba’s (Catholic, girls, 400 pupils); St Patrick’s (Catholic, boys, 495 pupils); Drumcondra national school (Church of Ireland, mixed, 57 pupils); Grace Park Educate Together (multidenominational, mixed, 117 pupils); Scoil Mobhi (Catholic Gaelscoil, mixed, 255 pupils); and Corpus Christi (Catholic, girls, 443 pupils).
There are also three secondary schools: Rosmini Community School (interdenominational, mixed, 138 pupils), Scoil Chaitriona (Catholic Gaelscoil, mixed, 441 pupils) and the Dominican College (Catholic, girls, 740 pupils).
Anything else I should check out? Peter’s Chipper comes highly recommended.
OK, I’m sold. Give me one piece of Drumcondra trivia to impress a local. Drumcondra was the original location for Fair City, before RTÉ built a custom set over in Donnybrook. The first episodes of the soap were shot on Barron Place.
If you live in Drumcondra, let us know what you think of it in the comments!
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Fair play to the Irish government. They have done a great job steering the ship.
@Sean Minihane: Only since July 2021
@Paul Hedderman: yup, all the planing just magically appeared in July.
@Tony Gordon: Vaccine rollout aside did they really do a good job “steering the ship” in your opinion?
@Paul Hedderman: yes they did, in my opinion. Their 2 biggest missteps was not planning sufficiently for nursing homes at the very beginning, which in fairness every country got wrong. And then reopening in December at the beginning of the Delta outbreak. Aside from that we have done very well, far better than most of Europe.
@Ger: Delaying locking down for the first lockdown when other European States were locking down around us and covid confirmed a few weeks prior. No engagement with highly effected sectors. Lack of communication to public, conflicting information, leaks. Conflicting rules. Not allowing businesses to open sooner when they could operate safely. Only telling us socialising outdoors was safe just before the summer when it suited their agenda. Not preparing schools properly. Not implementing mass rapid testing, to name but a few…….. Re christmas (UK variant) they had to ease restrictions, public would have gone mad and ignored them if they didnt, that wave was inevitable as it started weeks before easing, with new variant, Christmas and 2 months of level 5 prior it was the perfect storm.
@Sean Minihane: RTE will be disgusted. They are still trying to stir it.
It has been a remarkable achievement. Let’s hope it continues.
All the overly dramatic commenters posting ‘open the pubs’ on here every day for the past 18months should have a look at that Bloomberg article and see how much more restrictive the lockdowns were in other European countries.
@Niels: Exactly, imagine your priority in the middle of a pandemic being whether the pubs are open or not , a horribly negative benchmark to use.
@Niels: only 5 European countries on the list higher than us for restrictions, 6 if you include Turkey…… We’re only in the top 10 in that chart of only 53 countries since mid summer. Article is titled “The Best and Worst Places to Be as We Learn to Live With Delta”…. Not “countries have performed the best through the whole pandemic”…. Vaccine rollout was a great success. Handling of the first year and a bit of it was shocking by govt, particularly the start… I’d take that report with a pinch of salt. Our universal healthcare score is 90 somehow and I wonder how much weight GDP growth forecast goes towards the rank. Hard to see how were better than Denmark when they have more vaxd, better healthcare, less restrictions, nearly half the cases and deaths compared to us since delta.
@Paul Hedderman: they also don’t share a border with the UK who have been a disaster throughout the pandemic, that’s a massive point going in their favour
@Paul Hedderman: I don’t understand how we managed to knock Norway off the top spot to tell the truth, As John just pointed out to you, we share a land border with the UK, but Norway shares with Sweden and when you compare those two, the difference is purely due to the difference in the paths taken by the authorities of both countries.
@Paul Hedderman: Sorry, hit wrong key. Anyway, that said, I’ve no issue with our government’ response, and as to various comments of only since the mid summer, it is a report that is done monthly, so depending on how it goes, we may be further down the list again next month.
Great government leadership and commitment from all in the health service. Very proud of our efforts.
I’m happy with it- come at me.
@murt de murty: wont be long now ;)
While not perfect, it certainly could have been better.
But credit where it due, we did a decent job….and still are.
And v little congrats to The minister for health. How the shinners piled on to him
And the public never doubted the government for a second
Proud of the majority of Irish people not succumbing to the nonsense and believing is good science.
@Tony Gordon: Indeed! Long may it last!
Open the pubs properly!
@Wolfgang Hanratty: Try harder
@Wolfgang Hanratty: did you get a thrill saying that?
@Joe_X: open the pubs and reverse the smoking ban.
And free plastic bags while you re at it.
@Anarch Eco: A right rebel, you are!
Enda was right. We’re the best little country in the world to get Covid in.
We won
@Jonathan:
We are winning, unfortunately this is not beat yet…
Let’s just hope Tony got this right and opening will be handled…
Still 1 in 5 from 18 to 49 are not vaccinated… we can do better there, that would massively reduce the risk of another lockdown…
Feck the begrudgers is my favourite old Dublin saying It could have been invented for the comments section of the Journal.ie.
Pity it took a year to implement hotel quarantine
It could have been so much better, especially with fumble after fumble in 2020 and the worst implementation of quarantine ever. We made it across the line eventually though with an excellent vaccination rate. Government can’t take credit for that.
@Paul Cunningham: The vaccines fell out of the sky then did they?
@Paul Cunningham: But they learned as they went from the mistakes, which is the important thing. Remember, for most people, this is a once in a lifetime event. Very few who lived through the Spanish flu pandemic of just over a hundred years ago are alive today. It’s not as if any government knew what to do when it kicked off, and the next time something like it occurs, hopefully, not at least for another hundred years or more, mistakes will be made again for the exact same reason.
‘The next two weeks are vital’ – still it implies an intelligent educated population in this country
Remembering when New Zealand’s Ms Ardern said last year: ‘I was just looking at Ireland, their stepping down is taking them through to July before some people are back in work.”
I disagree when they say that Ireland was the worst in the world at the start of the year.India was actually the worst in the world.
Looks great when you apply the Trump formula for bringing down the numbers. Stop doing tests and the positivity numbers drop. Or someone has an underlying health condition and dies with Covid then they didn’t die of Covid according to Leo the leak. Don’t report the daily deaths and Looks like we’re heading in the right direction.
Bualadh bos! Aren’t we great! All we had to do was throw away everything our ancestors fought for! They’re spinning in their graves now but shur we can hook them up to the grid to make up for the shortfall in power caused by closing Irish power stations and giving away our electricity to data centres. We’re a great little country!
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