Urban Maps

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Any statistics for social-v-private renting there?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Sure: I can do a whole set of tenure maps if you want.

*Nods head in approval*

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Dublin population density. The major suburbs and eastern commuter towns are labelled.

The map shows the four administrative counties of County Dublin. Observe that scattered apartment schemes on the southern fringe comprise some of the highest-density parts of the county, and that density falls off quickly to the south-east of the city, which (as followers of the Irish demographic maps thread will remember) is a distinctive part of Ireland with high rates of wealth, education, Protestantism/irreligion, social liberalism, etc etc.

Dublin City is notable for the big, empty areas of the Phoenix Park to the west and North Bull Island to the east.
Fingal to its north expanded its population rapidly in the last twenty years. Consequently, it has a younger and more non-Irish demographic profile than the rest of Dublin, let alone other counties. Swords and Dublin haven't grown into each other thanks to an airport and motorway in between. Blanchardstown and Balbriggan also grew quickly. The other seaside towns have an older profile.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is relatively low-density because that's where the rich people live, particularly west and east of Dún Laoghaire town itself. Unlike the other counties, its population hasn't grown much, and the average age is higher.
South Dublin is actually to the south-west of the city. The western part of the county has been urbanising since the 1970s, though all of the towns labelled grew up around older village cores. The eastern fringe is more like Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, well-off and older.

The map also includes parts of counties Meath (north-west), Kildare (south-west) and Wicklow (south). Bray has been an established town for centuries. Leixlip and Celbridge were small villages until the 1960s; Ashbourne until the 1980s.

There is lots of interesting data for this city, but I'm not sure whether to present it by small area (~260 people each) or electoral division (~3,000 people each). Small areas are more consistently-sized and less misleading for density, but perhaps harder to read.

Great post. Personally I would use DEDs simply out of the convenience and that, at least in the city, they do correspond fairly well to what are thought of as separate districts and parts of towns. Small Areas tend to be a lot of clutter... although if you go outside the city and especially into Fingal and the absurdly named 'South Dublin'* the DEDs get less useful in that regard and small areas are preferable. Also if you want a slightly larger area albeit unwieldy geography, the census has data for Dublin Parishes.

* - absurdly named because what most people think of 'South Dublin' is in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown or in the City. Of course I should note that pretty much nobody identifies themselves with these invented in 1994 'counties'.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Wait, the Fingal boundaries are from the 1990s?! What's the excuse for them then?

It followed the abolition of Dublin County Council (which covered the whole of the country except for the 'city' which was under different boundaries then - and have been modified again since, moving Howth and Bayside into Fingal) and the division of the county into three council areas due to the growth of the greater Dublin Metro area. The boundaries of the three counties are ridiculously and arbitrary and didn't make sense in 1993-4 and even less now with the population of the ridiculously named 'South Dublin' and Fingal having exploded massively since. Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown's borders have being mostly defined by the new city limits and the historic area of the barony of Rathdown. This is ridiculous because areas like Rathfarnham, which are in 'South Dublin' have more in common with DR-L than the county they are (which might as well be called outside 'Tallaght'). This area is much older in terms of settlement with Dun Laoghaire being a historic town in its own right (its town council having been abolished under the Local Government Act which created the counties). South Dublin being focused primarily on the quasi-suburb/city of Tallaght and its environs, that was primarily built in the 70s and 80s as part of the project to remove the overspill from the city (and part of the project to suburbanize the entire Dublin region too). I suppose the river was then used to divide the boundary between the other two new counties, but I'm not too sure.

Fingal's population has gone up by about 120,000 persons since its creation (admittedly some of that is due to it being redrawn, although that would have been only a slight change). Its population in 2011 is 275,000 and is one of the fastest growing areas of the country. Despite this when it comes to local government reform the loudest voice (albeit not so loud now that the Greens have vanished) tends to be in favour of returning to the pre-94 situation. I've never quite grasped the logic of this although certainly as I said earlier nobody thinks of themselves as 'Fingallian'.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Yeah, the Fingal - South Dublin boundary is the River Liffey.

The Minister at the time said that the South Dublin - Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown boundary was "the watershed which divides South Dublin naturally into east and west sectors".

He said that? Lulz.

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Err... no. That would mean effectively cutting off large parts of the Southside from their 'natural' hinterland. The Motorway divides Sandyford - where I'm from - in half.

If they were drawing the boundaries now it would make sense to divide Blanchardstown/Castleknock from Swords and the rest of Fingal. Blanchardstown would be a better match with Lucan anyway, the river be damned.

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Plausible given election results and local demography. Although the Howth ward was abolished in the time between the 2004 and 2009 locals.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

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Ummm.... yes. I was just referring to tracking the local election results in that area (which did indeed favour FG significantly under the ward was abolished). Now It's part of the Malahide, or rather Howth-Malahide, ward and that voted differently in 2009 - with a strong Labour vote (which suggested that in these ummm... not so deprived areas of Dublin Labour picked up a lot of the votes that had originally gone to the Greens. Need to explore this).

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Right. The Old 'city' is really the boundaries created by the expansion of the city if it had halted in the 60s - especially in the Northside.

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In the 'city' only the South Eastern quarter and what I think is the Docklands seem to have gained in density over the past 30 years, which is interesting...

[Tetro Kornbluth]

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Pembroke-Rathmines is significantly studented and is more, how should I put this, generally more 'urban' than most places further South. IIRC the percentage of people renting privately is v. high for Dublin. Also Ruairi Quinn has a big personal vote in Rathmines proper.

Anyway, Labour's vote there wasn't, in numerical terms, much higher than most of the other city wards. Only significantly lower, as far as I can see, with wards with large numbers of inner suburban lower-middle class owner-occupiers mainly on the northside (ah, but see below) and some places where the Far left/SF are strong. Not a huge shock.

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Yes that sounds right. I sort of refuse to think of places like Clongriffin and Meakstown as 'the city' though even if technically....

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This was discussed in the demographics thread. Unusually large numbers of old owner-occupiers, as well as council housing (which is more concentrated in the Finglas, Ballymun and Ballyfermot and less in Kilbarrack and the likes). Presumably property prices can be part of the explanation here - close enough to the city to be more expensive than, say, Clonsilla or Swords but too far to be 'city centre' with it being mostly private housing rather than flats so less of a demand to rent (most of these areas also not being proximate to a university also being a factor here).

I wonder what is the DED with the 5,600% increase since 1981? Balbriggan Rural... or one of those surrounding Swords? Swords itself and Blanchardstown were mostly 70s developments and so would have had a decent sized population by 81. My own DED of Glencullen is one of the darkest Green on the map and while it certainly has grown much in population, I doubt it has that much.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Pembroke-Rathmines is significantly studented and is more, how should I put this, generally more 'urban' than most places further South. IIRC the percentage of people renting privately is v. high for Dublin. Also Ruairi Quinn has a big personal vote in Rathmines proper.

Pembroke-Rathmines is indeed full of students, but we all know how disinclined students are to vote, let alone to vote in their college constituency rather than their family's one. Similar factors apply to the other transient apartment-dwellers in Rathmines. In this manner, the Pembroke-Rathmines electorate somehow manages to be even more well-heeled than its population as a whole - so political party types say, anyway. As for Labour's relative weakness where the far-left was strong, that can be taken as another sign that its class profile was not very skewed in 2009, since these other people peeled off worker support.

Hmmm.... what I meant was that Pembroke is (effectively nowadays) an inner-city ward which large number of students, and the sort of people which that demographic attracts and all that that entails.

This was discussed in the demographics thread. Unusually large numbers of old owner-occupiers, as well as council housing (which is more concentrated in the Finglas, Ballymun and Ballyfermot and less in Kilbarrack and the likes). Presumably property prices can be part of the explanation here - close enough to the city to be more expensive than, say, Clonsilla or Swords but too far to be 'city centre' with it being mostly private housing rather than flats so less of a demand to rent (most of these areas also not being proximate to a university also being a factor here).

Kilbarrack, Donnycarney, etc. don't rank up there with Ballymun or Ballyfermot for social housing (in leagues of their own), but they are still areas of high concentration compared to the rest of the city. As you mentioned, the same demographic effect has happened in areas of high owner-occupancy but middling incomes like Beaumont, Walkinstown, etc. Whereas the higher-income owner-occupancy areas didn't shrink much (Clontarf, Drumcondra) or grew (Sandymount).

There's something of Teh Keltik Tigah in that fact. Oh, and Sandymount is a bit more than just 'higher-income' even if we are comparing to Clontarf and Drumcondra.

Oh - The biggest percentage increase was in Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart. Its population was only 68 in 1981, 1,085 in 1986 and 3,866 in 2011. It must have been built on by the time of the 1985 reorganisation, then developed further during the boom. Blanchardstown-Tyrrelstown has a similar story; another near-empty area turned into suburbia. The areas you mention had too many people in 1981 to give them the #1 spot, but certainly grew extremely quickly after that.

Yes that seems right. I wasn't sure how far Blanchardstown had spread by the 1980s. (Terrible place btw).

Glencullen's population went from 3,343 to 17,381. As you're no doubt aware, but for the benefit of other readers, Glencullen combines the high-density areas misleadingly labelled "Sandyford" on my initial map (Sandyford proper is north of the label), and a huge mountainy area to the south all the way to the county boundary. It's one of those electoral divisions that makes you glad that sub-breakdowns by census small area exist.

Just to make things more confusing when asked when I'm from, I usually say Sandyford . I would say more but I figure that would lead you to figuring out where exactly I live...

And yes, some of the mountain towns (like Glencullen itself) have had small populations for ages and still aren't, strangely enough, all that 'developed'. Well, except for those occasional backroads filled with rich people houses.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Excellent maps. Enjoying this section.

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This developed bit is now called 'Belarmine', a name I never heard when I was child...

[Tetro Kornbluth]

That map is fantastic.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Looking at that map:

A strong correlation between 'White other' and working in the city/gentrification? Certainly it seems to negatively correlate with Bangladeshi anyway.

Other Black?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Pretty. Are these the sort of patterns that you would expect? I mean, in terms of details (obviously they are in general terms).

Correlates fairly strongly to class, age of housing, and distance from the centre, so yes but not totally.