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Updated 20.19
VACANT AND DERELICT sites in Dublin are being mapped online as part of a project that examines how many such spaces there are in the city, opening a discussion on how they could potentially be used.
The map was started earlier this year by Eoin O’Mahony and Stephen Rigney, and now involves a number of collaborators. O’Mahony told TheJournal.ie:
We are PhD students in Maynooth and had been talking for a long time about mapping this. It got started in late December / early January and the map appeared in January.
“The map began by taking photographs and then geotagging the photographs on Google Plus and then re-placing them on a single Google Map,” explained O’Mahony. Rigney did this on his way to work, while O’Mahony placed points on the map for buildings that he knew were derelict from his own journeys.
Guidelines
Opening up the map to others made it less easy to control the placement and definitions of dereliction, said O’Mahony. When inviting collaborators, they set some basic guidelines: that it has to be a building that had boarded up windows, and/or a collapsed roof.
However, the more people collaborated, the more questions emerged about these criteria:
For example, would we map closed retail units? These were spaces in temporary abeyance on a far shorter time scale than many of the original two dozen or so housing units we had mapped originally. What about sites with a closed retail ground floor but an active and lived in second and subsequent floors? What if a site has a planning notice – even if now out of date – attached to it?
“The need to impose some order on the data we had originally collected became greater once we made the map more widely available,” said O’Mahony.
They then agreed on these ways of identifying each type of building, based on some online discussion:
There are now 12 collaborators who help in adding the derelict buildings to the map. Part of the reason for setting up the map was to draw local politicians’ attention to these buildings in the lead-up to the local elections.
They want to examine why there is so much derelict housing, particularly in the inner city, said O’Mahony. “A lot of these buildings have been derelict for 25 years,” he pointed out.
They also want the map to show how people use space in Dublin. “The main thing is to think about how these places are thought of as private, opening up the idea of could they be made public and what kind of uses would people put to them,” explained O’Mahony.
He said that with the sites, the question is “how do we figure the best use of this space given the best use of this area”, adding that very often “we don’t connect these issues with local government at all”.
“The site is asking people to look at it and see where is derelict in their communities. It’s kind of a community resource project in a sense,” said O’Mahony.
He added that the council is taking a renewed interest in derelict sites in particular, but is “doing it from a planning perspective rather than people having some measure of control over what is going on”, which is also spurring on this work.
The map creators hope that it will help in “getting behind that idea of who is the city for”, enabling people to look at how spaces are used in Dublin, and the potential for derelict sites to become useful and positive places.
O’Mahony and Rigney will talk at the Provisional University in Dublin next Thursday about the map.
Eoin can be contacted regarding collaborating with the derelict sites map at eoinomahony@gmail.com.
Originally published 12.00
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Sentence is still too lenient. 4 times the legal limit, kills one person and paralysis for another.
I listened to the mother of Kate being interviewed on Newstalk and thought she was a lovely, brave woman going through a terrible time. She did not think it would serve any purpose a drunk driver going to prison. She asked that no one get into a car being driven by someone who had been drinking.
We would all be safer if you drink but not drive.
“Out of line with other decided cases” – which clearly must have been too lenient as well! So judges perpetuate their inadequate sentencing because of precedent.
It seems to be the very flawed system on which our entire legal system operates. Basically an original mistake gets extended forever.
This again leaves a huge question mark over the severity of the sentence handed out yesterday to the ex fireman who had consensual sex with a 16 year old and got 7 years in prison. Murdering one person and paralysing another is only four years.
You can’t have consensual sex with a minor. They cannot give consent. This, however, is a disgrace and no deterrent. Judges are totally out of touch with the real world.
If I had too much to drink, killed someone with a weapon and claimed it was an accident? What sentence would I get, If any and the judicial system is a joke in this country.
As I said yesterday completely incompetent Judges…..joke
How the Fcuk is that allowed?
Politicians allow it, they have a bar in their workplace and consume alcohol while working.
They should have doubled his sentence for having the neck to appeal. Outrageous decision.
This country and its judicial system are an absolute joke. What kind of an example does this give. 4 years for what he did. His first sentence was too lenient in my eyes.
An embarrassment
Wonder if I paralysed a judges daughter would I just get the 1 year?
Hold on went from seven to four years. He should of been dragged out and shot.
Can this also set a precedent,for appeal, for that drink drivers sentence last week? On the basis of this, what sentence should have been imposed on the idiot in Donegal. The judiciary in this country is a shambles.
The problem seems to be that there is no central authority issuing guidelines so you have each judge in their own little fiefdom sentencing people according to their own interpretation of the law. We really need minimum sentences and a system where if a judge feels that a particular case warrants a lesser sentence due to mitigating circumstances the case is referred to a higher court.
There should be a mandatory minimum sentence for anyone who kills or maims another person by driving while drunk. Say 12 years and lifetime ban from driving with no chance of appeal, this would act as a good deterrent.
€206877
This is how much the state will save by this appeal. Its in the states interest to grant these appeals. This is why we have laughable sentencing laws. The state is far more interested in money than its citizens. We have seen this again and again. Money trumps life.
http://www.iprt.ie/prison-facts-2
How much will the paralysed women receive for care help?
If only Dexter Morgan was real
Is that judge off his nut? If anything the original sentence was too lenient!
It shows the courts are getting more comfortable with this type of crime hence the low sentence
So they’re trying to extend the sentence in that Donegal case while reducing the sentence in this one? Does our legal system have any clue what it’s doing?
Another nonsense sentence for causing such devestation due to being an idiot behind the wheel driving drunk. These judges are clearly blotto when they hand down these terms.
Who cares what you said.
F*ck off troll.
10 years . End of story
Sentencing in this country especially for drink driving road accidents are a disgrace.
A central tenet of democracy is that the branches of Government must be independent of each other. The executive enacts legislation and the judiciary interprets the wording of a given statute when it is tested by way of using it to prosecute a crime. The judges’ interpretation becomes a precedent for other cases of a similar nature into the future. This is called “common law” and is equally as binding as legislation, and is used throughout the land. Sentencing is limited by a variety of factors: legislation, “mandatory sentencing”, and the concept of “fairness.” This chap’s sentence has to be proportionate to those who previously did similar and with a similar outcome. The Victim Impact Statement serves no function other than to give the victims a voice (make them “feel better”.)
Excuse the language but that’s a FN joke. No justice here at all.
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