Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
As part of our local and European election coverage, we are sending some of our journalists back to their hometowns to report on the issues concerning the people who live there.
Jane Matthews from Drogheda, visited the town to find out what’s gone wrong and right since the last election five years ago – and what people want to see happen after this election.
DESPITE ITS RICH heritage and history, Drogheda is a town that has struggled in recent years.
Problems that existed before 2020 were amplified by the Covid pandemic, and dereliction and vacancy are now two of the standout problems visible in the town centre.
A vicious drug-related feud that still makes national headlines has also had a negative impact on the town’s development, but locals are keen to push back on what they see as an unfair narrative surrounding their town.
Many locals who spoke to The Journal shared the same sentiment: Drogheda has its problems, but with a bit more support from the Government it could thrive.
When Cliodhna Russell visited Drogheda for this series ahead of the 2016 general election, she documented boarded-up shop fronts becoming a common post-recession site in the area.
Eight years on, instead of getting better, the dilapidation is only more evident.
Walk up Narrow West Street and you’ll count 14 derelict or shuttered buildings.
Walk through the Town Centre Shopping Centre and you’ll count five empty units to let.
In Scotch Hall Shopping Centre, 12 empty units, and in the Lawrence Centre 18.
The problem of dereliction and vacancy is so bad in the town that local man Dom Gradwell’s campaign to highlight the issue has drawn the attention of local and European election candidates as they seek to understand the area.
Time with @CarrollJennifer @ninacarberry @ShonaAnnMcManus explaining the issues and fixes for Drogheda.
— Derelict Drogheda (@DerelictDrawda) May 15, 2024
1. Extend Living Cities Initiative
2. Fund @louthcoco & all LAs properly
3. Overhaul Derelict Sites Act to include compulsory sales / rental orders / meanwhile use. pic.twitter.com/ahRk6UH7c9
“I’ve no skin in the game, I’m not involved in property or business in the town or anything. I literally just live here and loved the place,” Gradwell told The Journal.
Gradwell is active across social media and has built up a respectable following for his work highlighting the level of dereliction and vacancy.
In his view, the problem has taken hold over a long period, but he said it was really six or seven years ago (before the first Fleadh Cheoil Na hÉireann was held in the town in 2018) when he really noticed a big decline in the town centre.
His Twitter page, Derelict Drogheda, has helped grab headlines for the issue and as Gradwell put it “Councils don’t like bad press”.
“I felt like they deserved it. They had taken the eye off the ball and needed a little prod to get things going again.”
So what’s the answer?
Gradwell is of the view that the Council needs to take a more heavy-handed approach with these property owners, but he wants to see a broader approach taken to Drogheda’s development more generally.
This is why in partnership with local charity Development Perspectives, Gradwell is working on setting up a task force made up of community members to work on “revitalising” the town.
The aim of this task force, which will meet for the first time on 5 June, right before the elections, is to have one single voice lobbying the Government on Drogheda’s issues.
“What’s actually happening is there’s lots of different groups [lobbying]. And everybody has the best interest of Drogheda at heart, but what we want is to just get them under the one umbrella, and have one single unifying voice, making the case for Drogheda,” Gradwell said.
On top of this, Gradwell makes the point that the lack of a local authority specifically for Drogheda is a hampering factor affecting the town.
“We’ve got to have some sort of control ourselves, whether it’s as a city or as a local authority,” he said.
“Drogheda is on the cusp of being brilliant, it just needs attention.
“We obviously need jobs in the area, we have a net loss of people every single day so that needs to change whether it’s by bringing in a third level institute or jobs – I think we need both.
“We need to get people back in the town centre, we need a Living Cities initiative rolled out, we need tax breaks for people to be able to renovate the vacant properties and get people back into town.
“There’s so much potential in Drogheda, it’s just untapped,” Gradwell said.
“It’s just a matter of getting some love from the Government because they have just been ignoring us for such a long time,” he added.
This Living Cities initiative that Gradwell mentioned is a tax incentive scheme for “special regeneration areas”, that Drogheda to-date has been locked out of, much to the annoyance of local Labour TD Ged Nash.
“When there is public investment in an area, private investment follows,” Nash told The Journal.
Nash is of the view that Drogheda is completely lacking a credible town centre plan and he argues that full pedestrianisation of the main shopping streets is needed to breathe fresh life into the town.
“Town centres are for the community to enjoy them. They’re for book shops, cafes, boutiques, restaurants, supermarkets, and the kinds of things that you would see in similar-sized small cities across Europe.
“We have everything that would lend itself to that kind of ambience in Drogheda. We’re an old walled town, we have a medieval street structure. We saw what Drogheda can be when the town centre area was closed off, to allow people to enjoy it during the two Fleadhanna in 2018 and 2019.”
Nash called for greater penalties for owners of derelict properties and added that if a person is rich enough to own a number of properties and to be able to leave them derelict then they “need to be hit in the pockets”.
Nash has been a vocal advocate for city status for Drogheda and makes the point that one of Drogheda’s big challenges is that it falls between town and local authority areas with one side of the town in County Meath and the other in County Louth.
He believes a good start on the road to city status would be the restoration of town government in the area.
“But I think there’s a logic to city status. I always say to the people of Drogheda, city status at the moment is a state of mind, we need to behave like a city. Continue to have those ambitions and to make that case because I think it will happen. It has to happen at some point.”
Drogheda-based Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd agrees with Nash that city status is needed for Drogheda, but he believes that locals need to think about what they actually want Drogheda to look like in years to come.
When The Journal caught up with him, O’Dowd said it was important that people in Drogheda think about what they actually want Drogheda to look like.
“It’s easy to say Drogheda City – but what does that mean?
How big should Drogheda be, do you want it to be 100,000 [population]? I don’t.
“So we have to think about that. It’s a complex situation,” he said.
In discussions with locals for this series, the Fleadh Cheoil, which was held in Drogheda in 2018 and 2019 is often pointed to as a reference point.
2018 saw the largest attendance in the traditional music festival’s history with half a million visitors to the town and is estimated to have helped generate €40m for the local economy.
Lolo Robinson, who runs Robinson School of Irish Dancing in the town, was instrumental in bringing the Fleadh to Drogheda for the first time in the festival’s history.
Speaking to The Journal, Robinson said it was a seven-year fight to bring the 2018 Fleadh to Drogheda, but when it came it “awakened a new community spirit in people”.
The Covid-19 pandemic that followed however, put a dampener on things.
“There are some aspects of the town that aren’t great at the moment, particularly retail,” Robinson said.
She added however, that Irish music and dancing are probably stronger now than they ever were in Drogheda.
“We have a lot of new immigrants that would have integrated into the town and they’re also very involved in the music and the dance. Music is an international language anyway,” Robinson said.
When asked what politicians need to focus on to help improve the local area, Robinson said that more tourist accommodation is needed ahead of the Leinster Fleadh which is set to take place in Drogheda in July 2025.
This issue of retail, that Robinson and others highlighted, is one stressed by local business owners too.
Justin Callaghan owns a butchers on the main street in town and has been in business for 10 years.
He told The Journal that he thinks the town has gone downhill and that the local politicians are only out for themselves.
“They’re only there for your vote and you’ll never hear from them again,” he said.
In terms of business, he said:
“You might get one good day and then the next couple of days aren’t great. I still have a lot of bills to pay and I’ve no money coming in.”
Callaghan said he’s not afraid to say that there are some weeks where he doesn’t have wages.
He added that he worries about being able to keep the doors open.
“Costs and everything has gone up and the footfall is just not there,” he said.
Callaghan suggests that one thing that might help is if Louth County Council allowed free parking in the town centre for an hour or two to help bring some custom back to the centre.
Just a stone’s throw up the road from Callaghan’s butchers is the newly opened Evalynn Beag coffee shop.
Evalynn Beag is the second coffee shop opened in the town by 23-year-old Drogheda native Niall Weldon, with the original Evalynn situated just outside the town centre in Bryanstown.
Weldon opened the Bryanstown cafe just over two years ago and took the plunge with Evalynn Beag on West Street at the beginning of May this year.
When asked about his experience of doing business in the town, the first thing Weldon noted was the sense of community and support he has received.
He added however that it is scary to see the number of businesses that open and close on West Street.
“Everything you hear about rising costs is true. We used to buy cups for €37 a box when we first opened, now they’re €55/60 a box. I can draw so many of those comparisons,” Weldon said.
Weldon made the point that now with the elections on he’s had lots of politicians and candidates reaching out, who he had not heard from in the previous two years.
In terms of what he thinks needs to be done to improve the town, Weldon pointed to the Boyne 10k race that takes place annually on the May Bank Holiday every year as a great way of (literally) getting footfall in the town.
“The Arts Festival is another great one for getting people out and about. So any of those mass festival-type events are really important,” Weldon said.
He added: “Everyone’s shouting for West Street to be pedestrianised and they have been for a very long time. I’d love to see West Street open up like the streets of Spain.”
While Weldon was largely positive about what Drogheda has to offer, he did point to a problem with anti-social behaviour, including fights and robberies. He added however that in recent months there does seem to be a stronger garda presence on the streets.
“I know a lot of older people who just don’t come into downtown Drogheda anymore. Everything they need is on the outskirts and they’re ashamed to look at it,” Weldon said, citing Narrow West Street as “an embarrassment”.
“A lot of people would not agree but I love the town. The people in it are really good,” Weldon said.
Similar to Weldon, it was this love of the town that drove Natalie Kelly to set up the Drogheda Dolls community group.
Kelly set the group up via Facebook in 2017 and told The Journal that she did so because she wanted to try and create the sense of community that she used to hear her grandmother talk about – where you might get a lend of a bag of sugar.
“That sort of bartering system that brings a community together,” Kelly said.
“Facebook was so negative at the time and it was really just because our community and our town was getting bigger and you nearly didn’t know your neighbour.”
Since 2017, the group has grown exponentially and now has almost 30,000 members on Facebook and also has an in-person community centre dubbed ‘the Dolls House’ which opened in 2022.
Twice a week coffee mornings are held in the Dolls House for local women to socialise and get to know each other. Kelly made the point that the Dolls House also aims to support people with loneliness.
The group have also raised a significant amount for charities – Kelly estimates it is close to half a million euro – ranging from the Gary Kelly Cancer Support Centre in the town, Drogheda Animal Rescue and the Women’s Refuge.
Kelly takes the view that Drogheda is “maybe a little left behind” but brimming with potential.
“The only people who are going to change it are the Drogheda people and making sure you vote for the right people,” she said.
“Times are tough and there is a bit of anger out there, but fundamentally we’re a great town and a great people.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Foster could’ve helped the situation by not allowing people on to the island from Britain. The woman’s insufferable
@Pól Ó’hAodha: The head on her.
@Vonvonic: very sad that this inane comment would get 70 likes.
@Vonvonic: If she looked at a litre of milk, it would turn sour!
@Ann Basquille Smith: I’m.not sure I’d you’re acquainted with the expression but it had more to.do.with her attitude than her looks.
@Vonvonic: *sure if you’re…
Were Arlene et al of a mind to share the passenger information of those who landed in Belfast Airport and off the ferry in Larne? Not to mention the amount of her fellow country men and women travelling into the “free state” to work when our numbers were low and they were riddled? She’s a pox bottle!
@Barry Evans: You lost me at “pox”.
@Fachtna Roe: didn’t realise my statement was that hard to follow…….
I would assume there’s a GDPR issue considering the north’s is in the UK and not an EU state any longer. Sharing peoples location and movements would breach Eu privacy laws. If only they could join some type of contenental collective union so we could work together and share information without problems like this.
@Colm Walsh: Perhaps they could even reunite with the rest of the country. Arlene has done more for Irish reunification in the past few years than anyone.
@Colm Walsh: Can you kindly keep your sensible logic away from the Journal’s sensationalist posts. We’re trying to foment anger and surface level opinions here, not to educate people on simple reasoning and looking for contextual information. Sincerely, Brendan.
@Seán Óg: oh Sean Og shes gonna love your comment. She could blow a head gasket
@Colm Walsh: precisely.
@Colm Walsh: Personal data used by GCHQ for surveillance purposes. No way!!
FFG would want to get there house in order,we are handed a perfect opportunity to hand an olive branch out to Northern Ireland with both brexit and Covid has thrown the dust up.our Taoiseach waffling on about maybe in 5 years time to ask the question about a border pole,until then he don’t want to know,our tanaiste blaming Sinn Fein on everything instead of showing a strong hand with them with Northern Ireland.baffling
@reginald: FG and FF don’t want a border poll. In 5 years time they will say “in 5 years time” ad infinitum.
@reginald: I don’t think a lot of our present government, but to fair to them, they tried to get Northern Ireland to take an all ireland approach to covid 19 at the very start and to try work with the Republic to do the same as New Zealand did and secure the borders entire island of Ireland.
But his was dismissed by Arlene and her cronies, stating that they as part of the UK, would take a UK stance on the matter.
Brexit was helped into reality by Arlene and the DUP playing politics, instead of being concerned with the outcome of Brexit for all the people of Northern Ireland.
And now when they have left the EU and realised their glorious sovereignty as an independent United kingdom, now they want to complain about a lack of cooperation on the Island of Ireland???
Now that’s ironic!
@Seán Óg: Seems to be a misconception by many that a border poll would go the way of a United Ireland when in fact polls don’t indicate that at present. There’s a risk of “jumping the gun” and being colonial about the whole thing. If the aim is just to annex NI against their will, that wouldn’t make Ireland a whole lot better than the English..
The “long game” being played, of aligning NI economically more with Europe instead of Britain, changing supply chains, soft power with things like Erasmus and EU passports, letting NI people realize that the DUP/Westminster aren’t doing much good – these are wise and correct ways to go about UI. The best way is to have a *clear* majority there who conclude that they will be better off in an inclusive Ireland whichever nationality they identify as.
@Seán Óg: Correct – “The time is not right” in 2121, they will still be saying the time is not right. Unionists will call for talks around a border poll before FF and FG.
A bit of a spat now would be very timely indeed. Button it Arlene ffs.
@Vonvonic: Just a smokescreen to hide from the fact that the supermarket shelves in the north are empty due to DUP incompetence and a belief that Boris had their best interests at heart. Should have taken Mrs May’s deal instead of stabbing her in the back.
@Seán Óg: Indeed. The sweetest deal of all was the one offered to Cameron not to have the referendum in the first place. Dominos.
This works 2 ways and you allowed flights into Belfast & Derry and the ferry into Larne it was ye who allowed most people into the island so were is your paper work on all those you allowed in when the South had stopped UK travel. Majority of these passengers and you knew full well came to the South and you didn’t blink an eye about this.
I seen the photo then misread the headline as “Leaders in North Korea..”
@Humphrey De Fluff: well kim has better hair than arlene for a start…
@Paddy Kennedy: lol very good
GDPR rules.
I don’t think it would be appropriate to share that type of information with a foreign power, and non EU member.
@John Mulligan: Absolutely correct. Personal data which would be used by GCHQ for surveillance purposes.
This gave me a good laugh . They have a worse problem than us and thousands cross the border daily and weekly to work in the south.
Fair play to Arlene
@Rorymcrory: Why?
@Setanta Stylfox: She’s done yards more for Irish unity than any other party
Apparently she’s a lovely bloke.
Oh F off Robbie Coltrane
Why would we share personal data with the UK which would then be used by GCHQ for surveillance purposes. Another example of the NoI’s disconnect with the real world. Then again GCHQ probably have the data anyway through hacking the Republic’s systems without our knowing it.
They couldn’t agree on what cereal to have for breakfast up there.
have your say